But when they reached the large-eared stage, and their blue eyes changed to the mature green of older cats, Cyclone’s occupation was gone. He looked in vain for a kitten to bring home, and one day, after quite a long search, he found one. It was a maltese kitten, very thin and absurd-looking, and no one knew where it came from.
“Oh, Mother, can’t we keep it?” Eunice said in delight. “You know you always said we should have a maltese kitten if anybody gave us one.”
“Yes; but this wasn’t given to us, except by Cyclone. Some little girl has lost her kitten, and is probably crying over it now. You remember the way you felt when Weejums was gone.”
“Well, but how’ll we get it back to the little girl? Cyclone won’t tell where he found it.”
“Perhaps it’ll be advertised,” Mrs. Wood said. “We’ll wait a few days and see.”
But nobody claimed “Ivanhoe,” as Eunice called him, and presently Mrs. Wood discovered why he seemed so destitute of connections.
He had fits.
They were fearful maltese fits, and generally took place while the family was at table, so that they would all have to take up their feet and sit upon them during the rest of the meal. He was not encouraged to appear in the dining-room, but, being a very thin cat, it was easy for him to shoot in between Bridget’s feet when she opened the door. Franklin called him the slate pencil, and said that he had but one dimension; and Eunice looked him over very carefully to see if any part of him was missing. But Mrs. Wood explained that Franklin meant only that Ivanhoe was a very long cat, and neither wide nor deep. Even his purr was so long and thin that Franklin said it could have been wound on a spool like thread. There was none of the baritone richness that one heard in Minoose’s purr when he was chewing his plush mouse.
Minoose kept this mouse behind the guitar case under the piano, and would scramble half-way up the portieres with it, switching his tail at the same time. But Ivanhoe did not admire him for any of these little boy attempts to show off. Ivanhoe had manners, and won Weejums’ heart because of his gallant ways, and also because his tail was longer than those of her own children.
But Mrs. Wood decided that he should go, as soon as she could find some one who was willing to own him; so one day, after the cabbage-and-lettuce woman had called, Ivanhoe was missing. But much to everybody’s surprise, Eunice never even mentioned it, and went around with her usual tranquil expression.