Chapter 8

For some time the weather was beautiful, clear and warm and sunny. But after about a week it changed. Clouds gathered. There was a feeling of rain in the air, and the wind was chilly. The kittens huddled close together at night for warmth. Yowler always took the warmest corner, the one furthest back in the tree where the leaves were thickest and softest.

In the daytime he went off on long prowls. Sometimes the other kittens did not see him from the time he set out in the morning till he came back at night. They no longer liked or trusted him, but it troubled them that he should stay away so much. One day Jazbury asked him whether he wouldn’t show them the way home. They were tired of staying in the woods, and he wanted to see his dear mother and his Aunt Tabby again. When Jazbury said this he felt so sad that he began to mew pitifully. Fluffy joined in, and the two little kittens cried bitterly. “Let’s go home!” they cried. “Oh, let’s go home. We don’t want to stay here any longer.”

“Hush!” cried Yowler angrily. “Oh, hush! I tell you I’m not going home. Not for a long time, anyway. You may go if you like, but I shan’t.”

“But we don’t know the way! We don’t know the wa-y-y-y!” wailed the kittens.

“Well, I can’t help that,” retorted Yowler, and he stalked away and left them still crying.

It was the very next night that a rain set in. Yowler had come home late. Jazbury and Fluffy had already cuddled down together in the tree, as far back as they could, for the night was chilly and damp. But as soon as Yowler came he crowded them out of their snug nest and took it himself.