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ILLUSTRATIONS

	PAGE
Jazbury, Fluffy and Yowler	Frontispiece
The cat people always had very good meals	4
Fluffy set out along the top of the fence, walking very slowly	10
The rat looked at him with a wicked grin	20
He knocked against a tin pan that clattered down with a tremendous din	26
He dreamed he was trying to run down a road toward a wood and a dog was after him--two dogs	34
It seemed as though any moment the dog's teeth might close on the kitten	40
Fluffy dropped the bird and put his paw on it	50
He turned on them so fiercely that they were frightened	62
They were almost hidden by the dusty weeds	68
He spit and mewed and fought, but she held him there	72
They saw Jazbury dragging something in from the shed beyond	90

THREE LITTLE KITTENS

Jazbury came scampering gaily up the stairs to where his mother and Aunt Tabby were sitting on the window-sill washing their faces and cleaning their fur.

Jazbury was a small black kitten with white markings on his face and breast, and soft little white paws. Soft as those little paws were there were sharp, needle claws hidden in their velvet, and Jazbury knew how to use them when necessary, too.

Mother Bunch's tail hung down from the window-seat, waving softly. It looked almost like a mouse, so soft and grey. Jazbury made a jump, and caught it with his claws. His mother growled and drew her tail up and curled it around her.

Jazbury jumped up after it, and tried to tease his mother into playing with him.

"Jazbury, you haven't washed yourself this morning," said his aunt severely. "Look at your paws. You've been in the coal-bin again, you naughty kitten."

"Well, I thought I heard a mouse there," mewed Jazbury.

"A mouse! What would a mouse be doing in the coal-bin? No, you just wanted an excuse for clambering about among the coal and making it rattle. And now look how dirty you are."

"Sit down and make yourself clean, Jazbury," said his mother. "No; let my tail alone. I'm not going to play with you. And if you want any breakfast you'd better make haste to wash yourself. I will not have such a dirty kitten eating from the saucer with me."

Jazbury sat down and began to wash his face with one of his grimy little paws.

His aunt sighed. "Paws first," she said. "You'll only make yourself dirtier if you try to wash your face before you clean your paws."

"Oh, dear me!" mewed Jazbury crossly.

"I really don't know what's going to become of you if you don't keep yourself cleaner," his aunt went on. "I'm really afraid something terrible may happen to you. I knew a cat once who wouldn't wash herself, and so her mistress used to do it for her with water, so she was wet all over. Water and soap! And a sponge! How would you feel if that happened to you some day? And it may unless you learn to keep yourself cleaner."

Jazbury was frightened at the thought that such a thing might happen to him, too, if he didn't keep himself clean, and he set about washing himself in earnest. First he washed his paws, and after he had cleaned them he cleaned his face, licking his paw with his little pink tongue, and curling it round over his furry little cheeks and forehead and chin and even behind his ears. By breakfast time he was clean enough to be allowed to eat with his mother and Aunt Tabby.

The human people and the cat people had their breakfast at the same time. The human people had theirs in the dining-room, and the cat people had theirs in the pantry. The cat people always had very good meals; bread and milk, and fish twice a week, and sometimes meat and potatoes.

"What's the use of my bothering to catch mice?" Jazbury often said. "I get all I want to eat anyway."

And his aunt would answer, "You ought to feel grateful enough for your good meals to want to catch mice for people."

But Jazbury paid little attention to such advice. All he cared for was having a good time and play about, and if mice had to be caught he left it to his mother and Aunt Tabby to do it.

II

Jazbury's best friend was a little white kitten named Fluffy. Fluffy lived in the house next door to Jazbury's.

At the other side of Jazbury's house was an open lot. The gentlemen cats of the neighbourhood had a club that met in this lot every night. It was a singing club, but sometimes the cats quarrelled among themselves, and were very noisy. Mother Bunch and Aunt Tabby said they wished the cats would meet some other place; but Jazbury liked to hear them. He wished he were old enough to belong to the club, and sing and fight, and stay out all night the way they did. But he was still only a soft, playful little kitten, who had not even caught his first mouse as yet.

Once Jazbury had climbed up on the fence, and jumped over into the lot. There he had prowled about among the weeds, and chased grasshoppers, and shiny black crickets. It was great fun.

Another kitten was hunting there, too, but he was hunting birds. He laughed at Jazbury for catching grasshoppers. He told Jazbury his name was Yowler, and that he belonged to the baker who lived further down the street. Yowler had a broad, ugly face and a stubby tail, and his fur looked dirty and uncared for. He was a yellow cat.

Jazbury liked him because he was strong and big and bold, but when Jazbury told his mother about Yowler she said she did not want Jazbury to play with him. She said she knew all about him; that he was a very coarse, noisy cat, and she told Jazbury he must not go over in the lot again.

Jazbury was allowed to go over into Fluffy's yard whenever he wanted to. Mother Bunch and Aunt Tabby both liked Fluffy. They thought he was a very nice, well-behaved little kitten.

