“I know what all this means,” said the owner of the sharp black eyes, “but you have to get up pretty early to get the start of an old rat;” and he smiled a very vicious smile that displayed his long yellow teeth with one of them broken off.
“I guess I’d better go myself,” continued old Graywhisker; “these young fellows are too giddy to be trusted, and after all we mustn’t expect to find old heads on young shoulders;” and he stroked his gray beard with a very satisfied air.
After the barn-cat had gone, he followed cautiously at a distance. He knew better than to trust himself under the piazza again; so he wedged himself into a space between the house and a large stone, just around the corner, where he could hear without being detected. When he was comfortably settled, he smiled again to himself to think how wise he was.
“Well,” he heard Polly say, “here we are again, except the sparrow,—he’s late.”
“Just as likely as not we’ll never see him again,” said the barn-cat. “You can’t place any reliance on these tramps. I never did like his looks, I must confess.”
“I don’t believe he’s a bad fellow at heart,” said the canary; “he seemed very anxious to have that little girl taken care of, and very grateful for what she did for him. Bad people are not grateful, you know.”
“I wish he would settle down and become steady,” said Mrs. Polly, “but I’m afraid there’s no hope of that. Yesterday a friend of his flying by stopped and had a few minutes’ chat with me. He says the sparrow has a wife and several children, but that he’s away half the time, and neglects his family dreadfully, though he’s good enough to them when he’s at home. It’s just as I suspected,—he’s lazy and shiftless.”
“Well, I confess, that’s just what I thought of him,” said the barn-cat. “I never did fancy his looks from the first; but he’s useful to us, and we must put up with his failings.”
A slight rustling in a neighboring bush made them all look in that direction; and there sat the subject of their conversation, and judging from the roguish twinkle in his eyes, he had evidently heard the whole conversation.
“Sorry to have kept you waiting,” he said good-naturedly, “but was detained on very important business. Hope I see you as well as usual, ma’am, and that you haven’t missed me too much,” he said to the barn-cat with a sly wink.