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 with a becoming blush. She was a woman who did not outgrow her feelings.

"Well," Grandma went on, "Topsy was about as fierce a cat as ever lived. I declare for 't, I do believe the critter'd rather fight than eat any day. But there was one cat he was friends with, and that was Miss Gibbs's Jericho. Jericho he was a master-hand at fightin' too, and it's more 'n likely that them two tabbies had had one good pitched battle to begin with. But whether or no, there 'peared to be a kind o' bond o' union betwixt 'em. They'd sit nose to nose on that board fence sunnin' themselves by the hour. Sometimes they'd blink at each other and wave their tails about kind o' gentle an' innocent. Then agin' they'd go off to sleep jest as confidin' 's a pair of turtle-doves. Now you mark my words, Lizzie; it'll be jest so with Dick and his father. They're too well matched to fight often. They may have it out once or twice before they come to reason, and I don't say 'tain't goin' to be pretty lively for you. But there'll never be any small naggin' and domineerin' betwixt 'em, and when once they're settled down friends, it'll take a good deal to set 'em onto each other."

Old Lady Pratt was right about this as she was about most things, and before she went to her rest she had the satisfaction of seeing her grandson and his young epitome living as comfortably together as Topsy and Jericho in the sun.

As Dick grew up it was really delightful to see