Winterbound by Margery Williams Bianco

Author:Margery Williams Bianco
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Dover Publications

Garry Finds a Job

FREEZING still, but the bitterness had gone from the air. It was good to stand outdoors again, to be able to draw breath freely.

Edna drove over to see them. She had telephoned twice during the combined cold-and-flu siege to ask how they were getting along, but had not been able to visit.

“Just a lame shoulder,” she explained, “but I wouldn’t have dared try and hold the wheel straight over these roads. But I was bound to get up and see you all today, even if I had to drive with my teeth!”

Edna was resplendent in a new hat, a new scarf and sweater, and a pair of smart fur-lined driving gloves, a Christmas gift from one of her devoted “old ladies.”

“I put everything on to show you,” she laughed. “I got a pair of red bedroom slippers, too, and if it wasn’t for driving I’d have worn them. And that reminds me: back in the car there’s a Christmas present we got and couldn’t keep, because we’ve two like it already, so I brought it along for Caroline.”

“Couldn’t you get it exchanged?” Kay asked.

“Not this one you can’t. It comes in all sizes, but only one make.” She went back to the car and returned carrying a square grocer’s carton tied securely with twine. “Open it and see.”

Garry cut the string. There was a stirring and rustling inside, and a black suspicious nose poked out from a nest of tissue paper.

“A coon kitten from the state of Maine,” said Edna. “My aunt and uncle up there have more cats than you can shake a stick at. Every so often they send us one down. He runs a dairy farm there, and the barns are simply running with cats. Summer visitors always like them, so they get rid of a few that way. Uncle is always talking about getting his gun and clearing some of those cats out, but when it comes right down to it he wouldn’t touch a hair of ’em, and there’s plenty of milk and scraps going, so I guess they don’t bother anyone much. This ’un looked real smart to me, but we’ve two cats already and that’s too many for anyone living in town. I wish clothes lasted as long as cats do! Our old Susie will be thirteen next month.”

The coon kitten had hoisted himself out of the carton and was beginning a wary tour of the room. His long thick hair was jet black all over, his eyes a deep glowing amber. While Garry ran for a saucer of milk Kay exclaimed:

“Caroline will love him. He’s just like a Persian, only prettier. Are they always that color?”

“Black or yellow, mostly. Though there was a grand black and white with white paws I remember as a child; he used to run wild in the woods back of the house and no one could ever get near him. You’d just get a glimpse of him sometimes, along towards fall when the hunting began to grow scarce.

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