--and
the children, too."

Just then little Mr. Chippy came hurrying up to him.

"Don't worry!" Mr. Chippy cried. "He's coming! He's on the way now; and
he can get you out of your trouble if anybody can."

Miss Kitty Cat pricked up her ears. She couldn't help hearing what Mr.
Chippy said.

"I shall stay right where I am," she declared. "Nobody can make me
move."

She had scarcely finished speaking when a most unexpected sound startled
her.

It was "_Meaow!_"

XIV

CATCALLS

PERCHED on top of Rusty Wren's tin house, Miss Kitty Cat had been
enjoying herself thoroughly, while the birds made a great how-dy-do and
tried in vain to frighten her away.

When she heard all at once an unexpected _meaow_ she showed that it
startled her.

"A cat!" cried Miss Kitty. "I didn't suppose there was another cat for
miles around." She looked about on all sides, on the ground and in the
tree-tops. And there was no cat anywhere in sight.

Meanwhile the birds were all exclaiming, "There! He's here. Now Miss
Kitty Cat had better watch out."

Again a strange, mocking catcall sounded from somewhere. There was a
sort of jeer about it that aroused Miss Kitty Cat's anger.

"He's come, has he?" she exclaimed to little Mr. Chippy, who chattered
at her from a good, safe distance. "If he's looking for a fight I'd be
pleased to have him come and get it."

Whoever the stranger was, and wherever he was, he knew how to tease Miss
Kitty Cat. Now he howled at her from the thicket of lilac bushes on the
edge of the flower garden. Now he mewed at her from the hedge in front
of the farmhouse. And though Miss Kitty Cat tried to get a glimpse of
him, she couldn't see anything that even faintly resembled a cat.

The annoying cries moved from one place to another. She was sure of
that. But the one that made them managed to stay hidden.

"This is queer!" Miss Kitty Cat said to herself. "Can it be that there's
a cat's voice around here, and nothing more? A cat without a voice
wouldn't be so strange. But a voice without a cat--that's the oddest
thing I ever heard of!"

At last Rusty Wren seemed to take heart. And his wife, inside their
house, abused Miss Kitty Cat loudly--or as loudly as she could from
inside the tin syrup can.

"I always knew you were a coward," she told Miss Kitty. "You're always
ready to attack us small people. But you don't dare fight anybody of
your own size."

"How can I fight a person that I can't see?" Miss