ence in their appearance. It might have been 

 one of Calico's own nursing that lay there dead, 

 so far as any one save Calico could see. And 

 with her the difference, I think, was more of 

 smell than of sight. But she knew her own ; and 

 though she often found her two out among the 

 trees of the yard, she never was mistaken, nor 

 for an instant made as if to hurt them. 



Yet they could not have been more entirely 

 squirrel had their own squirrel mother nurtured 

 them. Calico's milk and love went all to cat in 

 her own kittens, and all to squirrel in these that 

 she adopted. No single hair of theirs turned 

 from its squirrel-gray to any one of Calico's 

 three colors ; no single squirrel trait became the 

 least bit catlike. 



Indeed, as soon as the squirrels could run 

 about they forsook the clumsy-footed kittens 

 under the stove and scampered up back of the 

 hot- water tank, where they built a nest. When- 

 ever Calico entered the kitchen purring, out 

 would pop their heads, and down they would 

 come, understanding the mother language as 

 well as the kittens, and usually beating the kit- 

 tens to the mother's side. 

 [86] 



