Flaxie took off Kittyleen's fur cap, and patted it softly, as she hung it on the hat-tree.
"That's my white pussy," remarked Kittyleen, eying it lovingly. "But it don't hurt; it hasn't any feet."
"Well, good-by, pet, don't get into mischief," said Martha, making another wry face as she tried to smile. And then, without one word to Flaxie as to the length of Kittyleen's visit, she hurried home to put a poultice on her face and help about the ironing; for, as she said to herself, "The work was only fun, now the three youngest children were out of the way."
Flaxie led Kittyleen into the back parlor to show her to the family. Little Ethel did not look particularly pleased, for she remembered that the baby-guest was very fond of sweetmeats, and sometimes snatched more than her share. Mrs. Gray was embroidering a table-cover as a birthday present for Aunt Jane Abbott, and was feeling very much hurried; but she smiled and said to Flaxie, as she kissed the wee visitor,—
"So your little pet has come again? Well, we will do all we can to make her happy; but you know Julia and I are both busy over these presents, and you must take the chief care of Kittyleen yourself."
"Yes'm, you know I always do," replied Flaxie; "and she behaves better with me than she does with her mother."
Nobody thought of Kittyleen's staying any longer than to dinner and supper; but there was never any certainty about the Garland children's visits, especially when it began to storm. It began now at eleven o'clock, and snowed all day without ceasing; and then the wind rose, and blew the flakes east and west and north and south, till the men in the streets could hardly keep their hats on their heads, much less hold an umbrella.
Of course Kittyleen couldn't go home that night, for she lived on Prospect Street, half a mile away. Preston Gray said with a sarcastic smile that "it was a comfort to know that her mother would be easy about her."
But Kittyleen made a grieved lip. The sun had set, there were no stars in the sky, and the windows looked black and dismal. She parted the curtains and peeped out.