"Oh, we haven't any real cats," said the woman, turning back from the shelf she was looking over with a pair of sharp eyes. "We don't keep live cats in a shop. Nobody does," she added.
"She means that it must have fur on," explained Polly, while the younger boys never took their eyes from the transaction. This was quite one of the most important events of the afternoon for Phronsie to choose her own present. Just at this juncture a stout old lady, with a stiff black silk coat that made her bigger than ever, as it had a trick of flying open, and the sides blowing off seemed ready to engulf all unfortunate passers-by, swept past Phronsie, and she disappeared from view for a moment.
"Stop that!" roared Joel, looking up into the soft white puffs above the woman's nose; "you 'most knocked my sister over."
The stately old woman looked down into the chubby face. "You impertinent boy!" she exclaimed, then set her profile disdainfully in the opposite direction and sailed on.
"Oh, Ben!" cried Polly, in consternation, all the color gone out of her face; "what shall we do?"
"Here, pet," and Ben swung Phronsie up to his shoulder. "Now, that's the best place for you in such a crowd."
"I want a truly cat," Phronsie kept saying from her perch, and, swinging her feet delightedly, she grasped Ben's neck so tightly it seemed as if he could hardly breathe; and his face got very red.
"I tell you we haven't got any live cats," declared the saleswoman, impatiently, and slamming the glass door beneath. "Here's a china one," and she set it on the counter.
"Oh, no!" Phronsie shook her head. Polly meanwhile had been looking after the stately old woman, and clasping and unclasping her hands nervously. It wouldn't take but a minute to go after her, for the big figure had paused in front of the doll counter, and say how sorry she was, for he was her brother, and would she please to excuse it? And without stopping to think, Polly dashed off through the crowd, no one of the little bunch of Peppers seeing her go, as they were lost in the transaction that was to get Phronsie her cat.
She plunged up suddenly to the side of the stiff black silk coat, now wedged in against the overcrowded counter, its owner by no means in the best temper at her failure to attract any saleswoman to wait on her.