CHAPTER IX
VISITORS TO PURRINGTON
Ban-Ban and Kiku-san started out from Purrington at a good pace, swinging along through the wood-path and out into the open road. At least Kiku swung; he had a very swinging gait, but Ban-Ban trotted along with his usual businesslike air. As they put behind them more and more length of road, and the way ahead shortened, their speed increased, driven onward by their impatience to get home. For these two petted cats found themselves thinking of their old home as “home,” and not Purrington. Nor was this strange, since they had been so short a time in Purrington, and had spent all the rest of their lives being made much of by the children to whom they were hastening.
“Their speed increased.”
They met with no particular adventures. Once a dog chased them up a tree, and again they had to run away from an old lady in a victoria, who, seeing this pair of beautiful cats hurrying along the road, side by side, ordered her driver to stop and let her try to catch them. She was a cat-lover, but to Ban-Ban and Kiku-san’s minds as much to be dreaded as the dog. However, they had no difficulty in getting away from her, since she was past the age of rapid running, and her dignity forbade her chasing cats a long distance down the public way.
Timid Kiku-san began to be exhausted from the nervousness of his journey, but Ban-Ban kept up his heart and urged him on, knowing quite well himself that there was considerable risk in travelling alone and unprotected.
But this only made that spirited cat hasten the faster, and, as they drew near the city, impatience seemed to wing each of the eight dusty paws, and they broke into a run, and reached the rear of their former homes—they stood side by side, you know—half an hour at least before they had calculated on being there.
They sat down under the fence to get their breath and brush up their dusty clothes. It was hard work to do this, for they could hear plainly the voices of Rob and Lois shouting to each other in play, and burned to rush into their arms.