Page:Sparrow, the tramp (IA sparrowtramp00wess).pdf/35

 said to the barn-cat; "and when Hannah leaves the kitchen you just dart in, seize your kitten, and run off with it."

The barn-cat hardly waited to hear the last words, and ran around to the kitchen door. She had hardly arrived there when she heard Polly call "Hannah!" so exactly like Mrs. Winton that Hannah dropped the broom with which she was sweeping the floor, and answering, "Yes, ma'am," hurried into the dining-room.

In darted the barn-cat, caught up her darling in her mouth, and had it back in her own nest in the barn before Hannah had discovered how Polly had "fooled" her, as she called it.

But when the house-cat came home from her visit, imagine what was her surprise and grief to find one of her babies gone!

"That barn-cat!" she exclaimed, "I believe she has stolen it because it's so much prettier than her common-looking babies.