Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-11-07
ID urr w h e n
You're Pleased

ly unlike than these two! The one
had an open, loving heart which never
could contain itself in it's joy, but
purred it out at once to all the world;
the other scarcely ever purred at all,
and that never above it's breath, let
him be as happy or as fond as he
would.
Every morning, for instance, when
the nice, curly-headed little boy
brought the kittens a saucer of milk
from his breakfast, there was sure to
be a disturbance over the purring
question. For, even before the sauc-
ers had reached the floor, Miss Pussy
was sure to be there, tail and head
erect, and eager, singing her loudest
and best, her whole throat vibrating
visibly; while Master Pussy, on the
contrary, took his food, but said very
little about it, or, if he ever attempt
ed to express his natural delight, did
it in so low tone that nobody could
hear without putting their ears close
down to him to listen
The little boys cousin, pale and
quiet and silent as she was, would
often take Miss Pussy on her knee and
nurse her for half an hour at time,
stroking her so gently and kindly. How
could any one help purring?
Or the boy would tie string with
a cork at the end of it to the drawer
handle of table, so that the kittens
could paw it and pat it and spring at
it as they pleased. How was it pos
sible not to give vent to ones delight
in the intervals of such game, when
the thing was swinging from side to
side before their very eyes, inviting
the next bound?
When there was nothing else to be
pleased about, there were always their
own tails to run after; and the fun
was surely irresistible, and well de-
served song.
At last change came into their
lives. One day their friend, the Gully
headed boy, came bounding into the
kitchen where Mother Puss and her
kittens we're asleep, in raptures of de-
light, followed by the pale, quiet, 81
lent cousin, as quiet and silent as ever.
The boy rushed to the kittens at once,
took up both together in his hands,
laid one over the other for fun, and
then said to the girl: Cousin, now
they're going to give us the kittens
for our very own, just tell me which
you like best-really. I'm so afraid
you won't choose for yourself when
they ask you; and then, if I have to
choose instead, l shant know which
you would rather have. ] want you to
have the one you like most. So do tell
me beforehand" ;;
ooh, like them BOTH" answered the
girl, in the same unmoved, Indifferent
tone in which she generally spoke.
$50 do l." replied her cousin; "but
know which I like best, for all that.
I wonder whether you like to have
the kittens at ALL" added he, looking
at the pale child little doubtfully.
Cousin dear, wish could see by
your face when you are pleased. See,
give a smile when the one you like
best goes by. Oo!-won't you?-this
once-just for once!"
1t was in vain. He passed the kit
tens before her in success sion, that she
might see the markings of their fur;
but still she only said she liked both,
and, of course, was glad to have kit
ten, and so on, until at last he was dis
heartened and asked no more.
It is a great distress to some people
when their friends will not purr when
they are pleased; and, as the children
went back together to the drawing
room, the little boy was the sadder of
the two, though he could not have ex-
planned why.
Then just what he expected hap
pened, The choice between the two
kittens was offered first to the girl,
but. instead of accepting it as a favor,
and saying THANK YOU for it, and be-
ing pleased as she ought to have been,
she would say nothing but that she
liked both, and it could not matter
which she had. Nobody would have
thought she cared for having either at
all.
Presently her aunt said that, as she
did not care, the boy should choose.
He colored with vexation; but, when
he sought his cousins eyes again and
again in vain for some token of her
feelings, he laid sudden hold on Miss
Pussy, and cuddled her against his
cheek, enchanting
"Then | will have this one. like
her much the best, mother, because
she purrs when she's pleased"
Then the little girl took up Master
Pussy and kissed him very kindly, but
went away without saying another
word.
But at the end of week, one sun
shiny morning, when the boy was rid
ing his fathers pony and only the lit
tie girl was in the house, her aunt,
suddenly into the school room,
discovered her kneeling by the sofa,
weeping a silent rain of tears over
the fur coat of Miss Pussy, who was
purring loudly all the time; while her
own kitten, Master Pussy, was lying
sound asleep, unnoticed, by the fire.
The time had come at last and Miss
Pussy pointed the moral; for, with her
aunts arms folded round her and a
sense of her comforting tenderness
creeping into her heart, she owned
that she had fretted all the week in
secret Enthusiastically because-it
was so miserable to nurse kitten
who would not purr when he was
pleased!
Anybody may guess how nice it was,
ten minutes afterwards, to see the lit
tie girl, with the reused color of warm
feeling on her cheeks, smiling through
her tears at the thought of how like