Then they started to cry again.
Trot brought the washboiler again. “If you cry hard into this, Mother Catastrophe will have soft water to wash her clothes in.”
Then Dot and Tot began to laugh instead of cry and Mother Catastrophe said,
“If manners you really want to know,
Bow politely, and stand in a row.”
The Three Little Kittens stood up in a row and bowed politely.
Old Mother Catastrophe said,
“Dot will make a bow next, and say to Madam Red Fox, How is your cousin the Kit-Fox? Has he changed his coat this season?”
Dot said, “Do Foxes change their coats? Do tell us about it.”
“Of course they change their coats,” said Mother Catastrophe. “The Kit-Fox wears a coat of one color in the summer, and another color in the winter.