"He keeps a grocery-store in town."
Just then Julia came back with a very red face and flashing eyes.
"I can't find my kitten anywhere!" she exclaimed, in an indignant tone, "and I don't believe but what Felix Le Bras and Jack Billings have done something with her! I believe they've carried her off! She always comes when I call her the least little bit; but I've called and called, ever so far from the house, too, and I haven't heard a single mew!"
"Perhaps she has wandered off farther than usual, and will be back pretty soon," said Mrs. Peterson soothingly. "I am sure I should have noticed if the boys had a cat about them, when they went past, down the road. They walked close by the piazza, where I was sitting and appeared perfectly innocent and unconcerned."
"I don't care! She's gone! And, if they didn't take her, who has?" returned Julia, sitting down disconsolately in a large rocker, and rocking violently back and forth, in an unabated state of excitement.
At that moment Johnny, who was sitting on the railing at the end of the piazza, holding to the corner post, exclaimed,—
"There comes Felix now! Let's ask him about it."
Julia sprang up, and ran around into the front piazza. Sue followed her closely. Ruth came and stood by Johnny's side, who said to her, "I wonder if it is possible Felix has had any thing to do with the kitten's being missing! If he has, I am afraid there will be another penalty to pay."
"What is a penalty?" asked Ruth.
"Why, if any of us do any thing wrong, my father has some punishment for us, which he calls a penalty."