ere upon the cat. The
cat sat with a smile on his face and one ear cocked. Once he looked at
Grandfather and laughed, noiselessly.

"The cat understands every word!" Hortense said to herself with
conviction. She began to be a little afraid of the cat, for she felt
that everything in the room disliked him. The lowboy no longer smiled
but looked rather solemn and foolish. The chairs stood stiffly, as
though offended at his presence. The white owl glared fiercely with his
yellow eyes, and the firedogs fairly snapped their teeth.

But the cat did not mind. He lay on the hearthrug and grinned at them
all. Then he rolled over on his back, waved his paws in the air, and
whipped his long tail.

"He's laughing at them!" said Hortense to herself. "And he knows all
about the 'ha'nt,' whatever that is!"

Mary came to remove the tea wagon, which Hortense decided was really
good at heart but surly and tart of temper because of his deformity.
The brass teakettle looked to be good-tempered but unreliable.

"There's something catlike about a teakettle," Hortense reflected. "It
likes to sit in a warm place and purr. And it likes any one who will
give it what it wants. Its love is cupboard love."

"Dinner isn't until seven," said Grandmother, "so perhaps you'd like to
go to the kitchen and see Esmerelda, the cook, Uncle Jonah's wife. If
you are nice to her, it will mean cookies and all sorts of good
things."

Hortense thought, "If I'm nice to Esmerelda just to get cookies, I'll
be no better than the cat and the teakettle; so I hope I can like her
for herself." Nevertheless, it would be nice to have cookies, too.

"Isn't this an awfully big house?" said Hortense to Mary as they went
down a long dark passage.

"Much too big," said Mary. "I spend my days cleaning rooms that are
never used. There's the whole third floor of bedrooms, not one of which
has been slept in for years. Then there are the parlors, and many
closets full of things that have to be aired, and sunned, and kept from
moths."

"May I go with you, Mary, when you clean?" Hortense asked. "I'll help
if I can."

"Sure you may," said Mary kindly. "I'll be glad to have you. You'll be
company. Some of those dark closets, and the bedrooms with sheeted
chairs and things give me the creeps. An old house and old unused rooms
are eerie-like. Sometimes I can almost hear whispers, and sighs, and
things talking."

"I know," said Hortense. "Everything talks--chairs, and tables