Tabby's travels E-Book

Lucy Ellen Guernsey

• Herausgeber: Librorium Editions
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

I SUPPOSE a pleasanter kitchen was hardly ever seen than the one in which my story commences. It was not one of those under-ground places, with little square windows close to the low ceiling, and on a level with the street, or shut in by a grim area-wall, in which so many girls spend all their working time, without being able to see so much as a square foot of sky, except by twisting their heads half off their shoulders. No, it was a high, light room, with two large windows, which let in so much light and air that the geraniums and verbenas on the window seats flourished as if they had been in a green-house; and looking out upon a square yard, small to be sure, but kept so nicely, and in summer so filled with flowers that it was a pleasure to look into it. There were no flowers or other growing things to be seen, however, at the time our story commences, for the ground was frozen hard, and covered with a light snow, which a cold wind was driving here and there, and twirling high up into the air, till the flakes caught the sunbeams and glittered like showers of diamonds.

Leseprobe

TABBY'S TRAVELS

OR

The Holiday Adventures of a Kitten.

BY LUCY ELLEN GUERNSEY.

© 2025 Librorium Editions

ISBN : 9782385749613 

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER FIRST.

TABBY'S ESCAPE

CHAPTER SECOND.

THE WARRINGTON FAMILY

CHAPTER THIRD.

THE PARTY AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

CHAPTER FOURTH.

AGNES'S REWARD

CHAPTER FIFTH.

THE HARD ROAD

CHAPTER SIXTH.

THE RIVER

CHAPTER SEVENTH.

THE POLICE OFFICE

CHAPTER EIGHTH.

CONCLUSION

TABBY'S TRAVELS.

TABBY'S TRAVELS

CHAPTER FIRST.

TABBY'S ESCAPE.

I SUPPOSE a pleasanter kitchen was hardly ever seen than the one in which my story commences. It was not one of those under-ground places, with little square windows close to the low ceiling, and on a level with the street, or shut in by a grim area-wall, in which so many girls spend all their working time, without being able to see so much as a square foot of sky, except by twisting their heads half off their shoulders. No, it was a high, light room, with two large windows, which let in so much light and air that the geraniums and verbenas on the window seats flourished as if they had been in a green-house; and looking out upon a square yard, small to be sure, but kept so nicely, and in summer so filled with flowers that it was a pleasure to look into it. There were no flowers or other growing things to be seen, however, at the time our story commences, for the ground was frozen hard, and covered with a light snow, which a cold wind was driving here and there, and twirling high up into the air, till the flakes caught the sunbeams and glittered like showers of diamonds.

It might be cold out of doors, but it was warm enough in the kitchen, where a good fire was burning in the stove, making the tea-kettle send out clouds of steam, and the cover of the boiler pop up and down as if there were something alive under it which wanted to get out. Dorothy the cook, and Anne the housemaid, had gone into the dining-room to family prayers, and three cats—that is to say, a cat and two kittens—were the only inmates of the kitchen.

The old cat was sitting up in Dorothy's patchwork cushioned chair, washing her face very demurely and sedately, at the same time keeping her eye on the kittens, that they might not get into any mischief, and be whipped by the cook when she came down stairs—an event which, I am sorry to say, had happened more than once. The two kittens, whose names were Tody and Tabby, were frolicking round the floor, chasing their own and each other's tails, and twisting round and over the rungs of the chairs, till any one might have thought they would certainly have broken their necks. Tody was black and white. His breast, paws, and the tips of his ears and tail were as white as snow, while all the rest of his body was jet black, and shone like satin. He was a very pretty kitten indeed, but not so pretty as Tabby, who was a true tortoise-shell. Her face and paws were also white, but the rest of her body was curiously mottled with yellow, black, and grey, disposed in spots and stripes, while her tail was regularly ringed with black and yellow down to the tip, which was white. She was a very beautiful kitten indeed, but not so neat as Tody, for her fore-paws were blackened, and there was a great black mark on the side of her face.

"Miaw!" said Tody presently. "Don't bite so hard, Tabby, you hurt me!"

