The Story of a China Cat | Page 6

and Jack Box all made haste to get on the shelves where they
belonged.
The Topsy Doll, with her kinky hair, darted toward the novelty
department.
"I's glad yo' all let me play wif yo'," she said in her queer talk. "An' I
didn't get any black on yo'; did I, Miss China Cat?"
"No, indeed. You were very nice," was the answer. "Come and play
with us again."
Then it was time for the toys to be very still and quiet, for the door of
the store opened, and in came Mr. Mugg.
"Ah, this is going to be a lovely day!" said the jolly toy-shop man. "I
shall do a good business to-day!"
A little later in came his daughters, Geraldine and Angelina. They
began dusting and setting the store to rights for the day's business.
"Oh, my dear! look at this," said Angelina to her sister.
"What is the matter?" asked Geraldine, pausing with a feather duster
under her arm.

"Why, the lovely white China Cat has a speck of dirt on her back," said
Angelina. "I must have forgotten to dust her yesterday."
"Oh, my!" thought the China Cat, who heard what was said, though she
could not turn around to lick off the speck with her red tongue, "some
black must have come off Topsy after all."
"Oh, no, it isn't dirt," said Angelina, as she took the Cat down to look
more closely at her. "It's just a little speck of black feather from my
duster. It must have just got on."
"Oh, I'm so glad of that!" thought the white Cat. "I wouldn't want to
think that Topsy's black rubbed off."
Soon the store was in readiness for customers, and among the first to
enter that morning was a little girl. She was with a lady, who was the
little girl's aunt.
"Now, Jennie," said the aunt, as Mr. Mugg came forward to wait on
them, "what present would you like? You may pick out anything you
please."
"Oh, Aunt Clara! How lovely of you!" cried Jennie Moore, for that was
her name. "Let me see now. What would I like best?"
While Jennie was looking along the shelves of toys her aunt said in a
low tone to Mr. Mugg:
"Jennie has been such a good girl, helping her mother who was ill, that
I promised her any toy she wished."
"That is very kind of you, I am sure," said Mr. Mugg, rubbing his hands
and looking over the tops of his glasses. "We have many toys here for
good little girls, and for good boys, too. Not long ago I sold a Nodding
Donkey to a lame boy, and, would you believe me; that boy isn't lame
at all now," and Mr. Mugg laughed, and Aunt Clara laughed also.
But Jennie was looking along the shelves of toys. The China Cat

looked down, and when she saw what a nice little girl Jennie was, so
neat and clean, the China Cat thought to herself:
"If I have to be taken away and belong to some child, I think I should
like to go to Jennie's house. I'm sure she would be kind to me and love
me, and I would love her."
Jennie seemed to be thinking the same thing about the China Cat, for
suddenly she reached up and took down the white toy.
"Here, Aunt Clara, this is what I would like," said Jennie.
She walked toward her aunt and Mr. Mugg with the China Cat in her
hand, but, just before she reached them, Jennie tripped over a
velocipede on the floor, and seemed about to fall.
"Oh, Jennie, don't drop that China Cat, whatever you do!" cried her
aunt.
CHAPTER III
"FIRE! FIRE!"
Had Jennie Moore stumbled and dropped the China Cat to the floor of
the toy shop that would have been the end of this book. For if the Cat
had fallen she surely would have been broken to bits. And, though Mr.
Mugg might have been able to glue the pieces together again, the China
Cat never would have been like herself, and there would be no story
about her.
But, as it happened, there was a soft footstool just in front of the
velocipede over which Jennie stumbled, and the little girl fell down on
that, still holding the China Cat in her hands. Not once did Jennie let go
of the toy she had taken off the shelf.
"Oh, my dear little girl! I hope you did not hurt yourself!" cried Mr.
Horatio Mugg, as he sprang forward to raise Jennie from the footstool,
across which she had fallen.

"And I hope she hasn't broken the China Cat!" exclaimed Aunt Clara.
"Well," replied Mr. Mugg, with a kind smile, "breaking the China Cat
would