“But he only made a great hateful ts-s! and turned away as mad as he could be, and then down he hopped right into the rabbit trap, which happened to be near.
“Out came one of the boys of the family, hallooing and shouting to the others that he had heard the trap go off and knew they'd caught the thief, and the poor little kitties ran away as fast as their small legs would carry them, not stopping to see that horrid old Mr. Cat was held fast.”
“What became of Mr. Cat?” asked Mamie.
“He came to a bad end, as all such creatures do,” said Nannie in a terrible voice.
At this point Jim's interest outran his pride, and he swung open the door so that he could hear better.
“What became of him?” persisted Mamie.
“He received a sound trouncing,” said Nannie.
Just at this juncture of affairs she caught sight of Mr. Earnest's eyes peering at her above his paper. Had they been filled with tears or dark with remorse she might have relented, but, shocking to relate, they were fairly twinkling with merriment, and Nannie perceived that she was amusing her auditor hugely, instead of reading him a terrible lesson, and in her anger she all but lost control of herself.
“Wasn't anything else done to him?” asked Jim in a rather disappointed tone.
“Yes,” said Nannie, glaring at Mr. Earnest in a fierce, defiant manner.