“First of all,” Dora began, “Aunt Margaret showed me the star she named it for. Last night it was very bright, and I can find it now for Uncle Dan. At least, I think I can. And then she told me about the kitten.
“When Aunt Margaret’s grandfather,” Dora went on, “was about as old as Uncle Dan, he went on a long voyage on a ship that sailed to China. When he came home, he brought with him a set of ivory chess-men. Do you know what they are, Mother?”
“Yes,” said Mrs. Merrill. “Chess is a game, played on a board with squares marked off,—a checker-board, like yours,—and a set of counters. You and Lucy have counters for your game of parchesi.”
“Yes,” said Dora, “but those are flat and round. These chess-men were different. They stood up tall, and the pieces which counted most,—the kings and queens and knights and bishops—were cats, big cats, made out of ivory. And the littler pieces, the pawns, were kittens. Half the pieces were white and half were blue. There were eight blue kittens and eight white ones.”
“They must have been very pretty,” Mrs. Merrill agreed. “What became of them?’
“Some were lost,” said Dora, “and Aunt Margaret thinks her boy cousins took the cats when they visited their grandmother. So many chess-men were gone that people couldn’t play the game any more. The grandmother thought, since the boys had taken the cats, she would divide the kittens between the little girl cousins.
“She gave Aunt Margaret four kittens,” Dora went on, “two blue ones and two white.”
Dora stopped. Lucy was calling Timothy at the back door. Dora looked to see that Lucy was beyond hearing. Even then, she whispered the rest.
“Aunt Margaret told me that she is going to give Lucy a white kitten for Christmas. You will keep it a secret, won’t you, Mother?”