Pussy-Cat Town

by Marion Ames Taggart

wide apart and put down the top of his head between them till it rested on the ground as he saw Rob coming toward him; this was Ban’s old way of showing pleasure, and it upset Rob completely.

Boys cannot cry when they feel strongly, but Rob was dangerously near tears of joy. He gathered silky Ban-Ban into his arms, Ban-Ban flattening his body against Rob’s in his old way till he fitted Rob like a Russian squirrel coat. Rob hid his excited face in Ban-Ban’s close, fine fur. “Ah, Ban!” was all he said, but Ban understood; it was quite enough, and he purred so loud he could have been heard all over the garden, for Ban-Ban was a wonderful songster.

After awhile the children were able to talk—indeed, they were not able to stop talking. They both chattered at once, exclaiming over the sleek and prosperous look the two beloveds wore, and their entire indifference to the food brought them. Where could they have been? Ban-Ban and Kiku-san ran into their respective houses ahead of the children. Like a flash Ban-Ban rushed from room to room, seeing that nothing was changed, and seeing, too, that there was no other cat nor smallest kitten in the house taking his place. Rob was constant to him. It was a great temptation to settle down in comfort and love, and never to return to Purrington! And yet not a great temptation, either, when he remembered the Purrers all waiting his return, and leaning on him as their Founder.

Kiku-san looked up into Lois’s face as he strolled from room to room in his house, finding, as Ban-Ban was finding, his place still empty. He was so glad to get home that it seemed to him that he never, never could go back to Purrington. He thought with dread of the perils of the journey which he was to take twice again, if he returned—for he had made up his mind that, with or without Ban-Ban, he was coming back to Lois when his duty toward the Purrers was done.

He looked up into Lois’s face. It was just the same sweet, old-fashioned little face as ever. Her brown hair, fine and straight, was tied with just the same big, soft ribbon; her eyes, as blue as the ribbon, looked at him with just the same look of devoted love. White Kiku mewed aloud, thinking, with pity for himself, how long it had been since he had seen this dear little gentle face.

Rob and Ban-Ban had a game of hide-and-seek that night before they went to bed. It made the Maltese cat quite crazy with joy to hear the whistle again which he had heard from his kittenhood, and to dash up and down-stairs, looking behind portières and doors for Rob, in the old way. And he puffed like a little gray porpoise from sheer excitement when he found Rob, and the boy darted out at him and chased him down-stairs, where Ban-Ban would scuttle into a place of hiding in his own turn and lie, with close-wrapped tail, while Rob looked for him, softly calling: “Where is Ban? Why, where is Ban?” But Ban-Ban knew better than to come out; he would lie as still as stillness till he was found, and then dash at Rob with all his fur on end. Oh, it was glorious! Ban-Ban thought anew that there were no comrades like human ones when a cat was lucky enough to find the right sort.

Ban-Ban went to sleep at last on Rob’s feet. But in the next house Kiku-san crept into Lois’s arms, just as he had always done, both paws around her neck, his white cheek pillowed on the little girl’s rosy one, and softly purred himself to sleep in his quiet voice, the kind of purring you can feel more plainly than you can hear. And Lois was purring, too, in her loving little heart, for she had mourned bitterly for her lost darling, and words could not have told how glad she was to have him back.

In the morning, however, Lois ran over to see Rob, Kiku-san held tight in her arms. “I don’t know what ails Kiku,” she cried, as soon as Rob and Ban-Ban were within hearing. “He acts as if he wanted to tell me something and make me go somewhere. I do wish I could understand.”

“That’s queer,” said Rob. “Ban-Ban is acting the same way. I told him a little while ago to go ahead, I’d follow him. I’m sure he wants me to go somewhere.”

Ban-Ban and Kiku-san looked at each other, and the children thought they were mewing. What they were saying, or, what Kiku-san was saying, was this: “If we’ve got to go back, Ban-Ban, we ought to go soon, for those Purrers are waiting for us anxiously. But I tell you now I am coming back here as soon as we settle things in Purrington.”