Three Little Kittens
Copyright© 2024 by Katharine Pyle
Chapter 6
When Jazbury awoke the next morning the sun was shining in through the cellar window, the birds were singing, and the air was full of dewy freshness. His ugly dreams of the night before were all forgotten. There could not have been a more wonderful day for three little kittens to start out on their adventures.
The three of them met in the lot soon after breakfast, as they had agreed. Yowler at once took command. “Now, kits,” said he, “we won’t go all together in a bunch. That would look queer, and some one would be sure to notice us. I’ll start off first; Fluff can come next, and then Jaz. You keep about half a square behind me, Fluffy, and Jaz about half a square behind you. Then you can see which way I go, but nobody will think we’re together.”
To this plan the others agreed.
“Suppose we meet some dogs?” said Fluffy.
“If you do, you’ll just have to do the best you can. Run up an alley, or climb a fence or something. Now come on! We’ll go as far as the edge of the lot together.”
The three little kittens stole away through the weeds, and when they came to the edge of the lot Jazbury and Fluffy stopped. They watched Yowler cross to the other side of the street and turn a corner. Then, after a moment or so, Fluffy followed, then Jazbury.
The others were still in sight when Jazbury turned the corner, Yowler quite a distance up the street, and Fluffy not so far.
Two women with brooms in their hands were sweeping their pavements and gossiping together as they swept. “Look at that kitten,” said one of them, as Jazbury ran past them. “That’s the third kitten that’s gone by in the last few minutes.”
“I know. I noticed that,” replied the other. “Funny! Wonder where they come from!”
As Jazbury neared the next corner he heard a sound of voices in loud talk, and then the bark of a dog. Some boys were coming that way, and a dog was with them. They were just around the corner.
Luckily there was an alleyway close by. Jazbury ran into it and crouched there, and a moment later a group of rough-looking boys passed by it, with a couple of dogs at their heels. Luckily none of them thought of looking into the alleyway. Jazbury waited till the sound of voices had died away, and then he came out and ran on again. Yowler and Fluffy were far ahead now, and he had to hurry to get near them again.
A little later Fluffy had an adventure that might have been very serious. He was going past a little brown wooden house when the door opened, and a little girl came out, followed by an ugly-looking cur. Almost at once the dog saw Fluffy. He gave a sort of half yelp, half bark, and started after him. Fluffy saw him coming. There was no fence, and no alleyway where he could take shelter. Fortunately there was a tree a little further down the street, and it was toward this tree that Fluffy ran for his life, his tail big, and every hair on end.
The dog was close at his heels when he dashed up the tree. He clung there, part way up, the dog leaping and yelping below him. Jazbury watched from behind a flight of steps, trembling and terrified. It seemed as though any moment the dog’s teeth might close on the kitten. Fluffy clung there, afraid to try to climb higher, lest he lose his hold, and fall back into the dog’s jaws.
The little girl had been shouting at the dog, and now she found a stick, and running up she beat him until he whined and ran a little distance away. He did not go far, however, but stood watching eagerly while the little girl tried to coax Fluffy to come down to her. But this Fluffy would not do. He had now scrambled up to a crotch of the tree, and sat there mewing.
Presently the door of the house opened, and a woman looked out. “Pansy,” she called to the child, “you go on and get me the yeast cake. I’m waiting for it.”
“But, mother, there’s a kitten up this tree.”
“I can’t help it if there is. You go on, and hurry, too. It’s almost school time.”
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