"I feel glad."

What he would have answered to this she never knew. For at that
moment the door flew open. The little rowdy boys who had been
troubling her so much lately, let out a series of blood-curdling
yells.

"What's that?" Arthur asked.

"I don't know who they are," Maida said wearily, "but they do that
three or four times every night. I don't know what to do about it."

"Well, I do," Arthur said. "You wait!"

He went over to the door and waited, flattening himself against the
wall. After a long silence, they could hear footsteps tip-toeing on
the bricks outside. The door flew open. Arthur Duncan leaped like a
cat through the opening. There came back to Maida the sound of
running, then a pause, then another sound very much as if two or
three naughty little heads were being vigorously knocked together.
She heard Arthur say:

"Let me catch one of you doing that again and I'll lick you till you
can't stand up. And remember I'll be watching for you every night
now."

Maida did not see him again then. But just before dinner the bell
rang. When Maida opened the door there stood Arthur.

"I had this kitten and I thought you might like him," he said
awkwardly, holding out a little bundle of gray fluff.

"Want it!" Maida said. She seized it eagerly. "Oh, thank you,
Arthur, ever so much. Oh, Granny, look at this darling kit-kat. What
a ball of fluff he is! I'll call him Fluff. And he isn't an Angora
or a prize kitty of any kind--just a beautiful plain everyday cat--the
kind I've always wanted!"

Even this was not all. After dinner the shop bell rang again. This
time it was Arthur and Rosie. Rosie's lips were very tight as if she
had made up her mind to some bold deed but her flashing eyes showed
her excitement.

"Can we see you alone for a moment, Maida?" she asked in her most
business-like tones.

Wondering, Maida shut the door to the living-room and came back to
them.

"Maida," Rosie began, "Arthur told me all about the rubber and the
pencil and the blank book and the dimes. Of course, I felt pretty
bad when I heard about it. But I wanted Arthur to come right over
here and explain the whole thing to you. You see Arthur took those
things to give away to Dicky because Dicky has such a hard time
getting anything he wants."

"Yes, I saw them over at Dicky's," Maida said.

"And then, there was a great deal more to it that Arthur's just told
me and I thought you ought to know it at once. You see Arthur's