; and
they were afraid the rails would fall down some day and crush the poor
little kittens to death; and what was worst of all, very often when they
went there to look at them, they could not get any good sight of them at
all, they would be so far in among the rails.

At last a bright idea struck Johnny. He said he would build a nice house
for them.

"You can't," said Rosy.

"I can too," said Johnny. "'Twon't be a house such as folks live in,
but it'll do for cats."

"Will it be as nice as a dog's house, Johnny?" asked Rosy.

"Nicer," said Johnny; "that is, it'll be prettier. 'Twon't be so close.
Cats don't need it so close; but it'll be prettier. It's going to have
flags on it."

"Flags! O Johnny!" exclaimed Rosy. "That'll be splendid; but we haven't
got any flags."

"I know where I can get as many as I want," said Johnny,--"down to the
club-room. They give flags to boys there."

"What for, Johnny?" asked Rosy.

"Oh, just to carry," replied Johnny proudly. "They like to have boys
carrying their flags round."

"Do you suppose they'll like to have them on a cat's house?" asked Rosy.

"Why not?" said Johnny; and Rosy did not know what to say.

Very hard Johnny worked on the house; and it was a queer-looking house
when it was done, but it was the only one I ever heard of that was built
on purpose for cats. It was about eight feet square; the central support
of it was an old saw-horse turned up endwise, with a mason's trestle on
top; the roof was made of old rails, and had two slopes to it, like
real houses' roofs; the sides were uneven, because on one side the rails
rested on an old pig-trough, and on the other on a wooden trestle which
was higher than the trough. This unevenness troubled Johnny, but it
really made the house prettier. The space under this roof was divided by
rows of small stakes into three compartments,--one large one for Mammy
Tittleback and her six youngest kittens; Mousiewary and her two kittens
in another smaller room; and the adopted kittens and Juniper in a third.
I haven't told you yet about the adopted kittens, but I will presently.
These three rooms had each a tin pan set in the middle, and fixed firm
in its place by small stakes driven into the ground around it. Johnny
was determined to teach the cats to keep in their own rooms, and that
each family must eat by itself. It wasn't so hard to bring this about as
you would have supposed, because Johnny and Rosy spent nearly all their