“Where—where’s the others?” cried Tess. “Did you find Almira?”
“I want my Bungle,” declared Dot. “Didn’t you find my Bungle kitten, Uncle Rufus?”
“Sho, chile! I didn’t say I foun’ dem kittens. I on’y say I knowed where dey went.”
“Where?” was the chorused demand.
Uncle Rufus rolled his eyes and chuckled deeply. “Das ol’ cat play a joke on we-uns,” he declared. “She t’ink she an’ de kittens on’y come yere for a visit. And so she lug ’em all back to Mars’ Stetson’s store—ya-as’m!”
“Carried them back to the store?” cried Ruth. “Oh! she couldn’t.”
“Ya-as’m. One at a time. In her teef,” said Uncle Rufus, nodding confidently. “I jes’ kotch her out on the sidewalk wid dis leetle brack kitten, marchin’ straight fo’ de store. Dat how she come go ’way an’ stay so long. Nex’ time you go to Mars’ Stetson’s, you find dem dere—sho’.”
“But she couldn’t have taken them out of the woodshed,” cried Agnes.
“Ya-as’m, she did. She git out de winder. A cat kin squeeze through a moughty small space—so she kin.”
“Why, you foolish Sandy-face!” exclaimed Dot. “And we tried to make you feel at home—didn’t we, Ruthie?”