.

"Peg took me out in the kitchen, dear... What do you think, Bobbie?"

Bobbie began to tremble.

"I got to go away from here ... eh?"

"Mercy, no!" laughed Jinnie. "Milly Ann's got a lot of new babies."

Bobbie gave a delighted squeal.

"Now I'll have something else to love, won't I?" he gurgled.

Jinnie hoped so! But she hadn't yet received Peg's consent to keep the
family, so when the little boy was dressed and she had combed her hair
and dressed herself, they went into the shop, where the cobbler met
them with a smile.

"Peg's mad," Jinnie observed with a comprehensive glance at Mr.
Grandoken.

"Quite so," replied Lafe, grinning over the bowl of his pipe. "She had
frost on her face a inch thick when she discovered them cats. I
thought she'd hop right out of the window."

"She says I must throw 'em away," ventured Jinnie.

"Cluck! Cluck!" struck Lafe's tongue against the roof of his mouth,
and he smiled. Jinnie loved that cluck. It put her in mind of the
Mottville mother hens scratching for their chickens.

"Hain't she ever said anything like that to you before, lass?" the
cobbler suggested presently.

"She said it about me," piped in Bobbie.

"An' about Happy Pete, too," added Lafe.

"I bet I keep 'em," giggled Jinnie.

"I'll bet with you, kid," said the cobbler gravely.

"I want to see 'em!" Bobbie clamored with a squeak.

But he'd no more than made the statement before the door burst
violently open and Peg stood before them. Her apron was gathered
together in front, held by one gripping hand; something moved against
her knees as if it were alive. In the other hand was Milly Ann,
carried by the nape of her neck, hanging straight down at the woman's
side, her long yellow tail dragging on the floor. The woman looked
like an avenging angel.

"I've come to tell you folks something," she imparted in a very loud
voice. "Here's this blasted ragtail, that's went an' had this batch of
five cats. Now I'm goin' to warn y' all----"

Bobbie interrupted her with a little yelp.

"Let me love one, Peggy, dear," he begged.

"I'm goin' to warn you folks," went on Peg, without heeding the
child's interjection, "that--if--you don't want their necks wrung,
you'd better keep 'em out of my way."

Saying this, she dropped the mother cat with a soft thud, and without
looking up, dumped the kittens on top of her, and stalked out of the
room.

When Jinnie appeared five minutes later in the kitchen with a smal