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Page 51
It was all silent now--the piercing, funny little squalls had stopped as
suddenly as they began. On the top in a little nest lay Eleanor, purring
so loudly you could hear her all over the big mow, and so proud and
happy she could hardly contain herself. Her eyes glistened, she arched
her back, rolled over and spread out her paws, disclosing to Betsy's
astounded, delighted eyes--no, she wasn't dreaming--two dear little
kittens, one all gray, just like its mother; one gray with a big bib on
his chest.
Oh! How dear they were! How darling, and cuddly, and fuzzy! Betsy put
her fingers very softly on the gray one's head and thrilled to feel the
warmth of the little living creature. "Oh, Eleanor!" she asked eagerly.
"CAN I pick one up?" She lifted the gray one gently and held it up to
her cheek. The little thing nestled down in the warm hollow of her hand.
She could feel its tiny, tiny little claws pricking softly into her
palm. "Oh, you sweetness! You little, little baby-thing!" she said over
and over in a whisper.
Eleanor did not stop purring, and she looked up with friendly, trusting
eyes as her little mistress made the acquaintance of her children, but
Betsy could feel somehow that Eleanor was anxious about her kitten, was
afraid that, although the little girl meant everything that was kind,
her great, clumsy, awkward human hands weren't clever enough to hold a
baby-cat the proper way. "I don't blame you a bit, Eleanor," said Betsy.
"I should feel just so in your place. There! I won't touch it again!"
She laid the kitten down carefully by its mother. Eleanor at once began
to wash its face very vigorously, knocking it over and over with her
strong tongue. "My!" said Betsy, laughing. "You'd scratch my eyes out,
if _I_ were as rough as that!"
Eleanor didn't seem to hear. Or rather she seemed to hear something
else. For she stopped short, her head lifted, her ears pricked up,
listening very hard to some distant sound. Then Betsy heard it, too,
somebody coming into the barn below, little, quick, uneven footsteps. It
must be little Molly, tagging along, as she always did. What fun to show
Molly the kittens!
"Betsy!" called Molly from below.
"Molly!" called Betsy from above. "Come up here quick! I've got
something up here."
There was a sound of scrambling, rapid feet on the rough stairs, and
Molly's yellow curls appeared, shining in the dusk. "I've got a ..." she
began, but Betsy did not let her finish.
"Come here, Molly, quick! QUICK!" she called, beckoning eagerly, as
though the kittens might evaporate into thin air if Molly didn't get
there at once. Molly forgot what she was going to say, climbed madly up
the steep pile of hay, and in a moment was lying flat on her stomach
beside the little family in a spasm of delight that satisfied even Betsy
and Eleanor, both of them convinced that these were the finest kittens
the world had ever seen.
"See, there are two," said Betsy. "You can have one for your very own.
And I'll let you choose. Which one do you like best?"
She was hoping that Molly would not take the little all-gray one,
because she had fallen in love with that the minute she saw it.
"Oh, THIS one with the white on his breast," said Molly, without a
moment's hesitation. "It's LOTS the prettiest! Oh, Betsy! For my very
own?"
Something white fell out of the folds of her skirt on the hay. "Oh,
yes," she said indifferently. "A letter for you. Miss Ann told me to
bring it out here. She said she saw you streaking it for the barn."
It was a letter from Aunt Frances. Betsy opened it, one eye on Molly to
see that she did not hug her new darling too tightly, and began to read
it in the ray of dusty sunlight slanting in through a crack in the side
of the barn. She could do this easily, because Aunt Frances always made
her handwriting very large and round and clear, so that a little girl
could read it without half trying.
And as she read, everything faded away from before her ... the barn,
Molly, the kittens ... she saw nothing but the words on the page.
When she had read the letter through she got up quickly, oh ever so
quickly! and went away down the stairs. Molly hardly noticed she had
gone, so absorbing and delightful were the kittens.
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