A Kindergarten Story Book Part 15

"Yes, indeed," said mamma; "and I wonder if there was ever a family of kits before that had two mothers at the same time!"

TOPSY STORIES.

IV. TOPSY'S HIDING PLACE.

All around the kitchen they went, playing hide and seek. Topsy hid under the stove, Alice hid in the cupboard; Topsy hid behind the wood box, Alice hid under the table; Topsy hid in the corner back of the coal hod, Alice hid in the folds of mamma's big ap.r.o.n hanging behind the kitchen door; but they never failed to find each other and always had a great frolic after each one's hiding place was discovered.

At last the play was over and Topsy went fast asleep, lying on her back in the doll's cradle. She looked very funny, with her paws sticking straight up in the air.

Soon Alice wanted to put dolly to bed; so Topsy found another nice resting place, stretched out in mamma's workbasket, with her front paws lying on the pincus.h.i.+on; but when mamma came for thimble and thread kitty was forced to move again.

"Meow! meow!" she said. "I will get out of every one's way, and go where I can sleep as long as I please without being disturbed!" So Topsy sprang upon the table, then upon a tall folded screen near by, and, with a big jump, landed at last on the very tiptop of the china closet. No one saw her. She crept far back against the wall and was soon fast asleep, lying in a nice warm corner, just under the ceiling.

After a time Alice grew tired of playing with her doll and looked about for kitty, but kitty was nowhere to be seen. The little girl went to the door and called, "Kitty! kitty! kitty!" but no kitty came. She called again, but no shrill meow answered her. She called again and again, but still no Topsy was to be heard or seen.

"Oh, mamma, where can kitty be?" said Alice, with tears in her eyes.

"I am afraid she is lost. I haven't seen her for ever so long."

"Have you looked in all the hiding places? Perhaps she has gone fast asleep somewhere and doesn't hear you call," said mamma.

So Alice began to search for her pet, but though she looked everywhere no kitty did she find. She called and called again, but all in vain; no Topsy answered her.

"Never mind, little daughter," said mamma, "kitty has probably gone off hunting and will surprise you by and by with a big fat mouse."

So Alice was comforted; and though she felt very lonely with no furry ball snuggled in her lap and no bright-eyed playmate scampering at her heels, she tried to be happy playing with her dolly and looking at her new picture book.

At last the long day was over and night came. It brought no Topsy, but it did bring papa from his work. When Alice saw him coming, she ran out to meet him and, throwing herself into his arms, poured out all her trouble: "Oh, papa, Topsy is lost! We can't find her anywhere! She has been gone all day long! I have looked and looked, and called and called, but she doesn't come!"

Papa comforted his little daughter as papas know how to do. "Cheer up!

little girl. We will find her after supper," he said.

When the pleasant evening meal was over and all the family sat around the cozy fire, papa said: "I think I know how to make Topsy come, if she is in the house."

"Oh, how?" cried Alice.

Papa said nothing but he puckered up his lips and began to whistle in loud, shrill tones. At the first note something stirred on top of the china closet. Then there was a short, protesting meow. Papa kept on whistling. Kitty stood up and began to stretch. As the shrill music continued, Topsy walked to the edge of the cupboard and looked down.

"Oh, there she is! there she is!" cried Alice. "Oh, my own dear kitty!

But what a funny place to hide in!"

Louder and shriller grew papa's whistling. Kitty jumped upon the screen and then leaped to the table. Still papa whistled on. Topsy sprang to the floor and, jumping into papa's lap, began to rub her face against his breast. "Meow! meow!" she said. Still the shrill noise did not atop. p.u.s.s.y put her front paws high up on papa's chest and rubbed her face against his chin, at the same time nipping it gently with her teeth and calling, "Meow! meow!" which meant, "Stop! stop!

Please, master, I am here. What do you want? Oh, do stop that dreadful noise!"

So papa stopped whistling and Alice and Topsy had a fine frolic before bedtime.

This was the first and only time that Topsy was ever lost; but to this day, she will sometimes steal away and sleep for hours on her lofty perch, heedless of coaxing or scolding, and only dislodged at night by papa's shrill whistle.

TOPSY STORIES.

V. TOPSY'S BABIES.

"I must teach the kittens some tricks," said Alice one day. "They are getting so big and plump. Don't you think they are old enough to learn to do things, mamma?"

"Well, little daughter, suppose you try teaching them," said mamma.

So Alice went to the door and called: "Kittens! kittens! kittens!

