Page:Sparrow, the tramp (IA sparrowtramp00wess).pdf/44

 sure she will find a way to help her out of her troubles. If her wise head can't, I don't know whose can."

"Well," said Mrs. Polly, "I should have done so long ago if our friends here hadn't taken up so much time in disputing. Now, little gray kitten, tell us all you know about yourself,—where you were born, and how it happens that you are left alone in this big world to take care of yourself."

"I can't remember very much about myself," began the little gray kitten in a plaintive voice, "but I know we were always poor. My mother worked very hard to support us, for the woman who kept us was very mean and never gave us anything to eat. I have heard my mother say she was the meanest woman she ever knew. She said she had heard her say that she kept a cat to get rid of the rats and mice, and that she expected her to earn her own living."

"Well," interrupted the barn-cat, "that