"Well, I should say so. The General no doubt would be flattered if he could know."
"He"s an awfully pretty pup and will make a great big dog when he"s grown up. His feet are dreadfully big, but Mr. Carson says he will need them some day, and all big dogs have big feet when they are little.
Carrie wanted to name him Ponto, but her father thought General sounded more dignified for such a big dog. Ponto is a pretty name, though, and if I had a pup all of my own I"d call him-- Say, Tom, do you suppose Dad would let me have a dog for my very own self? It"s nice to own part of one, but think how much better it would be if I had a whole one. Then Carrie wouldn"t have to share hers, and I really think she would rather own all of General Grant herself. If I asked Dad, do you suppose he would say yes?"
"I"m sure I don"t know, Puss, but I am afraid not. We had a pup once when I was small, and it chewed up everything it could get hold of. I had a little suit of black velvet--I remember it was the first I ever had with pockets in it--and one day the pup got hold of it and tore it all to pieces. Dad gave him away at last because he did so much damage."
"What was its name?"
"Pinto."
"Why, isn"t that funny--almost the name Carrie wanted! If I had a dog, Tom, I should name him Pinto Ponto Poco p.r.o.nto. Wouldn"t that be grand?
I never heard anything called that, and it has such a pretty jingle about it when you say them all together. It"s a--what do you call it?--"literation? It means where a whole string of words begin with the same letter. Don"t you think that would make a splendid name for a dog?"
"Capital," answered loyal Tom, and Tabitha again took up the study of her geography lesson, for while she had been talking, Mr. Carson had opened the door of the big house and carried General Grant, box and all, inside.
Tom was not the only one who had heard Tabitha"s raptures over the new possession, however. Sitting by the open window behind his newspaper, Mr. Catt had caught every word of the conversation, unknown to his small daughter, who did not realize his close proximity while she was unburdening her heart to the big brother; and he smiled derisively at the narrative; so when the child found courage to ask him for a pet dog he answered curtly, "No, Miss Tabitha, we don"t want any pups around here. Dogs and cats fight, you know."
Without another word, the small supplicant went mournfully away to gaze with longing eyes at the joint possession and wish more fervently than ever that it might be hers.
But Mr. Catt was not really heartless. A few days later on his way home from a short trip to his claims, he found a half-starved cat tied to a lonely yucca far up on the mountain trail, where it had been abandoned by its inhuman owners and left to this terrible fate. Indignation burned within the man as he realized the plight of the unhappy animal, and remembering Tabitha"s plea for a pet, he carried the scrawny feline home to the child, feeling a.s.sured of its welcome there. But unfortunately the cat was as black as a coal, without a white hair on its body; its tail had a very perceptible crook in it which refused to be straightened out; its ears had been closely cropped, and altogether it was so gaunt and hideous that involuntarily one shuddered to look at it.
"A cat!" exclaimed disappointed Tabitha when she had been called to see the gift. "I never asked for a cat; I don"t want a cat; I hate cats!
There are enough cats in this house already without this horrible skeleton. I suppose you will want me to call it Tabby. Oh, dear, what a time I do have living!"
With a wail of woe Tabitha fled up the trail to her hidden chamber among the boulders and threw herself on the ground to sob out her grief and anger over this unexpected and wholly unwelcome pet. That she would regard the gift as an insult when he had presented it with the best of intentions had never occurred to the father, and not understanding her antipathy for all of the feline tribe, he was naturally somewhat angry at her att.i.tude; so he insisted that the cat had come to stay. And indeed it looked as if she had, for no one wanted the homely, starved creature, and though three times Tabitha surrept.i.tiously pushed her down the shaft of an abandoned mine on the other side of the mountain, the animal always appeared serenely at meal time with a more ravenous appet.i.te than ever, and Tabitha began to think that the "nine lives of a cat" was no joke, but a dreadful reality.
"I wish the owners of that thing had kept her. It was cruel to tie her to the yucca and leave her to starve to death, but I "most wish she"d been dead when Dad found her. I hate the sight of her." She was sitting on the lower step, elbows on her knees and chin resting in her hands as she somberly surveyed the greedy animal lapping up the milk she had just set before it, and vainly wished she had no pet at all.
The kitchen door opened behind her and the father stepped out on the porch. His quick glance took in the whole situation in an instant, and recalling the conversation concerning the dog a few nights previously, he asked with some curiosity, "What have you named your cat, Tabitha?"
Without lifting her eyes or manifesting any interest in the subject she answered briefly, "Lynne Maximilian."
The man started as if he could not believe his ears, and then with an almost audible chuckle of amus.e.m.e.nt, he descended the steps and strode rapidly up the path toward the town.
CHAPTER VII
THE NEW BOY
There was a new boy at school.
