II. HOW TOPSY KEPT WARM.
"Is that Topsy crying?" said Alice's mamma, one morning. "Listen a moment."
Alice stopped playing with her doll and kept very quiet. Yes, she could hear a faint meow. She ran to the outside door and opened it, but kitty was not there. She listened again, and again she heard the same sound: "Meow! meow! meow!"
"Perhaps kitty is at the other door," said Alice's mamma.
Alice turned the knob and pulled the door wide open; but only a rush of cold air and a few snowflakes came in.
"Where can she be, mamma? Oh, I know now! She is down cellar," said Alice. But no kitty was there. "Maybe she is in the wood shed. I'll run and see! No, mamma, she isn't there, either. I don't think she is happy, wherever she is. She doesn't sound so. Just hear her cry!"
Both listened again to the half-smothered meow.
"No, she doesn't sound very happy, pet," said mamma. "She is shut up somewhere and can't get out. We must find her."
So the mother and the little girl began to search for Topsy. Upstairs and downstairs they went, looking everywhere. They opened all the closet doors, they looked into all the trunks and boxes. They even peeped into the baby's hamper and lifted the lid of grandmother's big workbasket; but no kitty did they find. Still they could hear her crying "Meow! meow! meow!" all the time.
Back to the kitchen they went. "She must be in this room," said mamma; "the meowing sounds louder here than it does anywhere else."