Mr. Winslow rubbed his chin. "I don"t know"s I"d ought to say anything about it," he said. "I haven"t afore. I wouldn"t interfere with Nate"s sales for anything."
"Sales? Sales of what? Oh, you mean thing! Don"t be so provoking! Tell me the whole story this minute."
Jed painted a moment or two. Then he said: "We-ell, Maud, you see those kittens got to be kind of a nuisance. They was cunnin" and cute and all that, but they was so everlastin" lively and hungry that they didn"t give me much of a chance. I was only one, you see, and they had a majority vote every time on who should have the bed and the chairs and the table and one thing or "nother. If I sat down I sat on a cat. If I went to bed I laid down on cats, and when I turned them out and turned in myself they came and laid down on ME. I slept under fur blankets most of June. And as for eatin"-- Well, every time I cooked meat or fish they sat down in a circle and whooped for some. When I took it off the fire and put it in a plate on the table, I had to put another plate and a--a plane or somethin" heavy on top of it or they"d have had it sartin sure. Then when I sat down to eat it they formed a circle again like a reg"lar band and tuned up and hollered. Lord a-mercy, HOW they did holler! And if one of the kittens stopped, run out of wind or got a sore throat or anything, the old cat would bite it to set it goin" again. She wan"t goin" to have any shirkin" in HER orchestra. I ate to music, as you might say, same as I"ve read they do up to Boston restaurants. And about everything I did eat was stuffed with cats" hairs. Seemed sometimes as if those kittens was solid fur all the way through; they never could have shed all that hair from the outside. Somebody told me that kittens never shed hair, "twas only full grown cats did that. I don"t believe it. Nate Rogers" old maltee never shed all that alone; allowin"
her a half barrel, there was all of another barrel spread around the premises. No-o, those cats was a good deal of a nuisance.
Um-hm. . . . Yes, they was. . . ."
He paused and, apparently having forgotten that he was in the middle of a story, began to whistle lugubriously and to bend all his other energies to painting. Miss Hunniwell, who had laughed until her eyes were misty, wiped them with her handkerchief and commanded him to go on.
"Tell me the rest of it," she insisted. "How did you get rid of them? How did Mr. Rogers come to take them back?"
"Eh? . . . Oh, why, you see, I went over to Nate"s three or four times and told him his cat and kittens were here and I didn"t feel right to deprive him of "em any longer. He said never mind, I could keep "em long as I wanted to. I said that was about as long as I had kept "em. Then he said he didn"t know"s he cared about ever havin" "em again; said he and his wife had kind of lost their taste for cats, seemed so. I--well, I hinted that, long as the tribe was at my house I wan"t likely to have a chance to taste much of anything, but it didn"t seem to have much effect. Then--"
"Yes, yes; go on! go on!"
"Oh. . . . Then one day Nate he happened to be in here--come to borrow somethin", some tool seems to me "twas--and the cats was climbin" round promiscuous same as usual. And one of the summer women came in while he was here, wanted a mill for her little niece or somethin". And she saw one of the animals and she dropped everything else and sang out: "Oh, what a beautiful kitten! What unusual coloring! May I see it?" Course she was seein" it already, but I judged she meant could she handle it, so I tried to haul the critter loose from my leg--there was generally one or more of "em shinnin" over me somewhere. It squalled when I took hold of it and she says: "Oh, it doesn"t want to come, does it! It must have a very affectionate disposition to be so attached to you."
Seemed to me "twas attached by its claws more"n its disposition, but I pried it loose and handed it to her. Then she says again, "What unusual colorin"! Will you sell this one to me? I"ll give you five dollars for it.""
He stopped again. Another reminder from Miss Hunniwell was necessary to make him continue.
"And you sold one of those kittens for five dollars?" she cried.
"No-o."
"You didn"t? Why, you foolish man! Why not?"
"I never had a chance. Afore I could say a word Nate Rogers spoke up and said the kittens belonged to him. Then she saw another one that she hadn"t seen afore and she says: "Oh, that one has more unusual colorin"s even than this. I never saw such color in a cat." Course she meant ON a cat but we understood what she meant.
"Are they a very rare breed?" she asked. Nate said they was and--"
Miss Hunniwell interrupted. "But they weren"t, were they?" she cried. "I never knew they were anything more than plain tabby."
