the back of the house was busy; no one but Eddo heard Zee's cries. He
ran to the maid to ask "what made the kitty sing so sorry?" Whenever she
mewed he called it singing.

The maid looked out then and threw down her mixing-spoon for laughing.
It was an odd sight to see a cat prancing about, waving her plume-like
tail with a clam at the end of it! Nancy was sorry for the kitten, but
did not know how in the world to get off the clam.

"Take an axe! Take a hatchet!" cried Mrs. McQuilken.

And without waiting for Nancy she seized a hatchet herself, split the
shell of the clam, and let poor kitty free.

When Kyzie got home from school, Mrs. McQuilken had just mended Zee's
bleeding member with a piece of court-plaster. All the boarders were
grouped about on the lawn and veranda talking it over. Mrs. Dunlee held
in her lap a very forlorn and crumpled little bundle of kitty; and Edith
and Eddo were crying as if their hearts would break.

"That beautiful, beautiful tail!" sobbed Edith.

"Don't be unhappy about it, darling," said Aunt Vi, "it will heal in
time."

"I know 't will heal, auntie; but what I'm thinking of is, won't it be
stiff? Aren't you afraid 'twill lose the--the--_expression of the
wiggle?_"

No one even smiled at the question; everybody tried to comfort Edith.