“They’re awfully heavy to carry,” she said, “and they cry.”
Then Twaddles showed that he had spent much time and thought on his plan.
“We’ll only carry one––for a sample!” he told her triumphantly. “A cat is a cat, isn’t it? And we’ll explain they have different colors but look just alike except for that. We’ll go to different houses, the way Mr. Hambert does, and let folks order a kitten. Then we can take it to them.”
“Mr. Hambert has samples!” cried Dot, beginning to understand. “Easter he has a nest and Christmas he has spun sugar Santa Clauses––and he only takes one. We can do it, can’t we, Twaddles?” 155
“Didn’t I just say we could?” demanded Twaddles. “Which one is the best sample?”
They hastily upset the box and the kittens rolled out on the floor. Dot wanted to take a black one and Twaddles leaned toward the yellow one, so, not without some argument, they finally compromised on the “tiger” kitten.
Mother Blossom and Aunt Polly were busy in the house, and when Twaddles and Dot came in to get their hats and coats and explained they thought they could find a home for a kitten, no one objected to their going out. They could go anywhere in Oak Hill with perfect safety and they knew just about every one in the town.
“We won’t say anything about finding homes for all of the kittens,” said Twaddles as he stuffed the “sample” inside his coat, “because if we can’t get folks to take them, Bobby and Meg will laugh. Where’ll we go first, Dot?”
“The grocery store,” said Dot, who couldn’t get Mr. Hambert and his methods of doing business out of her mind.
“Grocery stores don’t want cats,” Twaddles argued. Nevertheless he turned up the street 156 that would lead him to the main store in Oak Hill, where kind Mr. Hambert was a clerk when he wasn’t out delivering orders in the country.