The Arizona sentinel. [volume] (Arizona City [Yuma], Yuma County, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1872-1911, 1894-01-06

kitten walked demurely up the steps
and sat down before her and began to
wash his face.
$50 home,'' said Miss Lucia, severely.
$50 home, sir!"
The white kitten curled over and
kicked up its feet, and played with the
hem of her dress.
"You ought to 60 home," said Miss
Lucia, family.
Presently he found her ball of yarn,
and rolled over it and tangled it into
hopeless snarl. Miss Lucia leaned back
and laughed at him softly. She gave
him some milk and sent him back over
the wall.
The next morning she came out to
the porch, and there, curled up sound
asleep in her rocking-chair, lay the
white kitten.
Miss Lucia looked at him helplessly.
Then she sat down en- the steps and fell
to thinking. Reuben Spofford would
be very angry if he knew where his pet
spent most of its time. And it should
not-a soft furry body came creeping
up over her shoulder and rubbing itself
oO1b Pl4h SAACOh. n oAAehAh
paw caught fallen tress of hair.
The white kitten declined to go home
at all. He enjoyed himself at Miss
Lucia's for two days. Then one morn
ing his master came around to the side
porch and there he saw the white
kitten climbing up over Miss Lucia's
shoulder. The morning sun shone upon
her head, turning the stray tendrils to
golden. She was laughing merrily. ~
Reuben blushed and stammered some
thing unintelligible. Miss Lucia turned
quickly and the crimson surged up in
her face also. She felt as if she had
stolen the white kitten.
eyes," she said, hurriedly, ''he-he
would not go home. 1 tried to make
hir."
She held out the kitten to him, and
Reuben Spoford thanked her and went
away.
The kitten stayed at home for a week.
Miss Lucia knew he must be shut up
in some room, for the pltcous occa-
sional walls she could hear went to her
heart. -
perhaps, Martha" she said, ''per-
haps they forget to feed him sometimes.
It's too bad"
The white kitten escaped at last. He
came back to Miss Lucia When next
she saw Reuben. .Spofford pass, she ran
out to him and handed him his pet.
~ But it was of no use. 1t came to pass
that nearly every evening Reuben Spof-
ford was obliged to come over to Miss
Lucia's and take home the kitten. The
white kitten was a larger ball of furri
ness than ever. He had not any name
except Puss, but he did not seem to
mind about that. And by degrees it
began to seem quite natural that Reu-
ben Spofford should call for his pet,
and sometimes tarry little. After
awhile the two even joked little, in a
half embarrassed way, about the pref
erence of the white kitten for Miss
Lucia.
But Puss did not remain a kitten al
ways, and when he became big, soft,
contentcd cat, lying upon the rug in
from: of Miss Lucia's fire, and just at
her feet, it was not so easy to take him
home, for he decidedly objected, and
mentioned the fact quite loudly.
Then Reuben Spofford offered him to
Miss Lucia, as he had done several times
before. ..=
"You might as well take him." he
said, looking at her very earnestly.
''You see he won't stay with me-"
''Oh, could not rob you of your pet"
she said "You-you think SO much of
him"
"Yes," he said. ''But, see now, Miss
Lucia, you had better take him. He is
only happy with you"
She looked at him with troubled eyes.
She knew it was true.
81 don't know what to do about it,
she said. II don't want you to give him
up to me-"
Reuben Spofford suddenly forgot
about the old feud, and how long they
had been at war.
WELL he said, there is another
way. You-you can take me, too-if
you will"
Miss Lucia turned her head aside with
q little startled movement. He was re-
garding her So earnestly.
The movement awoke the white cat
at her feet. He rose, stretched him
self and arched his back, and in his
own audacious fashion elm bed right
into Miss Lucia's lap, and curled him
self up to sleep again.
And of course that settled it.-Times-
Democrat