up to her.
Reaching forth his hands, which were now dirtier than before, Jeff
caught hold of his sister's kinky hair.

"Ouch! Oh, yo' stop dat, Jeff!" she wailed.

"Gib me back mah white cat!" he demanded, and he took the toy roughly
from his sister. Arabella began to cry, and a man who was passing
stopped and looked at the colored children.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Oh, we's only playin'," answered Jeff. "She took mah cat, an' I wanted
it back."

"Hum!" mused the man. "That's a queer kind of play, I think. And if you
drop that cat on the sidewalk you won't be able to play with her, for
she'll be broken to pieces."

"What a dreadful thing! Oh, if that should happen!" thought the China
Cat, who heard all that was said.

"I ain't gwine to drop her," declared Jeff, as he turned away with the
China Cat in his dirty hands. With tears on her black cheeks, Arabella
followed her brother back to the tenement.

Jeff put his toy down on the table again. On one wall of the room was a
looking glass. It was cracked and not very clean, but as a ray of
sunshine entered the dingy basement the China Cat, by the gleam of it,
saw her reflection.

"Why, I hardly know myself!" she whispered, not daring, of course, to
speak aloud or to move and make believe come to life. There were too
many colored children looking at her. "Oh, what a fright I am!" thought
the China Cat and sighed.

Well might she think that. On her nose was a big speck of dirt, and
there were other specks on her back and sides. Her tail, too, that was
always so spotless, was now daubed with molasses and smoke grime from
the fire. The China Cat was white now only in spots.

"The Nodding Donkey would hardly speak to me if he saw me now," she
thought. "I'm glad he isn't here."

"Now don't yo' touch my cat!" warned Jeff, as he got up from the table,
where he had been playing with the toy.

"Whut yo' gwine do?" asked Arabella, who had got over her crying spell.

"I's gwine make a stable fo' my cat," answered the colored lad.

"Cat's don't live in stables! Dey lives in under de back porch," said
Arabella. "In a box."

"Cats do so live in stables, 'cause I done seen 'em!" declared Jeff.
"An' dey catches rats an' mice. I's gwine make a stable fo' my cat whut
I done got at de fire an' de p'liceman didn't see me!" and he laughed as
he thought of how he had fooled the officer.

Jeff hunted around in the woodpile until he found what he wanted. This
was a