American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-06-20
KITTY WHITE.


BY EDWARD ABBOTT.
DID you ever hear of girl named
Kitty?
The Kitty of this story was Kitty
White, who used to live with her mother
and sisters in pretty brown house in a
very busy town in the State of Michigan.
| Just where she lives now l cannot tell.
have known a good many nice little
girls, but never a girl, | think, who had
warmer friends than Kitty. Everybody
liked her, so good -natured she was never
cross, never ugly, always doing what she
had to do as we'll as she could, and dare
say quite as obedient to her mother as
| you are to yours.
where Kitty lived and the depot was
close by, too; and one day, without her
mothers knowing it, she strayed off down
| toward the depot A train of cars came
laundering by just then and she stood
still, listening to the noise and looking at
the dust that pulled out from the wheels
and the smoke that pulled up from the
locomotive. When the train had passed
she went on again. Presently she came
to some cars that were standing still on a
side track They were freight cars, long
and high and heavy, and into them from
the platform alongside were men rolling
barrels of flour. The door of one of the
cars little way off was open, and Kitty
could look in. But she could not see as
well as she wanted to.
After waiting a moment, finding that
nobody was watching, she mounted the
platform at some distance from where the
men were working, and cautiously went
not the car. Nobody saw her go in.
There was just about room enough for
her to squeeze in between two of the
barrels.
What funny place it was! All like 3
little dark house without any windows.
How many barrels there were-one, two,
three, four, five, six-ever so many, piled
one on top of another. What a nice play
house such car would have made for
Kitty and her sisters, if only they had
been there with her, and if the car had
been empty and the floor made smooth
and clean.
But what do you think Kitty's mother
would have said if she had known where
the little runaway was-down at the
depot, playing about among those terrible
cars?
All of sudden, while Kitty was look
ing about the inside of the car, at the
barrels, and the queer fiat roof overhead,
a man came along, and, before she knew
what he was doing, slid to the great heavy
door, and fastened it with loud clank;
and the very next moment the car began
to move.
Kitty was locked up in a great freight
car piled with flour barrels, one OF
train Just starting for a journey of 900
miles or so, from Michigan to Boston.
What should she do? 1fshe had known
the full extent of her calamity l dare say
she would have died with fright, but as it
was, never having Travelled in the cars,
and not knowing much about miles and
distances, she only cried out as loud as
she could, hoping that somebody would
hear her and let her out. But alas! there
was nobody to hear. The train had al
ready left the depot and was moving
faster and faster away. A grown man
might have called and called and called
from the inside OF a car on such heavily
rumbling train and not been heard;
much less would poor little Kitty be.
You may we'll believe, though, that she
did not stop crying because nobody heard
her and indeed at last she cried herself to
sleep.
L cannot stop to tell you in full of
her strange and terrible ride to Bos-
ton; how tired she got from the
constant noise, how sore from the
Journey over the rails; how all that
she had to eat during the long days
and nights of her Imprisonment was some
flour split from broken barrel, and all
that she had to drink was rain water that
door, Nor will l stop to tell you the feel
ings at home when Kitty was missed, and
did not return at dinner time, nor at tea
time, nor the next day even, and could not
be found, high or low; the only tidings
to be had of her being from neighbor
who said she saw her going down
the street toward the depot, all alone,
pretty soon after breakfast.
Poor Kitty had she been stolen, or was
she dead? Nobody knew.
Once OF twice the train stopped, and If
Kitty was awake at the time she would
call out as loud as she could, but there
was always a great deal of noise going
on by reason of the shifting of freight, and
she could not make herself heard. Be
sides, for lack of proper food and suffi-
cient rest, she was getting weak, and her
voice was not so strong as before this sad
adventure began.
At last, however, the train rolled into
great depot in Boston. The end of the
Journey had come. 1t was night, and
Kitty was fast asleep when the motion
ceased. She was so worn out that she
slept on, Notwithstanding, and did not
wake till the next morning, when she
was aroused by the opening OF heavy
door, very close to which she was lying.
"Well, WE'LL" exclaimed the man who
opened the door, when he saw her,
have you come all the way from MIchl.
gan on this car, l should like to know p
Kitty could not speak word.
you poor little thing" he continued,
show tired and hungry you must be!
But you've found deliverance at last I'll
take you home with me. My little girls
will be glad to see you"
And SO they were; and | dare say the
little stranger in her new Boston home is
just as good -natured and playful kitten
as she used to be in far-otf Michigan.
For Kitty White was nothing but
white kitten after all, and this story about
her is essentially true.-Christian Union.