he put her white back
up as high as possible and stood her ground. She expressed her opinion
of the performance in a series of sputtering yowls that drew Dolly's
attention from her book to the impending battle.

She sprang out of the swing, and rushed toward Flossy just as the two
belligerents met in the grassy arena.

Dorothy Rose, on her side of the lawn was shaking with laughter, and
this sight was the last straw to Dorinda Fayre's overburdened soul.

"Don't you let your dog eat up my cat!" she cried out, angrily, to the
black-haired girl opposite.

"Don't you let your cat eat up my dog, then!" was the immediate
response, delivered with enthusiasm equalling Dolly's own.

"Cats don't eat dogs!"

"Neither do dogs eat cats!"

"Well, these will eat each other! Oh! look, we _must_ get them apart!"

The battle was of the pitched variety, whatever that may mean. But it is
a phrase used to describe the most intense and desperate battles of
history, and surely this was one of them. Dolly Fayre had no idea that
gentle little Flossy had so much fight in her small white body, and
Dotty Rose never dreamed that Blot was such a fire-eater under his curly
black coat.

Really alarmed for their pets, the two girls went nearer to the agile
warriors, who now looked like an indistinct moving-picture film that was
going too fast.

"Come here, Blot!" Dotty cried, in most commanding tones.

"Come here, Flossy!" Dolly called, in coaxing accents.

Insubordination ensued on both sides.

"We'll have to grab them!" declared Dotty Rose; dancing about the war
zone.

"We can't!" wailed Dolly Fayre, wringing her hands as she edged away
from the seat of battle.

"Well, I just guess we will!" and Dotty Rose seized Blot by the scruff
of his black neck and shook him loose from the white kitten.

With a little cry of rejoicing, Dolly Fayre picked up Flossy and plumped
herself down on the grass to make sure the kitten was intact.

Dotty sat down too, and felt of Blot's small and well-hidden bones.

As neither animal gave any cry of pain and as each glared at its late
opponent, the respective owners of the combatants drew sighs of relief
and held on tightly to their pets, lest a fresh attack should begin.

Now it stands to reason that after a scene like that just described,
the two girls couldn't get up and walk off home without a word.

So they sat on the grass and looked at each other.

And when the troubled blue eyes of Dolly F