“Meow!” answered Blackie, which was as near as she could say “yes” in our language.
“Here you are,” the man said, and he tossed out on the grass a nice fish head, which cats like almost better than anything else.
“Mew-mew,” said Blackie, which was her way of saying “Thank you!”
Then she ate the fish head, while the kind man drove on, blowing his horn:
“Toot! Toot! Tooti-ty-toot!” That meant he had fish to sell.
For several days Blackie traveled on, eating as best she could, and getting water to drink at wayside brooks. But she could not seem to find her home, where Arthur and Mabel lived.
One day Blackie was going along a street where it was nice and quiet. She looked up at the houses, wondering if she could go up to one of them and beg for something to eat, or some milk to drink.
All at once Blackie heard a dog barking, and she saw one run down off the stoop at her. He was only a small dog, and instead of running away, as she might have done, Blackie thought to herself:
“Here is where I scare that dog. I’m going to crook up my back, puff out my tail and hiss like a snake. I’ll see what he does then.”
As soon as the dog got close to her, up went Blackie’s back, until it looked like a hill of black fur. Her tail grew twice as large as it usually was, for she made the fur stick out straight, and oh! how she hissed!