But she hated to be dressed in dolls’ clothes, and would switch her tail very hard, and sit down “back-to,” whenever dolls were mentioned. Of course if she could have seen how sweet she looked with her paws sticking out of a frilled sleeve, and her whiskers showing daintily against the dark blue of a velvet bonnet, she would not have minded at all. But she refused to look in the glass when held up to it, and only slanted back her eyes and ears in a bored way that Eunice called “Chinese dignity.”
One day Mrs. Wood was receiving some very elegant people in the parlor, when Weejums came, or rather rolled into the room. She had on a sunbonnet, and a pair of dolls’ riding pants, which were so tight that her tail had to be curled around inside like a watch-spring. This gave her a most peculiar gait, as her front legs advanced in stiff hops, and her hind legs went to places that her front legs had not planned at all.
Mrs. Wood’s back was towards the door, and she did not see Weejums until the Senator and his wife began to laugh. Then she pounced on the kitten and carried her out, feeling very much mortified, although she knew that she should laugh herself when the callers were gone.
But Weejums had reason to be glad that she had run into the parlor that day, for it put an end to the most uncomfortable part of the dressing-up. After this, Mrs. Wood forbade Eunice to dress the kitten in any garment that was not built to contain a tail.
But Weejums still took part in all the plays that Eunice thought of, and even went coasting with her on the blue sled. Her tail always swelled before they reached the bottom of the hill, but it went back to its normal size again soon afterwards, and she liked being pulled up the hill on the sled, without having to put her pink toes into the snow.
One Saturday afternoon, the children all went to see “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” and came home talking very fast about Topsy and Eva, and the real bloodhounds, “as big as calves,” that chased Eliza across the ice.
“There will be scenes from ‛Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ in the nursery to-day, at four,” Eunice announced at breakfast one morning. “It will be the first appearance of Weejums on any stage.”
Mrs. Wood said that she would come, and bring some ladies who were to call that afternoon, and Franklin came, and brought some boys who were helping him build the new rabbit-house.
The price of admission was four pins; and Cyclone, the dog, was tied near the door, with a pincushion strapped to his back for a money-box. Cyclone whined and looked miserable whenever a pin approached, for he knew that he had a sign, “Pay Here,” fastened to his collar, and thought it meant that the pins were to be stuck into him.
When everything was ready, Eunice threw open the folding doors between her room and the nursery, and said in a solemn voice, “First Tableau. ‛Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven!’”