Part 3 (1/2)
”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 be dropped down inside her. But this Cat isn't that kind.”
”I should hope not!” thought the China Cat, while Aunt Clara was looking her over. ”Not that I don't consider my cousin, the Match Cat, as nice as I am,” she told herself, ”but I'm just different; that's all! I hope I may go to live with this little girl. I shall be able to keep myself spotless and white in her home, I'm sure.”
But the China Cat was not yet to leave the toy store. And there were some strange adventures soon to happen, as I shall tell you.
”Well, Jennie,” said Aunt Clara, as she again let the little girl take the China Cat, ”if you think you want this toy you may have it. But we will not take it with us now. I have some other shopping to do, and if we carry the Cat with us something may happen to her.”
”Oh, can't I take her now?” pleaded Jennie.
”No, my dear,” her aunt answered. ”Mr. Mugg will put her aside for you, and I will come in to-morrow and get her.”
”Yes, I'll save the China Cat for you,” promised the toy man.
”If I may be sure of having her I don't mind,” said Jennie. ”But we must be sure and come after her to-morrow, Auntie.”