“Shirt,” Meg answered placidly. “What are you laughing at? It’s white, like the shirt we found, and if it hadn’t been for the shirt we wouldn’t have found the kitten at all and it might have fallen into the water and been drowned.”
And in spite of some teasing and much joking, Meg continued to call the stray kitten “Shirt.” True to her word, Linda washed the little creature and when its fur dried it proved to be very pretty, soft and silky. The kitty had blue eyes and by the time it was a full-grown cat, Aunt Polly was immensely proud of it.
For Shirt lived at Brookside Farm and did not go with the four little Blossoms when they 158 went home to Oak Hill. Aunt Polly said Poots would miss him and that cats didn’t like to change their homes, anyway, and Meg knew this to be true. And every year, at Christmas time, Meg remembered to send Shirt a Christmas present and when she came to visit Aunt Polly, he always seemed to know her.
The week of rain which Aunt Polly had predicted and which had led her to hasten the picnic, arrived two or three days after the adventure in the brook. The exceedingly practical Meg remarked at the breakfast table, the first rainy morning, that she didn’t care if it did rain––Shirt was safe in a dry place and the man had had plenty of time to get his wash dry and take it in off the bush.
“I wonder what he said when he saw the buttons,” speculated Dot.
But this was one question that never received an answer, for the children never saw the man who owned the shirt and they never heard whether he was pleased to find his mending done or not.
“Maybe he thought the birds did it for him,” 159 said Twaddles helpfully and was delighted when Jud told him that there was a bird called the tailor bird.
“Then he did it,” Twaddles declared, and when Dot pointed out that they had seen Linda doing the work, Twaddles explained that he meant the man would think the tailor bird had done it.
It was talk like this between the twins that made Jud say it gave him a headache if he listened too long.
“We haven’t had a rain like this in a long time,” said Aunt Polly, glancing out of the dining-room window at the dripping leaves.