dles could answer Dot. "But the boy will have to wait."

"He has to come, too--he has the sample," said Dot, who had no
intention of going into a strange house alone.

"Are you selling something?" the maid demanded. "It won't do you any
good to see Miss Alder if you're selling something; she won't look at
samples."

"For goodness' sake, Agnes, are you going to stand there at the door
all day?" said some one. "Either come in and close the door or go
outside and finish your conversation."

Dot glanced up and saw a face peering over the maid's shoulder. She
saw dark eyes and white hair and a rather grim mouth. But Dot smiled
her friendly little smile and spoke clearly.

"How do you do, Miss Alder?" she said, as composedly as Meg would have
said it. "Don't you want a little kitten? We're trying to find homes
for them and we have--all but one."

Now Miss Alder liked cats and she found herself liking Dot. But she
couldn't unbend all at once.

"Are you sure your feet are clean?" she asked crisply. "Well, then,
come in, both of you. I can't stand all this cold air. Come into the
sitting room and tell me what you call it you are doing."

Twaddles and Dot followed her into a pleasant sunny room, with a
fireplace in which a fire was merrily blazing. Miss Alder's chair was
by the window and she pointed to a sofa nearby.

"Sit down there and keep your feet on that rug," she directed the
twins. "If there is one thing I cannot stand it is to have my floors
tracked up. Now what were you trying to tell me about a kitten?"

Twaddles pulled the little tiger kitten out of his coat and held it
toward her.

"That's the sample," he said gravely. "We had seven of them--Meg and
Bobby brought them home, because Mr. Fritz was going to have them
drowned."

"And you've been going around, trying to get homes for them?" said
Miss Alder approvingly. "Why, I think that is very kind of you. Could
you find people who would give them homes?"

Twaddles told her where they had been and what the people had said,
and all the time he talked Miss Adler was stroking the kitten which
she had taken on her lap. She asked a great many questions and she did
not laugh at all. She was most serious, and when she had heard the
whole story, she said that she thought they were just as good as they
could be.

"Most children wouldn't go to so much trouble," she said. "Why, you
are friends worth having--and I should like a kitten very much indeed.
Why don't