Jed shook his head. "Nate said they was," he went on solemnly.
"He said they were awful rare. Then she wanted to know would he sell one for five dollars. He said no, he couldn"t think of it."
"Why, the greedy old thing!"
"And so he and she had it back and forth and finally they struck a bargain at seven dollars for the one that looked most like a crazy quilt."
"Seven dollars for a CAT? What color was it, for goodness" sake?"
"Oh, all kinds, seemed so. Black and white and maltee and blue and red and green--"
"Green! What ARE you talking about? Who ever saw a green cat?"
"This woman saw one that was part green and she bought it. Then she said she"d take it right along in her car. Said she had a friend that was as loony about cats as she was and she was goin" to fetch her right down the very next day. And a couple of hours after she"d gone Nate and his boy came back with a clothes basket with a board over the top and loaded in the balance of the family and went off with "em. I ain"t seen a hair of "em since--no, I won"t say that quite, but I ain"t seen THEM."
"And didn"t he give you any of the seven dollars?"
"No-o."
"But you had been feeding those kittens and their mother for weeks."
"Ye-es."
"But didn"t you ASK for anything?"
"We-ll, I told Nate he might maybe leave one of the kittens, so"s I could have a--er--souvenir of the visit, but he wouldn"t do it.
Said those kittens was rare and--er--precious, or words to that effect. He didn"t intend to let another go as cheap as he had that one."
"Oh. . . . I see. I remember now; I heard some one saying something, early in July, about the sign on the Rogers" front fence. "Rare Cats for Sale" they said it was. I think. Of course, I never thought of THOSE kittens. He must have sold them all, for the sign isn"t there now."
Jed whistled a few bars. "I don"t hardly think he"s sold "em," he said. "I presume likely he"s just gone out of the business."
"I don"t see why he shouldn"t sell them. Green cats ought to sell quickly enough, I should think. Were they green, honest and truly, Jed?"
Mr. Winslow nodded.
"They were that mornin"," he drawled, solemnly.
"That morning? What do you mean?"
"We-ll, you see, Maud, those kittens were into everything and over everything most of the time. Four of "em had got in here early afore I came downstairs that day and had been playin" hide and hoot amongst my paint pots. They was green in spots, sure enough, but I had my doubts as to its bein" fast color."
Maud laughed joyfully over the secret of the green p.u.s.s.ies.
"I wish I might have seen that woman"s face after the colors began to wear off her "rare" kitten," she said.
Jed smiled slightly. "Nathan saw it," he said. "I understood he had to take back the kitten and give up the seven dollars. He don"t hardly speak to me nowadays. Seems to think "twas my fault.
I don"t hardly think "twas, do you?"
Miss Hunniwell"s call lasted almost an hour. Besides a general chat concerning Leander Babbit"s voluntary enlistment, the subject which all Orham had discussed since the previous afternoon, she had a fresh bit of news. The government had leased a large section of land along the bay at East Harniss, the next village to Orham and seven or eight miles distant, and there was to be a military aviation camp there.
"Oh, it"s true!" she declared, emphatically. "Father has known that the Army people have been thinking of it for some time, but it was really decided and the leases signed only last Sat.u.r.day. They will begin building the barracks and the buildings--the--oh, what do they call those big sheds they keep the aeroplanes in?"
"The hangars," said Winslow, promptly.
"Yes, that"s it. They will begin building those right away." She paused and looked at him curiously. "How did you know they called them hangars, Jed?" she asked.
"Eh? . . . Oh, I"ve read about "em in the newspapers, that"s all. . . . H-u-u-m. . . . So we"ll have aeroplanes flyin" around here pretty soon, I suppose. Well, well!"
"Yes. And there"ll be lots and lots of the flying men--the what- do-you-call-"ems--aviators, and officers in uniform--and all sorts.
What fun! I"m just crazy about uniforms!"
Her eyes snapped. Jed, in his quiet way, seemed excited, too. He was gazing absently out of the window as if he saw, in fancy, a procession of aircraft flying over Orham flats.
"They"ll be flyin" up out there," he said, musingly. "And I"ll see "em--I will. Sho!"
Miss Hunniwell regarded him mischievously. "Jed," she asked, "would you like to be an aviator?"