The house-kitten didn’t seem to understand what the barn-cat said, for she evidently thought the cat wanted to play with her, and she tried to catch the big paw in both of her little ones.
“Well, you are cunning,” said the barn-cat. “It’s too bad to have you grow up a spoilt child. You’ll never be as smart as my kittens, of course, but I’ve a great mind to keep you and see what you’ll make if you are properly brought up.”
She didn’t like to show the kitten that she was watching her, for it might make her vain; so she pretended to be looking very intently at something out in the yard and gently moved the tip of her tail, but she looked out of the corners of her eyes and saw the little house-kitten at once try to catch it.
“Pretty well,” she said to herself, “considering you’ve never had any instruction. When you’re a little older I’ll teach you how to crouch and spring, the way I do my own kittens.”
Now that the barn-cat had decided to keep the house-kitten, she set about washing it; for Posy had dipped its head so far into the milk-pitcher that it presented a very untidy appearance.
She washed it in a most thorough manner; but the barn-cat was not so gentle in her ways as the house-cat, and the little house-kitten thought her pretty rough.
“You mustn’t be a baby and cry for nothing,” said the barn-cat, when the kitten gave a mew as the rough tongue lifted her off her feet; “I see you’ve been coddled too much already.”
Just then a plaintive cry was heard from the kitchen, and with one leap the barn-cat was out of her nest and running up to the kitchen door. She didn’t dare go in; for there was Hannah, and she knew by experience that she would be driven out if she attempted to enter. What was to be done?
The barn-cat jumped on the window-sill and looked in. There was her darling in the box by the stove and crying helplessly for her. The mother cat gave a low mew, which the baby kitten heard and understood just as a human baby understands when its mother speaks soothingly to it.
“Oh dear!” exclaimed the barn-cat, “if I could only get into that kitchen! I know what I’ll do. I’ll tell Mrs. Polly about it, and see what she advises; she’s very wise.”