‘Sorry to hear it,’ said Elvira, ‘and you think you are fond of cats.’ ‘Four seem too many to have in one house, and they will grow into cats, but we can keep them for a time and then send them to the Ellen Gifford Home, or else find good homes for them.’ ‘Would you like to see them?’ Elvira asked. Miss Winifred went into the kitchen, and Elvira put one of the tiny creatures into her hand and then the other. No one with a heart for kittens could help being touched by the sight of these furry creatures and the anxious expression of their mother’s face as she watched Miss Winifred, for she was not sure of her. [Illustration] ‘Please don’t drop them,’ she pleaded in her own language. ‘Please don’t even think about homes for them later on. This is a good home, and I will be a good mother. I do so want their kittenhood to be happy and not sad like mine.’ Miss Winifred put the kittens down very gently. ‘At any rate, they can’t leave their mother for some weeks,’ she said. It was not long before these tiny objects were scampering about the kitchen floor, getting in front of Elvira’s feet just as their mother and their uncle had done, for they found a way of getting out of the drawer of the dresser. They made a stepladder of their mother, and, climbing on her back, gave a flying leap to the floor and then chased each other about. Patty, the little tiger kitten, was more lively than her brother Eben, and she would turn a somersault as she reached him and then they would skip about in high glee, and wrestle together. There had never been such gay kittens in Miss Winifred’s house. ‘It is as good as a tonic having them around,’ said Miss Winifred, one morning as she visited the kitchen. ‘Certainly they are like a tonic to their mother,’ said Miss Harvey. ‘I never saw any one more changed.’ Oxford was not at all interested in his niece and nephew, so he spent more of his time than usual away from home. It was the gentle Peter who was all ready to be friendly, and when the two kittens went dancing up to him, he was pleased. But Sally, who feared he would do them harm, raised her powerful voice to call them to her, and then gave Peter the thrashing that Oxford had meant to give him. She seemed possessed by fury as she flew at him and put her claws in his fur. ‘Look at your perfect lady now,’ said Elvira to Miss Harvey. ‘She is a good mother. She is only afraid he will hurt her children,’ said Miss Harvey.