d, and he knew that I wasn't a Pig."
The Cat was so glad to find the White Kitten that she didn't scold at
all, but jumped into the manger and washed her clean, and then caught
the loose skin of the Kitten's neck between her teeth and carried her
through the stalls, across the barn-floor, and up the stairs to their
home. That made the Kitten much ashamed, for she thought that she was
old enough to go alone.
For two whole days after this the White Kitten was so lame from her fall
that she could only lie still on the hay, and she could see that her
mother did not treat her as before. "I won't ever go near those places
again," she said. "I never will."
"You promised me before that you would stay away," said her mother, "and
you broke your promise." She did not punish the White Kitten, but she
felt very sad and she could not help showing it. There was a dreadful
ache in her child's little Kitten-heart that was a great deal worse than
the lameness in her back or in her neck or in her legs.
At last there came a day when the whole family walked downstairs, and
the Cat showed her three children to the farmyard people and spoke a few
words about each. "The yellow Kitten, my big daughter," said she,
"promises to be the best hunter: she is a wonderful jumper, and her
claws are already nearly as long as mine. My son, the brown one, has a
remarkable voice. And this White Kitten, my little daughter, is the most
obedient of all. She has never disobeyed me since the day she fell into
the manger, and I can trust her perfectly."
Then the White Kitten knew that she was quite forgiven, and she was the
happiest person on the farm.
THE CHICKEN WHO WOULDN'T EAT GRAVEL
It was some time after the Dorking Hen had come off the nest with her
little brood, that the mother of the Shanghai Chickens began to have so
much trouble.
She had twelve as fine Chickens as you could find anywhere: tall,
wide-awake youngsters with long and shapely legs and thick down and
feathers. She was very proud of them, as any Hen mother might well be,
and often said to the Shanghai Cock, "Did you ever see so fine a family?
Look at those twenty-four legs, all so long and straight, and not a
feather on one of them." His eyes would shine and he would stretch his
neck with pride, but all he ever said to her was, "They will do very
well if they only behave as well as they look." He did not believe in
praising children to their faces, and he thought the
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