come back fast enough. Ye needn't be afeard," he added
kindly to Johnny, who was ready to burst out crying, to see even his
beloved Spitfire darting away like a strange wildcat of the woods. Sure
enough, very soon the little ones began to stick their heads out from
behind beams and out of corners, and to take cautious steps towards
Johnny, whose dear voice they recognized as he kept saying, pityingly,--

"Poor kitties, poor kitties, come here to me; poor kitties, don't you
know me?" In a few minutes he had Spitfire in his arms, and Rosy had
Blacky, the one she had always loved best. Mammy Tittleback, Juniper,
and Mousiewary had escaped out of the barn, and disappeared in the woods
along the mill-race. They were much more frightened than the kittens,
and had reason to be, for they knew very well that it was an
extraordinary thing which had happened to them, whereas the little ones
did not know but it often happened to cats to be packed up in boxes and
take journeys in railway trains, and now that they saw Johnny and Rosy,
they thought everything was all right.

In the mean time the cats of the house, Snowball, Gregory, Stonepile,
and Lappit, hearing the commotion and caterwauling in the barn, had come
out to see what was going on. On the threshold they all stopped, stock
still, set up their backs, and began to growl. The little kittens began
to sneak off again towards hiding-places. Snowball came forward, and
looked as if she would make fight, but Johnny drove her back, and said
very sharply, "Scat! scat! we don't want you here." On hearing these
words, Gregory and the others turned round and walked scornfully away,
as if they would not take any more notice of such young cats; but
Snowball was very angry, and continued to hang about the barn, every now
and then looking in, and growling, and swelling up her tail, and she
never would, to the last, make friends with one of the new-comers.

Release had come too late for poor Gregory Second and Lily. They had
never been strong as the others, and the fright of the journey was too
much for them. Early on the morning after their arrival, Gregory Second
was found dead in the barn. The children gave him a grand funeral, and
buried him in the meadow behind the house. There were staying now at
Mrs. Jameson's two other grandchildren of hers, Johnny and Katy Wells;
and the two Johnnies and Katy and Rosy went out, in a solemn procession,
into the field to bury Gregory. Each child carr