Blackie was very sad. She felt all tired out and lonesome. She would have cried real tears had she been a little girl or boy, I guess. But, being only a cat, she could do nothing but mew.
CHAPTER XII
BLACKIE IS HAPPY
“Well,” said Blackie to herself, after walking up and down the dusty porch, “I can’t get in the house, that’s sure. But I simply can’t go away from it again, even if the family has moved away. If I stay around here perhaps Arthur or Mabel will come back. They may have forgotten something, and if they do come back, and see me, they’ll take me to the new home with them. Yes, I shall stay here.
“But wait a minute. I’ll go next door and ask Speckle where my folks are. He may know.”
But alas for poor Blackie! The house next door was closed too, and Speckle was not around. And Blackie did not feel like asking the dog who lived in the other yard.
“I’ll just have to stay here,” thought Blackie. “I’ll go under the stoop where no stray dogs will see me, and there I’ll stay.”
Under the stoop of the house where she used to live crept Blackie, not exactly a lost cat any longer, but still a cat without a home to go into.
“And I’m hungry, too,” thought Blackie. “I wish I had something to eat, or some milk to drink.”