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and
the Captain
THE Cat was furious. Not a door or window of the house was open. He went to the front door and mewed. He went to the side door (which was almost never used) and mewed. Then he went to the back door and there he mewed loudest and longest.
He could hear Susannah walking around the kitchen, singing to herself. She was always humming to herself like a bumblebee. When something happened to make her excited, she made up songs, mostly complaining ones telling how she felt. The Cat knew that Susannah heard him there at her door with his feet in the damp and was glad to keep him out.
If only the Captain were home, he would call, "Susannah! Ship ahoy! Lower the gangway to take on passengers!" But the Captain had taken his cane and gone to see his married daughter. Goodness knows when he'd be back.
The Cat picked his way across the grass, shaking the wet off his feet, for it had been raining. Poor Cat, he hated it! He was thinking of the cushioned chair indoors by the fire where he loved to sit watching the flames with sleepy eyes and purring to himself. But he didn't feel like purring now. He climbed up the lilac bush. He knew just where to put each small paw, just how much spring to give, and how deep to stick his claws in the bark. He did everything beautifully. But the leaves shook raindrops down his neck and made him bristle his whiskers.
He climbed a low branch and looked in at the kitchen window. There was Susannah rolling dough for the biscuits the Captain liked. She was little and old and black, and she wore on her head a big red bandanna. When she saw the Cat, she began to laugh and point her finger at him. He could hear her singing:
What yo' want, Cat, starin' at me?
Yo' won't git hurted by a li'l' nice rain,
So when yo' gets tired, jus' yo' climb down again!"
The Cat saw it was no use. Susan nah did not like him, and he knew very well she had several good reasons for it. He mewed one last mew, just in case she should change her mind. Then he gave her a look, and went down the lilac, headfirst. He knew now he'd have to wait until the Captain came back, but he wouldn't forget Susannah's meanness—not he! He picked his way through the grass, lifting his feet high and walking around the puddles, and went in under the veranda by the little opening that only he knew about. There he sat, out of any one's sight, switching his big black tail.