“If you please,” said the dolphin, and Mary Frances noticed that he was very pale, “if you please, I do not care for any. You see, I have deserted my post—that is enough dessert for me, and I shouldn’t wonder if I’d be punished enough for it in a minute—Oh! Oh! what is that! It’s the pirate’s cat!” and with a scream, he leaped out of the window into the water.
III
THE PIRATE’S CAT
“ME-OW! me-ow!” came the cat’s voice from the door.
“Oh, Kitty! Kitty!” cried Mary Frances, running toward it. “Why, wherever did you come from? I thought I had looked all over the ship.”
“Indeed,” replied the cat, “even if you had, and you have not, you wouldn’t have found me. The pirate’s been watching a year to throw me on board The Good Ferry.”
“Oh,” exclaimed Mary Frances, “the pirate—why, I haven’t seen any pirate!”
“Of course you haven’t,” said the cat; “he’s too smart for that. He’s been watching for a time when the dolphin had deserted his post.”
“Oh, dear,” thought Mary Frances, “it was all my fault;” but out loud she said, “Well, no great harm can come of it, anyway. Won’t you have some dinner?”