ody would laugh and
maybe they would sing:

'Tabby Catt, Tabby Catt,
Drink some milk and make you fat,
Skinny, scrawny Tabby Catt.'

Wouldn't that make the friend feel awful? Am I very skinny, Tom?"

Poor Tom! How could he answer the avalanche of questions? At fourteen
one is not very wise, but Tom squeezed the rough hand still holding
his, and answered hopefully, "Some day we will have some friends, Pussy.
And some day when I get big and can work for you, we will settle down
and live in one town, and people will come to see us, and they won't
care anything about our names."

Something in his tone made Tabitha say questioningly, "Do you still mind
your name, Tom?"

"Not as much as I used to, Puss. Now you must go to bed. It's getting
late and pretty soon Dad and Aunt Maria will be coming upstairs.
Good-night." With another gentle squeeze of her hand he was gone.

CHAPTER II

TABITHA CHOOSES A NEW NAME

The day was done. The crimson sunset glow still hung over the whole
world, touching the brown, parched hills with a rainbow of colors and
reflecting itself in the cloudbank massed high in the eastern sky. Tom,
hurrying home through the fields from his last errands at the store, was
whistling softly and enjoying the beauty of the early evening, wondering
all the while why the little sister was not running to meet him, and
half expecting to see her jump out at him from behind some clump of
bushes. But Tabitha was nowhere in sight.

"Poor Puss! Wonder if she has been punished again today. Wish I could
keep her with me all the time. She wouldn't get into so much mischief."

He anxiously scanned the house as he approached it for some glimpse of
lively Tabitha, but was disappointed. Suddenly from overhead came a soft
bird trill, followed by a suppressed snicker. He looked up quickly, and
there in the branches of the wide-spreading sycamore tree by the corner
of the house was a flutter of white which, upon closer inspection,
proved to be Tabitha's nightgown, and Tabitha was inside it!

"Tab--"

"Sh!" came the instant command. "Eat supper and come up to my room. I've
got something to show you."

Tom obediently followed her instructions, and some minutes later his
head appeared at the window, and he demanded, "Puss, are you still
working for that licking?"

"Nope," she answered serenely. "We don't have to talk in whispers now,
for Dad has gone up the road and I heard him tell Aunt Maria he wo