‘Oh, Oxford, aren’t you happy here with me? What more do you want?’ ‘I am tired of this back yard and of the Wild Wood. It all seems too cramped to me. I want some good hunting, such as that tiresome, no-account Peter has had.’ [Illustration] ‘What could be better than the hunting is here?’ Sally asked. ‘Haven’t you caught your ninth mouse this season? And you got a robin the other day.’ ‘Yes, and there was an awful row about it. I never saw Elvira in such a state.’ ‘I don’t quite see why,’ said Sally. ‘Elvira eats turkeys and chickens. Why can’t we eat robins?’ ‘That is a different matter. They have their own laws.’ ‘Do explain it to me,’ said Sally. ‘You could never understand it,’ said her brother. Sally suspected that he could not understand it either, but being wise beyond her years, for it was years now, she did not say so. Sally did not ask Oxford to take her with him. She liked home life best, and she was beginning to have a few friends. It was pleasant to be a favorite in a modest way, if not a belle, and she liked the serenades they gave her on moonlight nights. And above all, she loved Miss Harvey, and she knew Miss Harvey would not care to take a journey with Oxford and herself. So Sally bade Oxford good-bye, and said she hoped he would have a pleasant journey and come back the next day. ‘I may be gone two nights,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry unless I am gone three.’ ‘I am sorry to have you go,’ said Sally. ‘I am sorry to leave you, Sally, but it is too much to be tied to a woman’s apron string, and there are three of them in this house, all wearing aprons.’ ‘I suppose you know best,’ said Sally, ‘but when I think of our early days and of how we had to scratch around for food and a place to sleep in, I am contented with my lot.’ ‘I am glad you are, Sally, but I want to visit foreign parts. Perhaps I can get as far as Malden.’ ‘Oh, do be careful! Don’t get on a boat, whatever you do!’ Oxford promised to be cautious, for in the main he was a home-loving cat. He merely wanted to see the world in a quiet and safe way without running any great risks. ‘Remember there is fine hunting here,’ Sally said again. ‘Yes, but, as I said before, these women make such a fuss. They force a fellow into going into the big world for hunting. You’d think, after catching nine mice, no one would grudge me a robin or two and she with her chicken dinners!’ Sally looked very down-hearted when the actual parting came. ‘You must buck up, Sally,’ he said, for he had learned this phrase from the traveling cat. It seemed to mean more than ‘brace up.’ Sally was a grown cat now, and a grown cat certainly ought to buck up. Sally missed Oxford, but there was a certain peace about the place. She could eat the whole of her dinner without his taking part of it, and she could see her friends freely without having them driven off the place by Oxford. She missed him, of course; still, there was a certain peace.