One day when Jazbury climbed up on the fence that separated his yard from Fluffy's he saw his little friend sitting down on the kitchen steps, watching something in the grass below him. He was so intent on what he saw that he did not notice Jazbury.

"Hello, Fluffy!" mewed Jazbury.

Fluffy jumped. Then he looked around.

"Hello!"

"What you got there?" asked Jazbury curiously.

"A toad."

"Going to catch it?"

"No, I don't like them. They haven't any fur, and I don't like the feel of them."

"Well, come on up here. I want to show you something."

Fluffy climbed up a step-ladder that was leaning against the fence.

"What are you going to show me?"

"Do you see this fence? Well, I walked all the way round on the top of it yesterday, and never fell off once."

Fluffy looked at the fence in silence for a moment or so. Then he said, "That's not so much to do."

"I guess it is, too. You couldn't do it."

"Yes, I could, if I wanted to."

"Well, let's see you."

"I don't want to."

"You're afraid."

"No, I'm not, either."

"Yes, you are, too."

"I can; I can catch mice. And I can walk on the fence, too. I'll show you."

"Walk to the post and back and I'll give you a chicken bone I found down back of the rain-barrel."

"All right; it's a promise. Now watch me."

Fluffy set out along the top of the fence, walking very slowly and carefully, one paw before the other.

"Hurry up! hurry up! No fair walking so slowly," said Jazbury.

"Yes, it is fair, too. And don't you mew at me."

Fluffy reached the post safely, and then tried to turn. But that was not such an easy matter. He lost his balance. His tail waved wildly. His claws clutched the fence. He teetered back and forth, and then, with a loud mew, he half jumped, half fell, down on the flower bed below.

Jazbury laughed and laughed, the way kittens do. You wouldn't have known he was laughing. You couldn't have heard it, but a cat or kitten could. It hurt Fluffy's feelings to be laughed at.

"I don't care. I don't believe you could do it, either," he mewed.

"Now watch me!" said Jazbury.

He ran gaily out along the fence top with never a pause or mis-step. He ran all the way down one side without stopping, and then started across the back fence toward the other side.

Now back of Jazbury's yard was another yard, and a very rough boy lived there. The boy was out in the yard now. He was squirting a hose, and another boy with a very dirty face was there with him.

"Hi!" cried the dirty-faced boy. "Look at that kitten walking along the fence."

"Yeh!" answered the other. "I'm going to squirt the hose on him!"

"Go ahead!" cried the other. "See what he'll do."

Jazbury was very much frightened. He began to run. He might have jumped down off the fence, but he never thought of that. He ran as fast as he could, but before he could reach the other side a torrent of cold water struck him, almost sweeping him off the fence. The boy was squirting the hose on him as he had said.

Jazbury tried to hold fast to the fence; he tried to yowl, but the rush of water filled his mouth--his eyes--his ears. Blinded and drenched, he was finally carried off the fence by it, and landed in the yard below--his own yard, luckily. There the fence protected him.

Fluffy looked on, horrified by what he saw.

Jazbury struggled to his feet, and ran toward the house, trailing water after him.

"Mew, miew!" he cried. "Oh, Momma! Momma! Come quick! Miew! Miew! Miew!"

Mother Bunch heard him crying, and burst open the screen door of the kitchen and came running to meet him.

"What is it? What is it?" she cried. "What's the matter, Jazbury?"

"Oh, I'm so wet. I'm so w-w-wet!" he shivered.

"Oh, my child, come over here!" Mother Bunch hurried him over to a warm, sunny corner beside the kitchen steps, and began to dry him with her pink, rough tongue.

"But how did it happen?" she asked again. "Did you fall into a bucket?"

"I didn't fall into anything except the yard. It was some boys and they put water on me," and Jazbury told his mother the whole story.

Aunt Tabby sat by and listened gravely. "Well, Jazbury, it's really no more than I expected," said she. "It's just as I told you. If you won't wash yourself you'll get washed by some one else. And I must say you're looking cleaner than you've looked for many a day."

His mother said nothing. She thought Jazbury had been punished enough by the drenching without being lectured as well.

III

"Jazbury, I've found a fresh mouse-hole," said Aunt Tabby one day. "It's in the cupboard under the sink, and the cook has left the door open. Come with me and I'll show it to you. I have great hopes the mouse may come out before so very long, and if you sit there and watch, you may catch him."

"Aunt Tabby! Oh, I don't want to watch mouse-holes today," mewed Jazbury. "I told Fluffy I would come out and play with him. Mayn't I, Mother? I said I would, and I don't want to sit there in the cupboard and watch. Maybe the mouse wouldn't come out anyway, and Fluffy expects me."

"You always have some excuse, Jazbury," said his aunt, severely. "If you had your way you would never do anything but play. But as long as you have to learn to mouse some time, I don't see why today isn't as good a time to begin as any."

"Yes, Jazbury. Go with your aunt," said his mother. "And don't look sulky. I'm sure you ought to be very grateful to her for telling you about the hole."