that kittens, born only yesterday,
could live without their mother? And Polly would miss them dreadfully.
I never saw a more devoted family. As soon as they are old enough to
gambol, they will be such a pleasure for you all,--especially your
sister. And you can easily find nice homes for them, if you want to
give them away later on."

The four members of our summer household each had the privilege of
naming one of the kittens. Housewife Honeyvoice called the black one
Topsy; the small schoolgirl, Esther, dubbed the prettiest Daisy; I gave
to the homeliest the encouraging appellation of Cinderella, and Sister
Jane, returning from a visit to find the feline family in possession,
promptly branded the fourth as Beelzebub. Out of deference to her
outraged feelings, a nursery was prepared down cellar, where Polly, for
so inexperienced a parent, took excellent care of her babies except
when my officious ignorance interfered.

Still a blunderer, I put the kittens out on the south piazza the second
day to treat them to a bracing interlude of air and sunshine. Polly at
once went frantic, mewing and scratching for re-admittance. Presently a
succession of queer, soft thumps brought me to the scene, and there was
Polly, Beelzebub flapping from her mouth, climbing madly up the outside
of the screen door. As soon as she saw me, she parted her jaws to emit
another of those shrill meows that had been profaning the peace of the
house and down fell poor Belze with a piteous whack on the piazza
floor.

Close scrutiny of the situation revealed a big, saffron-colored cat,
with a dangerous glint in his green eyes, peering from the shrubbery
and, self-rebuked, I restored Polly and her jewels to the safe
seclusion of the cellar.

But I still held to my faith in the open air and, as soon as the
kittens began to blink, Housewife Honeyvoice and I pulled out from the
lumber that chokes up cellars under feminine charge the big wire box
which had been the Castle Joyous of Robin Hood. Planted firmly on the
grassplot outside the cellar door, with a cat-hole just large enough
for Polly cut in the wire, it was so secure as to appease even her
maternal fears. Every morning she marshaled her little troop out to
this new abode, carefully drove them all in and tended them there until
sunset, when she led them back to the cellar. All the cats in the
vicinity came to call, but Polly was the very spirit of inhospitality.
She always maintained an anxious g