“But she is my darling cat,” said Alice, with tears in her eyes. “How would you feel, mother, if I decided I would rather live in my old house with the Carters than with you. Would you let me stay?”
“Certainly not, because you are not capable of judging what is best for yourself, and because I could not spare you, and neither would Mrs. Carter want to bring up another child. But if you were my pussy-cat, instead of my child, and you preferred to live with a little girl who was sick half the time, and had so few pleasures, and if you had four furry children, and the Carters wanted to keep them, I should be glad to have everybody happy.”
“All but me, mother,” said Alice, “and Peggy—she will miss Lady Jane.”
“I am sure they will let you have one of the kittens,” said Mrs. Owen. “In about two months you can have one of them.”
“Not for two months?” said Peggy. “Oh, mother, think of a catless house for two months. It will be so desolate.”
“But you can go and choose your kitten in two weeks,” said Mrs. Owen, “and you can often go to see it.”
It was a bright spring afternoon when Peggy and Alice went down to Diana’s house to choose the kitten. They took along with them a great bunch of Mayflowers for Diana. They had picked them the afternoon before, when they had gone with their mother up to their camp on the hill. It was a rude little hut that their father had built. Later in the season, wild strawberries would grow on the place, and then would come raspberries, and afterwards blueberries and blackberries. Mrs. Owen was planning to make preserves for themselves, and for some of the neighbors. She looked over the ground with interest while the children frisked about and stopped from time to time to pick Mayflowers.
Diana was sitting up in bed when the children arrived. The bed was of mahogany and had four twisted posts. The white quilt had been turned back and a book and Diana’s doll Alice were lying on the blanket. The sun came shining in through the two west windows. The room looked very fresh, with the new white paint and pale green walls.
“This used to be mother’s room when we had the house,” said Peggy. “It is much prettier now.”
Diana was wearing her green kimono with the pink roses on it. “They gave me the best room because I’m sick so much,” said Diana. “Wasn’t it nice of them, when I am the youngest in the family?”