"You always think you are killed, if any one touches you," said Tabby, pettishly. "You have bitten me a great deal harder than that many a time, and I did not mew at all. However, I am not going to play with you if you are going to quarrel all the time." And with these words, Tabby went and sat down by the fire in a very dignified manner.

Tody looked rather sorry, but he did not say anything. He got up in the chair, by the side of his mother, and began licking her face and head, now and then playfully biting her ears and pulling her tail.

"I should think mother could wash her own face without any of Tody's help," said Tabby, after watching them a few minutes discontentedly.

"I should think mother could govern her own kittens without any of Tabby's help," returned the old cat good-naturedly, straightening herself up in the chair, and rolling Tody over with her paw. "And, by the way, talking of washing, what makes your paws so black?"

"I don't know, I am sure," said Tabby, hastily sitting down, and folding her paws under her. "I must have got them dirty playing about the fire, I suppose."

The old cat jumped down from the chair, and going up to Tabby, pulled her paws from under her breast, looked at them, smelt them, and then said, in a tone of grave displeasure: "Tabby, you have been playing among the coals again!"

Tabby did not attempt to deny it. She hung down her head, and looked very much ashamed.

"You have been playing in the coal-box again, though you know I forbade you to go near it," pursued her mother, very seriously; "and worse than that, you have been running over the cook's baskets, and have left the marks of your black paws upon her clean napkins, which were folded and sprinkled, ready for ironing. I should not wonder if she should whip you, and make you go without your breakfast, and I should not blame her if she did.

"I really don't know what will become of you, Tabby, if you are such a naughty kitten. Only the day before yesterday you pulled the raw turkey off on the floor, and ate half of its neck. And last Sunday morning you jumped upon the breakfast table, and turned a cup of coffee all over the clean cloth. You will surely come to a bad end, my daughter, if you are so heedless and disobedient. Once I knew of a kitten who would persist in getting on the table and into the pantry, and one day the coachman tied her in a bag, with a stone round her neck, and threw her off the railway-bridge. The river was very high, and she was carried over the falls and drowned."

At the thought of his dear little sister going over the falls in a bag with a stone tied round her neck, Tody turned quite cold all over. He jumped down from the chair where he had been sitting, and came to his mother.

"Dear mother, pray don't say such dreadful things as that," said he, with tears in his eyes. "I am sure Tabby will be a good kitten, and do as you tell her—won't you, Tabby, dear?"

But Tabby made no answer, and went on licking her paws, trying to look as though she did not care, and the old cat, seeing how sulky she was, called Tody away to sit up among the plants in the sunshine, leaving Tabby to her own thoughts by the side of the fire.

Tabby felt very naughty indeed. It was not the first time nor the second that she had been in mischief that week, and she had been twice whipped, once by the cook, for pulling down the turkey, and once by Miss Sophia, in the drawing-room, for jumping upon the commode, and knocking down a little china cup. It was very pretty and round, and Tabby thought she should like to roll it about the floor. She was frightened enough when she saw it break all to pieces, for she knew how much the family valued this cup, which had been sent home by Mr. Edward, all the way from Japan, whither his ship had gone: so terrified, indeed, was she that she forgot to run away, and so Miss Sophia caught her, and gave her a good whipping with her little whalebone riding-whip which hung in the hall.

The worst of it was that no one was sorry for her but Tody; even her mother, though she licked her all over and did what she could to comfort her, told her that she was served right for going where she had no business, and Tabby, instead of confessing that she had been a naughty pussy, and resolving to do better in future, thought herself a very ill-used cat. She made up her mind that nobody loved her, and that all the world had a spite against her, so that when Tody came to console her, and brought her a little mouse which the stable-boy had caught and given him, she snatched it up growling, and carried it off without so much as saying "Thank you."

She had often been told that she must not play among the coals, and it was difficult to see why she was so fond of doing so, but all her mother's admonitions and cuffs did no good. This very morning she had jumped into the bin after a feather which she saw there, and had chased it up and down among the coals, till all the under part of her body was as black as the coal itself. She had succeeded in getting rid of most of it, but her paws were too dirty to be cleaned with one washing, and she had kept out of the way, hoping her mother would not observe them till the tell-tale colour had worn off.

