CHAPTER X

THE PURRERS BESTOW THE FREEDOM OF PURRINGTON

The instant that the last note of this song had died away the Purrers, of all sizes and colours, surrounded the wonder-stricken children. Much as she loved cats, Lois shrank against Rob, frightened by the unbelievable state of things.

A city of cats! Cats singing “Bonnie Dundee,” with real English words!

But as soon as Lois and Rob had had a moment in which to adjust themselves to the queer adventure befalling them, they found that they were beginning to have the best time of all their lives.

Madam Laura came up, saying: “My dears, you don’t know how glad we are—Doctor Traddles, Bidelia, and myself—to see you again.”

It was so funny to hear her speaking to them like a grown-up lady that Rob and Lois barely kept themselves from laughing. Then Lois said: “Why, you are the three cats we missed from our neighbourhood when Ban-Ban and Kiku-san disappeared! Look, Rob! Here is that beautiful tiger-cat—this lady calls him Doctor Traddles—and the little tortoise-shell who used to play so prettily—Bidelia, this lady says she is called. We are glad to see you, too; we were dreadfully worried about you.”

“If you will follow us to the city hall we have arranged to present you with the freedom of the city,” said Tommy Traddles, bowing his thanks for Lois’s anxiety about him.

“I wonder what that means,” Lois whispered.

“I’ve read about it; they used to do it in the Middle Ages,” Rob whispered back. “I don’t know what it means, but it’s a great honour.”

“Tommy Traddles is a scholar; he will tell you what it means, Rob,” said Ban-Ban, and Rob nearly tumbled down, he was so surprised to hear his own cat speak to him, for so far neither Ban-Ban nor Kiku-san had spoken directly to the children.

“It means,” said Tommy Traddles, promptly, not unwilling to reveal his learning, though he never tried to display it, “it means this: While you stay with us, and always on all the other visits which we hope you will make often, everything in Purrington is yours: our houses, our shops, our services are entirely yours. We desire to beg you to accompany us to the city hall to receive this freedom with proper ceremonies.”

“Thank you very much,” said Rob, a trifle dismayed at the prospect of taking part in public ceremonies in the cats’ city hall. “But I don’t understand what this city is, nor why Ban-Ban and Kiku-san brought us here. Would you mind telling us? Because we feel queer.”

“Haven’t you explained Purrington to them and why you sought them?” demanded Tommy Traddles, turning reproachfully to Ban-Ban.

“Why, how could I?” retorted Ban-Ban, “when I couldn’t speak to them so that they would understand till they had passed our gates? It was all we could do to get them to follow us here, wasn’t it, Rob?”

“It certainly was,” said Rob, feeling that he must be talking in a dream.

“Take Rob and Lois to your house—yours and Bidelia’s—and there tell them the story of how we came to be a city. They will like to see your house anyway, and we can delay the presentation of the freedom of the city for half an hour,” said Tommy Traddles, graciously.

“Come, Lois,” said Kiku-san, and Lois, recognizing the familiar cooing note in his voice, realized that he must have often said: “Come, Lois,” in the old days, before she had understood his speech.

She gladly accompanied the dear white cat, while Rob walked beside Ban-Ban.

“It tires me to walk long on my hind legs, Lois,” said Kiku-san, “or I would gladly take your hand.”

“I should like to carry you, if you wouldn’t mind,” said Lois, doubtfully. “We could talk more easily than if I had to bend down so very much—and I always carried you.”

“Certainly, you shall carry me, dear,” said Kiku, at once holding up his paws. Lois drew him to her breast, as she had done in her own home; Rob shouldered Ban-Ban, and thus they progressed comfortably, hearing without difficulty the story of the founding of Purrington, which was poured into their ears by their beloved cats.

“And that is why you went away!” cried Rob, admiringly, when Ban-Ban had finished the story. He regarded the Maltese with eyes of new respect as the founder of a refuge for the unfortunate ones of his kind.

“You darling, darling Kiku-san-chrysanthemum blossom!” Lois was saying, as she hugged Kiku closer. “You don’t know how I love you—and Bannie-boy! It is such a comfort to know that there is a place like this where cats can live happily ever after! I’m glad you did it, though I’ve cried myself ’most sick over your going off, and worried and worried! Our mothers tried to get Rob and me to have another kitten, but we just couldn’t look at another one! But it’s worth it all to have a city for poor, friendless cats!”

“Well, I should think we would be the protector, or whatever-you-call-it, of Purrington,” Lois heard Rob saying to Ban-Ban: “We’ll come out here once a week, and we’ll bring all kinds of things to you—Oh, say, Bannie, not to you, though! Won’t you come home again, and let Purrington be run by the Purrers without you? You’ve got it started, and Lois and I can’t stand it without you and Kiku-san.”

Ban-Ban put his mouth close to Rob’s ear and whispered.

“You’re the stuff!” Rob cried, joyously, and Lois knew it was going to be all right, even before Kiku whispered to her: “I couldn’t stay away from you to save my life, Lois. We’re going back when you do.”

The children could not get inside of Bidelia’s house, but they surveyed the rooms through the windows, and were delighted with the tiny, cosy arrangements, and its neatness. The three kittens were led forth by Bidelia, very beautiful to behold in fresh ribbons, but Puttel and Dolly each had a paw in her mouth for shyness. The instant they saw the children they forgot to be shy, but ran at once to them to be petted. Lois gathered Puttel and Dolly up into her neck, and here they remained through the ceremonies at the city hall, while Nugget, who was, now that he had been freed from Scamp’s influence, the same good, obedient little Nugget as of old, sat on Rob’s other shoulder, where Ban-Ban good-naturedly tolerated him.

