82 THE UGLIEST ONE.

get out? There was no way but jumping from the window,
which seemed impossible.

The little beast was put back again, and again, and again
into the loft; the ladder was moved and trap-door shut; but all
that evening wherever Ruth went she was haunted by Fitz-
Griffin, who would follow. It was the strangest thing! If we
played in front of the house, on the broad gravel-drive, there
would the kitten mysteriously appear, sitting up in front of her,
pawing the air and begging to be taken up. When we went
away to the back garden, or down all the way to the far
shrubbery, it was just the same.

As soon as it was carried back again and shut up in the
loft, it began to cry plaintively. It seemed as if it could not
bear out of its sight the little girl who had saved it from
starvation and misery. People talk of the worship of ‘a dog for
its master, but I have never seen anything like the love of that
stray kitten for my sister Ruth.

After it had been put away and had reappeared aboutt-seven
times, we hid ourselves in the lilac bushes near the stable as
soon as Ruth had once more taken it up the ladder, fastened the
trap-door, and left it. We were determined to find out how it
managed the matter.

First of all we could see little pussy come to the open
window and watch Ruth’s retreating figure with a doleful
sound. Then it began to pace up and down the opening by thie
window, its voice getting louder and more hollow every moment,
till at last with a shriek of utter despair, as if it were saying
good-bye to life, it fairly flung itself from the window; to our
horror and astonishment, legs and tail all spread Aor as if it
were trying to fly. Kitty came to the ground a trifle dazed,

seemingly, but quite unhurt; picked itself up, and _ trotted|
manfully off to the spot where Ruth’s boots were sticking out of