Miss Kitty Cat. They always
remained a deep mystery. Everybody agreed that the number was nine. But
beyond that, nobody could explain about them.

IX

THE STOLEN CREAM

"I DECLARE!" Farmer Green's wife cried one day. "Somebody's been
stealing my cream in the buttery."

The buttery was a big bare room on the shady side of the house, where
great pans of milk stood on a long table. When the cream was thick
enough on the milk Mrs. Green skimmed it off and put it in cans. At one
end of the buttery there was a trap door in the floor. When the trap was
raised you could look right down into a well. And into its cool depths
Mrs. Green dropped her cans of cream by means of a rope, which she
fastened to a beam under the floor, so the tops of the cans would stay
out of the water.

Mrs. Green made butter out of that cream. So it was no wonder she was
upset when she discovered that some one had meddled with one of her pans
of milk.

"It can't be the cat," said Farmer Green's wife. "The buttery door has
been shut tight all the time."

Miss Kitty Cat was right there in the kitchen while Mrs. Green was
talking to her husband. And it was easy to see that Miss Kitty agreed
with her mistress. She came close to Mrs. Green and purred, saying quite
plainly that she was a good, honest cat and that she deserved to be
petted. At least, that was what Mrs. Green understood her to mean.

Often, after that, Mrs. Green discovered traces of the thief in the
buttery. Flecks of cream on the side of a milk pan, drops of cream on
the table, smudges of cream now and then on the floor! Such signs meant
something. But Farmer Green's wife couldn't decide what.

And another strange thing happened. Miss Kitty Cat lost her appetite for
milk. She would leave her saucer of milk untasted on the kitchen floor.

Now and then Mrs. Green picked Miss Kitty up and looked closely at her
face. At such times Miss Kitty purred pleasantly. She did not seem to be
the least bit disturbed.

One evening, after dark, Johnnie Green went into the buttery to get a
pail. The moment he opened the door there was a crash and a clatter
inside the room.

Johnnie jumped back quickly.

"There's somebody in the buttery!" he shouted.

But when his father brought a light they found no one there. A tin
dipper lay on the floor.

"When you opened the door it must have jarred the dipper off the edge of
the table," said Farmer Green.

"_Meaow!_" said a voice behind them