Presently the cook and housemaid came down from prayers bringing the breakfast dishes with them, and Dorothy, scraping the contents of the plates together upon a large dish, and pouring some milk into a bowl, called all the cats into the outer kitchen, and set the provision down before them. There were well-buttered rolls, some pieces of cold ham and chicken, and quite a quantity of hash, enough to satisfy any reasonable cat, one would think. But Tabby was not in the humour to be pleased with anything.

"I should think they might have fresh fish for breakfast, sometimes," she said peevishly, turning over the contents of the plate with her paw. "We have not had a bit of fish since I can remember."

"It is not the season for fish," said her mother, "but there is a piece of cold chicken for you. I should think that was a very nice breakfast for a kitten."

Tabby murmured something about being sick of chicken, but took the offered piece nevertheless, and ate it all herself without offering to divide with Tody, who was very contentedly munching his cakes and hash. She ate so greedily, indeed, that she almost choked herself, and was reproved by her mother for her ill manners. This filled up the cup of her discontent, and she felt as though she would like to do almost anything that was naughty.

All the morning she sat sullenly by the side of the fire, resisting all the attempts of Tody to entice her into a game of play, and brooding over her fancied wrongs, till she really convinced herself that she was the most ill-used kitten in the whole world. She would not even go up stairs when little Ella and Marian called them all into the nursery for a frolic, and she ran and hid behind the boiler in the cellar, when Ella came after her the second time.

"Go along then, you contrary little thing," said Ella, after she had coaxed and called in vain, till her patience was exhausted. "I never saw such a kitten in my life. I don't see, for my part, how such a little cross-patch ever came to be Tody's sister." And away she ran, leaving Tabby to come out when she got ready, which she did with her paws blacker than ever, and a great smudge on her side, where she had rubbed against the pots.

"O Tabby! Why didn't you come up stairs?" said Tody, when he came into the kitchen some time afterward. "You don't know what a nice time we had. Miss Ella rolled her glass balls and marbles all over the floor for us to play with, and gave mother and me each a piece of pound-cake."

"I suppose you would not have saved any for me for the world," said Tabby scornfully.

"I was going to bring you part of mine," said Tody, "but mother wouldn't let me. She said you ought to come when you were called, and if you did not, you must take the consequences."

"Mother thinks I am the very worst kitten that ever lived in the world," said Tabby, tears of vexation coming into her eyes, as she thought of the pound-cake and the pretty glass balls, her favourite playthings, all lost by her own perversity. "I do believe she would be glad if I were dead and out of the way. But never mind," she continued, not heeding Tody's exclamation of horror at this wicked and undutiful speech; "I shall not be in her way very long. I am not going to stay where I am abused all the days of my life."

In fact, Tabby had thought over her imagined wrongs, till all her musings and broodings had resulted in a settled purpose. She had made up her mind to run away! Yes, to such a pitch had her perversity arrived that she had determined to leave the kind mother and brother who loved her so dearly, and the friends who had fed and petted her ever since she was born, and go out into the world to seek her fortune. Now, what the world was like, she had no idea. She had never been outside the garden-walls, except when her mother had once or twice taken her and Tody to a neighbour's barn to give them a lesson in mousing, and the only persons she had ever seen besides Mrs. Merriam's family, were the little girls who sometimes came to see Miss Ella and Miss Marian, and the butcher's boy who now and then gave her a piece of meat out of his basket.

Tabby was a self-willed kitten. She had a great deal of perseverance too, and would never give up anything she attempted till she had tried every way to attain the object of her wishes. She knew very well that she should have no trouble in accomplishing her ends this time, for her mother was accustomed to go out for a walk every afternoon, leaving her and Tody to take care of themselves. Tody usually took a nap in the window seat, and nothing would be easier than, while he was fast asleep, for her to slip out of the kitchen when the door was opened, run along the garden-wall to the neighbouring house, which was on the corner, and then jump into the street and go where she pleased.

