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THE Cat sat on the roof of the veranda, licking frosting off his coat. He always liked things to be neat, so he had a good deal of washing to do on his busy days. But the frosting was delicious—not at all like the paint. The sun was shining. Two or three birds sang, "Cheer-up, cheer-up," in a tree near by. It was on just such days that the Cat enjoyed sitting all alone by himself on the roof, quietly watching everything.
Yet somehow this afternoon he was worried. He remembered the face at the window last night, and the smell in the morning which made him think of the Mate, and the door and window of the spare chamber which he had found so unexpectedly open. He felt responsible, for he alone had noticed these things, and he could tell no one of his anxiety, not even the Captain. If only Susannah had not shut the window, he would have visited all the rooms to see if anything were wrong with them. He was worried. He kept washing his whiskers long after the last bit of frosting was off them. He got a whisker down his throat and nearly coughed his head off. He got a whisker up his nose and nearly sneezed his head off. Then he stopped washing his whiskers and went to look in the windows of the spare chamber. Everything seemed in place. There was nothing more that he could do for the time being but forget about it.
From where he lay, he could see out over the harbor and watch the sails moving, and hear the put-putput of the motor launches. Once a sea gull flew over him with a fish hanging out of his bill. Several times he heard steps on the street and people went by. He watched everything they did, but they never saw him lying on the roof, with his toes sedately tucked in under his white shirt front.
About four o'clock the Captain's married daughter and her little boy turned in at the gate. They were coming for tea. They, too, passed right under the Cat but never thought to look up. He was looking down at them, though. He saw the flowers on the hat of the Captain's daughter, and the paper pinwheel Ted-Ted was carrying. He heard them knocking at the door and Susannah opening it suddenly, just the way the cuckoo used to open his little door.
The Cat stayed where he was. He hadn't been invited.
But suddenly he heard another sound. It was like a step in the spare chamber. Sh! what's that? The Cat ran to the windows, but he could see nothing unusual. Everything seemed in its place. Perhaps the Captain had come upstairs to get a handkerchief.