Henrietta Sees It Through by Joyce Dennys & Joyce Dennys

Author:Joyce Dennys & Joyce Dennys [Dennys Joyce]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781408813812
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

December 15, 1943

MY DEAR ROBERT

We have got a kitten. It is called General James Barton, after Brother James. We had to get it because of the mice, which had taken to scampering over our faces at night, but we felt rather apologetic to Perry, because his breed holds the Ratting Championship of the World, though the gift, somehow, seems to have passed him by. He did catch a mouse once, but only after Charles had hit it with a telephone directory. Perry was frightfully pleased with himself after this, his first kill, and carried the mouse, with low growls, to his basket, where he lay for the rest of the evening with one paw covering the corpse, and his head very erect, like the Monarch of the Glen.

The kitten is an entrancing creature with short grey fur and yellow eyes. When it arrived in its little hamper it began purring before we had got the lid open, and as soon as we lifted it out it made it perfectly plain that it liked us, and was pleased to come and live in our house.

‘Isn’t it adorable Charles?’ I said, as the kitten rubbed its little face against my cheek.

‘Not bad,’ said Charles, who pretends he doesn’t like cats.

The introduction to Perry was a ticklish affair. ‘Look, Perry, a darling little kitten!’

Perry looked at the kitten with disgust, and us with reproach.

‘Look, General James, a dear little black wog-pog!’

The kitten arched its back and spat, and Perry gave us a Look which said, ‘I know I am an Old Dog now, and no use to you, but you might have spared me this insult.’ Then he turned, and began walking out of the room.

The kitten scampered after him and caught him up before he reached the door. It ran round in front of him and barred his way. Perry stood rigid, looking over the top of its head. The kitten advanced two steps, and then put out a paw and patted Perry gently on the nose.

Perry looked at us in a bewildered way. ‘It’s all right, Old Man, it wants to be friends,’ said Charles.

Perry looked at the kitten, and the kitten again lifted a paw and laid it, light as a caress, on Perry’s cheek. Slowly Perry’s long, thin whip-tail began to wag, and Charles and I heaved great sighs of relief.

General James Barton had only been with us a week when he caught his first mouse. It was a very little mouse, hardly old enough to be out alone, but all the same it was a great triumph. He caught it behind the gas-stove while I was putting on the kettle for my hot-water bottle one night. He made a sudden dash, there was some dreadful squeaking, and he emerged with the mouse in his mouth like a sprouting brown moustache.

‘Oh, James!’ I cried. ‘The poor little thing!’

James gave me a malevolent gleam out of his yellow eyes and took the mouse into a corner, where he began doing quite dreadful things.

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