The Tale of Miss Kitty Cat | Page 7

CREAM
"I DECLARE!" Farmer Green's wife cried one day. "Somebody's been
stealing my cream in the buttery."
The buttery was a big bare room on the shady side of the house, where
great pans of milk stood on a long table. When the cream was thick
enough on the milk Mrs. Green skimmed it off and put it in cans. At
one end of the buttery there was a trap door in the floor. When the trap
was raised you could look right down into a well. And into its cool
depths Mrs. Green dropped her cans of cream by means of a rope,
which she fastened to a beam under the floor, so the tops of the cans
would stay out of the water.
Mrs. Green made butter out of that cream. So it was no wonder she was
upset when she discovered that some one had meddled with one of her
pans of milk.
"It can't be the cat," said Farmer Green's wife. "The buttery door has
been shut tight all the time."

Miss Kitty Cat was right there in the kitchen while Mrs. Green was
talking to her husband. And it was easy to see that Miss Kitty agreed
with her mistress. She came close to Mrs. Green and purred, saying
quite plainly that she was a good, honest cat and that she deserved to be
petted. At least, that was what Mrs. Green understood her to mean.
Often, after that, Mrs. Green discovered traces of the thief in the buttery.
Flecks of cream on the side of a milk pan, drops of cream on the table,
smudges of cream now and then on the floor! Such signs meant
something. But Farmer Green's wife couldn't decide what.
And another strange thing happened. Miss Kitty Cat lost her appetite
for milk. She would leave her saucer of milk untasted on the kitchen
floor.
Now and then Mrs. Green picked Miss Kitty up and looked closely at
her face. At such times Miss Kitty purred pleasantly. She did not seem
to be the least bit disturbed.
One evening, after dark, Johnnie Green went into the buttery to get a
pail. The moment he opened the door there was a crash and a clatter
inside the room.
Johnnie jumped back quickly.
"There's somebody in the buttery!" he shouted.
But when his father brought a light they found no one there. A tin
dipper lay on the floor.
"When you opened the door it must have jarred the dipper off the edge
of the table," said Farmer Green.
"Meaow!" said a voice behind them. There stood Miss Kitty Cat, saying
that everything must have happened exactly as Farmer Green said.
"She couldn't have been in here, could she?" Farmer Green puzzled.
"Come, Kitty!" And he picked up Miss Kitty and held her where the

light fell full upon her face. "Clean as a whistle!" said Farmer Green. "I
guess she just followed us in." He set her down again. And once more,
with a plaintive meaow she agreed with him perfectly.

X
A CREAMY FACE
FARMER GREEN'S wife threw away pan after pan of milk, because
she knew somebody had been stealing cream off the top of them. At
least, she told Farmer Green to feed the milk to the pigs, because she
wasn't going to make butter of any cream that had been tampered with
by goodness knew whom or what. And old dog Spot said that feeding
good creamy milk to the pigs was just the same as throwing it away. He
made that remark to Miss Kitty Cat, adding that it was a shame that
somebody was stealing cream and declaring that he hoped to catch the
thief.
Miss Kitty Cat made no reply whatsoever.
"Don't you hope I'll catch the guilty party?" Spot asked her.
"Please don't speak to me!" Miss Kitty Cat exclaimed impatiently. "I
don't enjoy your talk; and you may as well know it."
"Very well!" said Spot. "But when I catch him I'll let you know."
"She's jealous," Spot thought. "She knows I'm a good watch dog. And
she can't bear the idea of my catching a thief."
It was hard, usually, to tell how Miss Kitty Cat felt about anything. She
was a great one for keeping her opinions to herself. It seemed as if she
wanted to be let alone by every one except Farmer Green's family.
Having boasted about catching the cream thief, old dog Spot began to
watch the buttery very carefully. Search as he would, he couldn't find a
chink anywhere that was big enough even for a mouse to squeeze

through.
One day he happened to catch a glimpse of something moving under
the roof of the shed next the buttery. To his amazement he saw Miss
Kitty Cat