Of course, it did not know that Jan had saved its life, or that he did
not want to hurt it, now. He moved away and sat down quietly to watch
it. The saucer was filled with milk a second time, and the kitten's
tongue lapped as fast as it could go. Its sides bulged out from its
scrawny body when it had emptied the saucer and moved across the room.

"You poor little thing!" cried the old man, picking it up gently. "It's
only got three legs, Jan!"

The poundmaster fixed his glasses and examined a hind leg which had no
foot. "I guess it was born that way," he spoke. "Must have been taken
on some boat as a mascot. Well, it doesn't matter what has happened to
it, just so it's comfortable now, Jan!"

The kitten went back to the empty saucer, and sniffed at it, then with a
funny little hop and jump, it came back and rubbed, purring, against the
old man's leg, but it kept a sharp watch on the big dog.

"We'll call it Hippity-Hop," decided Captain Smith, and as neither the
kitten nor Jan suggested a better name, that settled it.

Hippity-Hop was really quite a nice little kitten, even if she did not
have as many legs as most cats have. Her fur was dark grey, a white
breast and ring around her neck looked as though she had put on a clean
shirt and collar, while every one of her three paws was snow-white, like
nice white gloves. She spent a great deal of her time washing her fur
with her tongue.

For many days Hippity-Hop was afraid of Jan, who was big enough to
swallow her at one gulp; but when she learned that he stood back and let
her eat first from his dish, although she had just cleaned her own
plate, she lost her fear and grew to love him. Each night after supper
she crawled between his paws and went to sleep, while he lay very
still, that he might not waken his little friend.

Jan was very sure that Hippity-Hop was the nicest little kitten in the
world, after she had learned one thing:

When first she went to live with the captain and Jan and had seen
Cheepsie walking around on the floor, Hippity-Hop's green eyes
glistened. Then her claws reached out from the fur that hid them and her
tail twitched and jerked as she crouched to spring on the little yellow
bird that was paying no attention to the kitten. But, just as she was
ready to jump, there was a terrible roar behind her and she was grabbed
by Jan's big jaws.

Hippity-Hop gave a yowl of fear, and twisted to scratch Jan's eyes, but
he gripped her firmly, thou