The cats' Arabian nights, or, King Grimalkum
“When I could stand on all my feet the great cat carried me in her mouth to a house and a girl let me come in, and I was that girl’s kitten. She held me a great deal. Once when I was crawling on the floor, the boy walked across and he stepped on me so hard that I was all out flat, and they took me up on a shovel and carried me out to another room to stay till I could be buried. Next morning the girl came out there crying because her kitten was dead. The boy came with a shovel to bury me; but I was crawling on the hearth. The boy said, ‘Hurrah for Pixie!’ and the girl hugged me and kissed me.

“I Was Scared.

“One day the boy took something off the stove, and tied the dog to it and told the girl to carry me to ride; and she put me in and tried to carry me to ride, but it was too warm, and I was scared of riding in it, and jumped out and ran with all my might through the house and up-stairs, and hid in a closet. The closet-door got shut and I stayed there. I had nothing to eat. I mewed all the time, but the people were far away. When I could not mew any longer I dropped down. There was nothing left of me but my skin and my bones. When the people found me they took me out-doors to bury me. They put me in the sunshine and in a little while I opened my eyes. I was close to the hens’ clams, and I ate some and crawled away from that place, and the boy carried me into the house, and I got well.

“Mornings I scratched on the girl’s door and when I was let in I jumped upon her bed and played with her nose and with her toes, and sat on her and purred loud.

“A white cat lived in that house. She was not my girl’s cat. She was the small girl’s cat. She could not purr. She had no voice to purr. The small girl put the white cat’s ear close to my mouth and said, ‘Purr like Pixie!’ and the boy rubbed her paws together, to make her purr, and squeezed her tail softly and stroked her, but she did not purr. She had no voice to purr.

“The white cat and I played together with the balls and the spools and the hammock strings and the knitting-work, and sometimes Pomp, the dog, played with us. The dog liked to play. When the small girl stayed in the hammock to sew her work and see picture books, the white cat used to stay in the hammock or close by, and take a nap; but the boy used to come and make her jump, and sometimes Pomp came there and jumped in the hammock.

“When the white cat grew older she had some kittens. I had not had any kittens. She was taken much notice of. The white cat lost all her kittens 
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