After a few hours, I felt better. I could move my paws, and my body did not ache so much. I got up, tried to stretch, and could not, then not minding the hissing from the chair, I dragged myself out of the room, and down-stairs, a step at a time. There was a large mirror set into the wall at the head of the first staircase, and I had a look at myself as I went by. My fur was rumpled badly, and I looked ill, but there was not a scratch nor a drop of blood visible. How strange—for from what Mary had said, I knew a good deal of blood had run out of the Common cat's wounds. How was it, that I, a kitten, had been able to scratch her, while she had not given me a cut? I would ask Mona about it, and I went on dragging myself painfully down the staircases, till I reached the yard, and saw the dear old dog sitting in front of her kennel.
“Well,” she said getting up as I approached her, “what have you been doing to yourself? You look played out.”
“Let me by,” I said faintly. “I've had my first fight.” She allowed me to crawl into her kennel, then she lay down and put her head in the doorway.
“Here,” she said kindly, “let me lick you a bit. It will massage you.”
“Oh! if you will be so kind,” I said. “I feel as if I had been pounded all over.”
“So you have,” she replied, as her big tongue went over me very gently, but very firmly. “I can feel that you have had a mauling. Your new friend, I suppose.”
“You told me to love her,” I replied weakly, “but somehow or other, the first thing I knew, we were in the midst of a fight.”
“That sometimes happens,” said Mona philosophically, “if one loves too hard.”
“I suppose I did not go about it in the right way, but, Mona, it makes me so mad to see her in my chair. I told her to get down, and she wouldn't, and then I sprang at her, and I wounded her. She has lots of scratches, and blood came out of them. Why haven't I any blood on me?”
“Because, kitten,” returned Mona calmly, “she knows how to fight, and you don't. This isn't her first battle. Some dogs fight that way. They'll injure you inside, so that you will nearly die, while other dogs merely rip your skin a little.”