“It’s just like Posy,” answered Polly; “she’s a very mischievous child. She always tweaks my tail whenever she gets a chance.”
“But she’s a dear, loving child,” said the barn-cat warmly. “How she did cry when they gave away my last kittens!”
“Yes, she’s a good little thing,” said Polly. “If ’twas anybody else that pulled my tail, I’d give ’em such a nip that they wouldn’t try it again in a hurry; but nobody could hurt Posy. She does fish some of my peanuts out of my cage and eat ’em up sometimes, but then she doesn’t mean any harm.”
“What I want to know is whether you can think of any way for me to get my kitten back,” said the barn-cat. “I tried to make Posy understand what a dreadful mistake she’d made, but she was in such a hurry she didn’t see it.”
Mrs. Polly put her head on one side in a very knowing and contemplative manner. After a few moments’ reflection she said, “The thing to do is to get Hannah out of the kitchen for a while.”
“That’s very evident,” said the canary, who had been listening attentively and didn’t like to be left out of the conversation.
“If it’s so very evident,” said Mrs. Polly, bristling up, “why don’t you do it?”
“I didn’t say I could do it; but if I could talk as you can, I would,” answered the canary good-naturedly.
“How would you do it, pray?” asked Mrs. Polly in an irritable tone.
“Why, I’d call Hannah the way Mrs. Winton does. I heard you call her the other day, and I declare I wouldn’t have believed it wasn’t she. I never knew a bird that could talk as plainly as you do.”