Having thus made up her mind to escape from what she considered the evils of her lot, and seeing clearly how to bring it about, she was inclined to be very good-natured, and was so playful and pleasant the rest of the morning that her mother thought she was sorry for her perverseness, and had made up her mind to be good; and very glad she was to see it, for whatever Tabby might imagine in her naughtiness, if her mother made any difference between her kittens, she loved Tabby the best.

Tody was naturally of a very placid and cheerful disposition, and had given her very little trouble. He had also a strong constitution, and had never seen a sick day, while Tabby was delicate from her birth, and for some days her mother had considered it doubtful whether she would ever live to get her eyes open. Then she had had two very bad fits in her infancy, and she was almost two months old before she began to grow strong and hearty. This circumstance induced not only her mother, but all the family, to bear with her infirmities of temper, and treat her with great indulgence, and she had been allowed to do many things which would have insured a sentence of banishment against any other cat. She was exceedingly handsome, and very playful when in a good humour, and the children were quite as fond of her as of Tody, who was never out of temper, and always ready for a game of romps.

But all this had no influence upon Tabby. She had been so mischievous lately that it had been absolutely necessary to punish her more than once. But instead of seeing that it was her own fault and amending her ways, she had made up her mind that she was a very ill-used cat, and would be better off almost anywhere else than at home. This feeling had been brewing in her mind for some time, and the events of the day had brought it to such a point that she was determined to act upon it. How she did so, and what adventures she met with, we shall see hereafter.

As Tabby sat down to her excellent dinner of bread and meat, she could not help having some misgivings, when she reflected that she did not know where she was to get her supper, nor whether she were likely to have any, but she had made up her mind, and she was not a kitten to be easily frightened. So she made a hearty meal, and took a good drink of milk and water as a provision for her journey, and then began to put her fur in order, watching impatiently for the time when she might leave all her troubles behind her and escape to that unknown future which her fancy pictured to her in such gay and attractive colours.

She had not to wait long. As if to favour her designs, her mother went out earlier than usual, telling the kittens that she might be gone till after tea, and giving them a great charge not to get into any mischief. It was the day but one before Christmas. The cook was busy baking mince-pies, stuffing her turkey, and getting all things ready for the Christmas feast. The young ladies of the family, Miss Sophia and Miss Fanny, were finishing up their presents, frosting cakes, and making preparations for the children's party on Christmas eve, and the little girls, Ella and Marian, were too happy in being allowed to help to care anything about playing with the kittens.

It was about three o'clock in the afternoon. The sun was shining brightly and it looked very pleasant out of doors, but in the house it was necessary to keep up large fires to make the rooms comfortable. Tabby watched her opportunity when the cook went out into the yard, and slipped out after her, hiding behind the rose-bushes till she went into the house and the door was shut. Then she jumped up on the wall, skipped along the top till she came to where it joined the back-wall of her next neighbour, and was just about to jump over, when, to her consternation, she beheld her mother sitting below under some grape-vines, in company with two or three other cats of the neighbourhood. She drew back in haste, afraid lest her mother might have seen her, and sat for some moments hardly daring to breathe. Presently she ventured upon another peep. The mother had not stirred, but was busily engaged in conversation with her friends, and Tabby took courage. Instead of crossing directly into the next street, however, as she had at first intended, she jumped over into the garden which joined the back of Mr. Merriam's, crept along under the wall, then jumped over into the next and the next, nor did she look round till she had put at least half a dozen gardens, and quite a long street, between herself and her fond mother and happy home.

She was now in quite an extensive garden, much larger than any she had passed through, and planted with a variety of evergreens, and other trees and shrubs, such as she had never seen before. Among them was one covered with large bunches of crimson berries, and around this were gathered many robins, some of which were perched on the branches, while others perched on the snow, picking up the berries which had fallen on the ground. Tabby wagged her tail and chattered her teeth with pleasure at the sight.

"Now for a famous supper," she said to herself, as she crept softly forward in the shadow of a large cedar tree. "If I can get one of these nice large birds, and I am almost certain I can, I need not envy Tody his supper of milk and cold toast. I think cold toast is miserable stuff myself. Now for it!" said she, as, crouching close to the ground, and wriggling her body, she prepared for a spring, already tasting the game in anticipation.