Slyboots hesitated, and looked in the direction of the house, where we could see some lights twinkling, and then back at the dark meadow. I knew she wanted to go home, and lie on the feather bed; however, she kindly turned back with me, and we once more went to our old place among the ferns.
I soon went to sleep, and I think Slyboots did, too. I was awakened by a push from Slyboots. Sleepily opening my eyes, I heard a malicious voice speaking, squealing, laughing.
It was Blizzard, and he had come back to torture my sister. “Go home now, idiot,” he was saying, “go back to your prig of a sister, and tell her how we have fooled you. Oh, what a sweet morsel you are! How tender, how juicy! If I hadn't more sap than you, I wouldn't leave my mammy's side. How did you ever grow up with so little mind? What balderdash you gave us this evening! Cats of ancient times! Cats of fiddlesticks!”
All the time he was speaking, he danced and pranced about my poor sister. He was so full of evil that he could not keep still. Rosy, sitting at a little distance, seemed to be listening approvingly to what he was saying.
Poor Serena! If ever I saw a crestfallen cat, she was the one. What a fearful fall her pride had had! She looked as if she could never hold her head up again.
Occasionally she gave him a bewildered glance, as if to say, “Are you really speaking the truth? Surely this is some game. In a few minutes you will be yourself again, and you will begin to praise me as you did formerly.”
No, it was no game, and that conviction at last entered poor Serena's soul. She got up, turned sadly from him, and with drooping head and dejected limbs began to make her way to the foot-bridge.
Her attendant imp or demon seemed itching to get his paws on her. He ran close beside her, he taunted her shamefully, he advised her to go back to Boston, and let country cats run their own show, and at last, getting bold, he began to give her an occasional tap on the head.
My heart-broken sister resented nothing. She travelled slowly on. I think Blizzard could have killed her if he had wished to do so. Now was the time for us to show that she had friends. Without a word, Slyboots and I stepped from the alders and placed ourselves by her side.
Blizzard had begun to smell us, so we had no chance to surprise him, nor did we wish to do so. We were not hankering for a fight.