:

"If I have to be taken away and belong to some child, I think I should
like to go to Jennie's house. I'm sure she would be kind to me and love
me, and I would love her."

Jennie seemed to be thinking the same thing about the China Cat, for
suddenly she reached up and took down the white toy.

"Here, Aunt Clara, this is what I would like," said Jennie.

She walked toward her aunt and Mr. Mugg with the China Cat in her hand,
but, just before she reached them, Jennie tripped over a velocipede on
the floor, and seemed about to fall.

"Oh, Jennie, don't drop that China Cat, whatever you do!" cried her
aunt.

CHAPTER III

"FIRE! FIRE!"

Had Jennie Moore stumbled and dropped the China Cat to the floor of the
toy shop that would have been the end of this book. For if the Cat had
fallen she surely would have been broken to bits. And, though Mr. Mugg
might have been able to glue the pieces together again, the China Cat
never would have been like herself, and there would be no story about
her.

But, as it happened, there was a soft footstool just in front of the
velocipede over which Jennie stumbled, and the little girl fell down on
that, still holding the China Cat in her hands. Not once did Jennie let
go of the toy she had taken off the shelf.

"Oh, my dear little girl! I hope you did not hurt yourself!" cried Mr.
Horatio Mugg, as he sprang forward to raise Jennie from the footstool,
across which she had fallen.

"And I hope she hasn't broken the China Cat!" exclaimed Aunt Clara.

"Well," replied Mr. Mugg, with a kind smile, "breaking the China Cat
would not have been so bad. I could easily send to the workshop of Santa
Claus and get another toy. But nice little girls, if they fall and hurt
themselves, are not so easily mended. I am glad you are not hurt, my
dear," he went on, as he helped Jennie to her feet.

"And I am glad the China Cat is not broken," said Aunt Clara. "It is a
lovely piece of work."

"Yes, it is one of my choicest toys," said Mr. Mugg. "It can not talk,
like some of my dolls, nor spring about like some of the Jumping Jacks.
But the Cat is so clean and white that it would be an ornament in any
home."

"She'll look lovely on my bureau," said Jennie. "Does her head come off,
Mr. Mugg?" the nice little girl asked, as her aunt was looking carefully
at the China Cat.

"Oh, my, no!" laughed the toy-shop man. "I once had a cat whose head
could be lifted off, and burned matches could b