Come, Tip! Come, Trot! Come, kittens!" Now their real names were Tipkins and Trotkins, but Alice always called them Tip and Trot for short.

When the kittens heard their little mistress call, they came running as fast as their fat little bodies and their short little legs would let them come; for "Kittens, kittens, kittens!" almost always meant: "Here is some nice warm milk to drink."

Alice gathered the funny little things up in her arms. They looked just exactly alike, for Tipkins had a black spot on the end of his tail, and Trotkins had a black spot on the end of his tail, too; Tipkins' eyes were blue, so were Trotkins'; Tipkins' nose was black, and Trotkins' nose was black, too. Alice often wondered how their mother, Topsy, ever told them apart.

"Now," said the little girl, "you have grown to be such big p.u.s.s.ies that it is time you learned to work. You must earn your dinner. What do you say to that?"

"Meow! meow!" said Tipkins. "Meow! meow!" said Trotkins. "Meow!

meow!" said Tipkins and Trotkins together. Which seemed to mean, "That we will, little mistress; only show us how."

Alice took a tiny bit of meat in her fingers and let one of the kittens smell of it; then she said very slowly, "Now, p.u.s.s.y, roll over." The kitten liked the smell of the meat very much, so he said, "Meow! meow!"

but he did not know in the least what "roll over" meant, so he did nothing. "Roll over, kitty," said his little mistress again, but he only said, "Meow! meow! meow!" once more. Then Alice made p.u.s.s.y lie down, and she gently rolled him over with her hand, saying very slowly as she did so, "Roll over." After this she gave him the bit of meat.

Then it was the other kitten's turn. He had no more idea than his brother what "roll over" meant; but after Alice had said the words two or three times, she gently rolled his plump little body over, too, and then gave him the nice bit of meat also. Then she set a big saucer of milk down in front of her pets, and so ended the first lesson of Tipkins and Trotkins.

This was only the first of many lessons, however. Alice worked patiently with the kittens every day for a whole month and, at the end of that time, both Tipkins and Trotkins knew just what she meant and would roll over every time she told them to, even though they got not a sc.r.a.p of anything good to eat in return.

Tipkins seemed to think it was great fun, and he would sometimes roll over five or six times without stopping, just as Alice herself often rolled on the gra.s.s when at play. But Trotkins never seemed to like doing it, and would turn round and round until he was fairly dizzy before finally lying down. Then, as he rolled over, he would give a funny meow, as much as to say, "I don't like to; but, if I must, I will."

Tipkins learned to ring a small bell by striking it with one of his front paws. Trotkins could never be coaxed to touch this bell; but he would sit by while his brother rang it and cry, "Meow! meow! meow!"

Alice thought that this was very funny, and she said that Trot sang while Tip did the playing.

Both the kittens learned to jump over a stick when their mistress held one out in her hand, about a foot from the floor; and Alice taught Tipkins to jump through a small wooden hoop; but she could never persuade Trotkins even once to try to jump through the hoop.

As Tipkins and Trotkins grew older, their mother, Topsy, taught them to hunt for mice in the big, dark barn, and to catch moles and gra.s.shoppers in the field. They had less and less time, as the days went by, to play with their little mistress; and Alice found them so sleepy, when they did have time, that at last she gave up trying to teach them any new antics.

As the months pa.s.sed by they grew sleek and fat. They were kittens no longer, but had grown as large and could hunt as well as Mother Topsy; and although they learned no new tricks now, the old ones, taught them by their little mistress, were never forgotten by Tipkins and Trotkins.

ETHEL'S FRIENDS.

Ethel was a little girl who lived in the great city of New York, but she loved the country very much and often wished that she could play in the big, green fields or pick wild flowers in the wood. She remembered one summer, when she was a very little girl, staying in the country for ever so many days, almost a whole month, and having such a happy time lying on the gra.s.s, listening to the birds, and watching the cows and horses and sheep, the cunning little lambs, and the old white hen with her brood of downy chicks. Oh, how she did wish that she could see them all again! But the country was far, far away, and Ethel's papa and mamma were too busy to take their little daughter there.

There was a place in the big city called Central Park that seemed to Ethel like the country. She loved to go there, and had a happy time watching the sparrows as they scratched for seeds and looked about for crumbs, and trying to get the gray squirrels to come nearer and take nuts from her hand. Here, some days, O happiest times of all! she could lie with her rosy face buried in the short, green gra.s.s, and press it close, oh! so close to the "great brown house," the home of the flowers.