It was Grey-kitten’s first mouse; and she felt she would never tire of gazing at it. Her tail wriggled without ceasing and her eyes shone with delight ... to think that those tiny mouse-legs could make such a frightful to-do!
She could not bring herself to eat it, but must keep it to rejoice over on her way home. Every few minutes she stopped, dropped the luckless victim in front of her, and began to play with it.
And, like Big, she was stupid enough to appear with it before the whole family; even going so far as to throw it down on the ground for general admiration.
She paid dearly for that! She never did it again!
CHAPTER SIX
WHITE-KITTEN
When the wind brought word of human beings on the field-path, the kittens always stopped their play.
Grey Puss had warned them in their earliest days to beware of people, and as a rule her angry growling called them down into the hole. Now, however, when she spent less and less of her time at home, and the kittens were left to themselves, their behaviour varied according to their natures.
Big Puss and Tiny still ran for the hole; Black thrilled—he sank down on his loins and dragged himself along the ground, keeping a sharp lookout and disappearing periodically with a spitting noise. Grey and Red as a rule remained placidly lying still; but White stiffened her tail with delight and trotted to and fro, mewing and purring.
She was a merry and friendly little kitten, who made a joke of everything. Her strong desire for amusement and her inability to appreciate the stern realities of life expressed themselves at a very early stage of her existence. Just as she regularly seized the opportunity of chasing her mother’s tail, so did she often make a plaything of the old cat’s nipples, a sacrilege which more than once lost her her due share of milk.