In this little town with its ever changing population of miners and fortune seekers, the advent of a stranger as a usual thing caused little if any excitement. But with this boy it was different, though the children could not have explained wherein he was unlike themselves. It could not be his clothes, for Jimmy Gates, the hotel-keeper"s son, was the best-dressed boy in town; it could not be his appearance, for though he was undoubtedly good-looking, he did not begin to be as handsome as Herman Richards; it could not be the place where he lived, for the Carson house was the largest and most attractive in town. And yet there was something about him that won him a ready welcome wherever he went.
Tabitha was fairly hypnotized. She could not keep her eyes off him whenever the opportunity to look in his direction came to her, which fortunately was not often, as she sat in the front seat of the outside row, while his desk was towards the rear of the room in the same row, and they were both in nearly all the same cla.s.ses, though he was obviously some two or three years older than she. However, he was further advanced in arithmetic, and recited in a different cla.s.s, so she could watch him during that lesson while he was working at the blackboard, or sitting on the recitation bench in front of the whole school. He had the loveliest red-brown curls and big, red-brown eyes with long, heavy lashes! To be sure, his face was freckled, but he was always laughing and one forgot the freckles in watching his flashing white teeth or the dimples that came and went in his round cheeks.
Tabitha did not know that he hated these dimples almost as badly as she did her name, and that his beautiful curls were a great trial to him, as such things are to all boys of that tender age; but she did know that he was different from any boy she had ever seen, and so she worshipped him from afar.
Besides, he had the _grandest_ name! Why had she never heard of Jerome when she gave Tom the name of Dionysius Ulysses Humphrey Llewelyn?
Maybe it wasn"t too late yet. Oh, she had forgotten--how could she ever forget! And the crimson blood mounted her cheeks as she remembered that unhappy day in the long ago when she had marched up one side of the street and down the other and told the people that her name was Tabitha Catt. Tom and the Carsons and Miss Brooks had been very kind to her after that dreadful affair, and when she had gone back to school the children never once referred to the beautiful name that had been so ruthlessly s.n.a.t.c.hed away from her, but they played with her just as if nothing had happened and even spoke the hateful word, Tabitha, with such a gentleness that it lost some of its sting. Carrie adopted Tom"s pet name for her, so in time others of the children had taken it up and she was more frequently Puss than Tabitha; for all of which she was deeply grateful. Still, she could not help wishing that Tom"s name could have been Jerome. That did sound so splendid! But Tom in her eyes was just as nice as Jerome Vane, even if he was solemn and shy while Jerome was laughing and debonair.
The new scholar had been in school just one week when one rainy day at recess while the children were playing quietly inside the building, as the weather was too forbidding to permit the usual games in the yard, Tabitha"s sharp ears caught a s.n.a.t.c.h of conversation among the boys busy drawing horrible cartoons on the blackboard, and one of the speakers was her idol, Jerome Vane.
"Who"s that black-haired kid that signs her name as "T. C." in the arithmetic cla.s.s?" the new boy asked.
"Oh, that"s Tabitha Catt."
"Tabitha Catt! What a funny name!" Jerome exclaimed; and Tabitha, darting a swift glance at him from the corner of her eye, saw that he was looking at her with an amused smile on his lips.
"Ain"t it, though? She don"t like it a bit, and took a different one; but her father made her take it all back. She"s teacher"s pet, so we daren"t tease her."
"Huh!" declared the other with a swagger of bravado, ""twould take more than that to make me stop teasing her if I wanted to."
"Guess you don"t know Miss Brooks very well."
"I don"t care a hang about Miss Brooks. I"d tease if I wanted to."
"I dare you!"
"Taken!"
Tabitha was almost too shocked to move, but at this opportune moment, Carrie came running up to her desk with the news, "Sam Giles has just brought in a bucket of water. Don"t you want a drink before recess is over?"
Glad to escape further observation, Tabitha followed blue-eyed Carrie over to the corner of the room where the bucket stood, surrounded by the thirsty boys and girls, all clamoring for a turn.
"Hurry up, Jack Leavitt, it"s almost time for the bell and I want a drink!"
"Give me that dipper, you Jim Gates; I want another swig!"
"Wait your turn, stingy!"
At last Tabitha stood beside the pail with the dipper in her hand, but just as she lifted the big cup br.i.m.m.i.n.g over, someone behind her tweaked her long braid, and she heard Jerome"s laughing voice saying,
""Tabby Catt, Tabby Catt, where have you been?"
"I"ve been to London to see the queen."
"Tabby Catt, Tabby Catt, what saw you there?"--"
"I saw a sneaking boy with a shock of red hair," finished the enraged Tabitha whirling toward him with the dripping dipper, and before he had a chance to divine her intentions or dodge to one side, she let its contents fly straight into his face.
"Tabitha Catt!"
An ominous hush had fallen over the room while this little scene was transpiring, but the angry child had not noticed the unusual silence, nor perceived that Miss Brooks had entered in time to see the deluge.
"Tabitha Catt!" repeated the astonished teacher. "I am surprised at you.
Ask Jerome"s pardon for being so rude."