The city hall had been hung with flowers—the late flowers of September—and all the Purrers were seated in the body of the hall when Rob and Lois arrived. Tommy Traddles, ’Clipsy, Wutz-Butz, and two of the old cats met them at the door and escorted them to the seats of honour on the platform, where Mrs. Brindle was already seated, as another distinguished and useful guest of Purrington, to Lois’s great dismay, for she was in mortal terror of a cow. But, when Ban-Ban and Kiku-san introduced Rob and Lois to Brindle, Lois saw at once that her fears were foolish. A sweeter-eyed, more gentle-appearing person than Mrs. Brindle it had never been her fortune to meet, and the Extract of New Mown Hay, and Sweet Clover with which she seemed to be perfumed made her sweet in another sense. So Lois took the chair placed for her between Rob and Brindle without a qualm, and looked at the meeting with the greatest interest. Such a lot of cats, and such nice, happy, sleek ones she had never seen before. Mr. S. Katz, the butcher, sat directly in front of the platform, and his prosperity stood out about his stout person like a rich garment.

“Please pinch me, Rob—not too hard,” whispered Lois, leaning over to hold out her little pink palm to Rob, as she realized that this was a cats’ City Hall, that this was a meeting held by cats to honour them, and that she was seated on the platform beside the cats’ cow, with her own Kiku-san, as well as Ban-Ban, Tommy Traddles, Wutz-Butz, ’Clipsy, and two other cats whose names she did not know on the platform with her as a committee.

“You pinch back,” whispered Rob, obediently giving Lois a little nip and then holding out to her his own square, brown hand.

It would be impossible to give the speeches made on this occasion. Doctor Traddles surpassed all his previous flights of scholarship in a review of the ancient custom of bestowing the freedom of a city upon those whom that city wished to honour. Rob and Lois found themselves bowing deeply to the assembled Purrers, and Rob made a speech of thanks, not nearly as long and clever as Tommy Traddles, but which was received with the kindest attention and applause by the Purrers.

Then Rob and Lois gave their solemn promise always to stand by Purrington, to visit it often, and in every way to give it the best of their advice and help, which would be more valuable every year as they grew from little children into big boy and girl, and then into manhood and woman-hood.

With this pledge, which the Purrers hailed with a perfect storm of shouts and applause, the ceremonies ended, and pure fun was the order of the day.

Rob and Lois went through all the streets, saw Tommy Traddles’s school,—through its windows, of course,—S. Katz’s shop, with its fresh food temptingly displayed for sale; the other shops, and all the houses, for not a Purrer of Purrington was there who would not have felt slighted if Rob and Lois had not visited his home.

The children rested in the park, which was right in the middle of the city, that afternoon, and Lois had never had such a beautiful, kitteny time in all her life. Every kitten in Purrington came out and got up into her lap, and over her shoulders, and sat on her back, their downy fur brushing her cheeks and hands and arms until Lois felt that she could hardly bear the delight of it, and Kiku-san did not half like it, for he always was a bit inclined to jealousy.

That evening there was a ball given in the hall, to which everybody went, even the smallest kitten, for this was a great day in the annals of Purrington!

First the kittens danced their funny, pretty cotillion figure which they had given at Bidelia’s tea, and Rob and Lois went nearly out of their minds with delight over it. Then all the cats came out on the floor to dance, and the children discovered that they should have to dance with each cat, Rob with the ladies, and Lois with the gentlemen, or else offend some one mortally. It was not clear to them at first how they should manage it, because there really was a great difference—more than three feet—between their height and their partners’! But when they discovered that they were expected to whirl about with their partners in their arms, it became very simple, though not any less queer to be waltzing one’s very best with a cat talking pleasantly in one’s arms;—light, society conversation, suited to one’s partner at a ball,—while a black cat played the violin for the dancing in a manner that would have made a cigar-store Indian “tread the mazy.”

It was a beautiful and painfully funny sight to watch the Purrers dancing together. They were so graceful, so full of the real waltzing spirit, that the children gave up all hope of ever again admiring human dancing. It was pleasant also to dance the square dances that night, with seven smiling cats making up the set! Rob and Lois did not once dance in the same set, to divide their attentions as much as possible. It was like a dream of a puss-in-the-corner game to cross over, balance corners, swing partners and opposites, when there came forward to meet you a large, beautiful, joyous cat, gaily bedecked with an immense bow. Lois reflected that her hair-ribbons were the only thing about her costume suitable to such a beautiful ball, and Rob’s stout gray cheviot knickerbockers and pleated jacket looked suddenly very clumsy, among the sleek and shining fur around him.

Suddenly the Purrers began to sing as they danced, and the children found themselves singing with them, though they did not understand where they had learned the words. For this is what they were singing, to the air of “Pop Goes the Weasel:”

“Paws around and forward and back, Balance to corners lightly; When pussy-cats the lanciers attack, It is a sight most sightly. Swing your partner, tails enlinked, Lady in the centre; Each beau must keep his whiskers prinked If he would content her.

“Paw to partner, right and left, Halt half-way for bowing; While you glide through, swift and deft, Keep the tune miauwing! Chassé all, a two-step dance, Each with partner mated, Then to supper gaily prance— You’ll find tables freighted.”