neighborhood, doing with those cats? This sudden query shattered
her dream completely. She returned the miniature to the
treasure-box, and closed and latched the cover.

"Goodness knows," murmured Janice Day, "there are cats enough
around this house without Arlo Junior bringing any more upon the
premises. Sometimes I hear them squalling and fighting when I
wake up in the night."

With the treasure-box in her hand, she opened her bedroom door
and crossed the hall to the storeroom. The window of this room
was over the back porch. She heard a step on the porch flooring.
The door of the summer kitchen was seldom locked. Was Arlo
Junior down there?

That boy was constantly getting into trouble with the neighbors.
There was a regular feud between Olga Cedarstrom and Arlo Junior.
Olga had chased him half a block only the other day, threatening
him with a broom.

And the cats! Here they came from all directions--over
the back yard fences and from the barn. Fat cats, lean cats,
shabby "ash-barrel" cats, and pet cats with ribbons and collars.
Amazedly, Janice Day owned to herself that she had never seen so
many cats gathered in a more or less harmonious group before.

Instead of fighting or "mauling," they approached the back porch
of the Day house as though on pleasure bent. Was that Arlo Junior
giggling down there?