it down with
their sharp little claws, and chewed on it with their pointed white
teeth. When they were tired of this game, they played hide-and-seek, and
when they were tired of that they chased their tails. It was so nice
always to have playthings with them. Sometimes, too, they chased each
other's tails, and caught them and bit them hard, until the Kitten who
owned the tail cried, "Mieow!" and tumbled the biter over.

They were allowed to play all through the loft except over the mangers.
Their mother was afraid that if they went there they would fall through
the holes which had been left in the floor. During the winter, the
farmer used to throw hay down through these to the hungry Horses. When
the Cat saw her children going toward these places, she called them back
and scolded them. Sometimes she struck them lightly on the ears with her
forepaw. "I don't like to," said she, "but they must learn to keep away.
It is not safe for them to go there."

One morning when she was away, they were playing hide-and-seek, and the
White Kitten was hunting for a good hiding-place. "I'll hide near one of
these holes," she said, "and they won't dare come there to look. Then,
after they have hunted a long, long time, I'll get another place and
let them find me." She did hide there, and after a long, long time, when
her brother and sister were in the farther end of the loft, she tried to
run over to another dark corner. Instead of that, the hay began to slip
and slide under her and she went down, down, down, through a long dark
box, and hit with a hard thud at the bottom.

She was so scared that she couldn't have told how many toes she had on
her forefeet. Of course, she had five on each, like all Kittens, and
four on each hind-foot, but if anybody had asked her then, she would
have been quite likely to say "three."

She was sore, too, and when she felt a warm breath on her and opened her
eyes, she saw that some great creature had thrust his nose through a
hole in the side of the dark box. "It must be a Horse," she thought,
"and my mother says that they are kind to Cats. I think I'd better tell
him who I am. I don't want him to take me for a Pig, because he may not
like Pigs." You see, she forgot that Horses had been living in the great
world and could tell to what family a person belonged the very first
time they saw him. The only people she had ever seen were Swallows and
Mice.

"If--if you please, sir," she said, "I am the Whit