“Puttel and Dolly Varden are six months old—I’m only eighteen months old myself. We’ll have a lovely wedding! I wish my husband was here, but he won’t come for a month. He went to the country with the family he owns very early this year, and hasn’t got back. Come along, my dears,” said Bidelia, hurrying away.
The Purrers had never seen Bidelia so excited, and the gentlemen of the place looked at one another, feeling very useless indeed, as the ladies ran off, attended by all the kittens.
“I think we ought to offer to help them,” said Lois. “Rob, Ban-Ban, Kiku-san dearie, let us go after them and ask Bidelia if we can’t help trim the hall.”
It seemed queer to ask such a small cat as Bidelia if she couldn’t make use of them in some way, but the children were getting used to queer things, and to taking the lower place with cats, as mere mortals should.
Bidelia said if they would wait until the kittens came back with the catnip, which they had gone to gather in the Public Gardens, she would be willing to let them help twist the garlands and hang them around the hall. Bidelia took the lead in these arrangements, as she was most fitted to do, by reason of her youth and taste, as well as her experience.
“How often we shall talk over these wonderful happenings in Purrington after we get home, you and I, and our two Blessings,” observed Lois, as they waited for the catnip.
“We shall not talk to you—or rather you won’t understand us—between our visits to Purrington,” Ban-Ban reminded her. “You understand us a little when you’re at home—you often can tell what we want—but we can’t talk together like this outside of Pussy-Cat Town.”
“I’ve been trying to think of everything I want to say to you before we leave here to-night,” Kiku-san added.
“Oh, how horrid!” cried Lois, who had forgotten this rule, and had been looking forward to long talks with Kiku after they were tucked away for the night.
“It will only make us enjoy our visits to Purrington the more,” said Rob, wisely. And then the kittens came bringing the catnip, and they all fell to work weaving the slender leaves and blossoms into wreaths and garlands.