Budge and Toddy 23 
beautiful kitty! Won’t you let her stay?” Then 
he put me very tenderly back into the basket. 
“ She looks so much like our old Meow,” said 
the lady, “ I think we will keep her.” You can 
imagine that this made me very happy. 
They named me “ Meow,” and the other two 
cats were “ Budge ” and “ Toddy.” They were 
Maltese. 
For a time Budge and Toddy acted anything but 
friendly toward me, but as they were bigger than I, 
I just kept very quiet, while they stood by the edge 
of the basket, humping their backs, bristling their 
tails and grinning at me to their hearts’ content. 
Pretty soon mistress came out with our breakfast, 
and they ran to meet her; but I remained in the 
basket until invited to join them. I was glad mis- 
tress stayed while we ate, for Budge gave an angry 
growl every now and then, and Toddy tried his 
best to crowd me out of the dish. But the break- 
fast tasted good just the same, because a day’s fast- 
ing had made me very hungry. 
I saw at once that Budge and Toddy were very 
well-bred cats, for they washed themselves as soon 
as they had finished the meal, just as my dear 
mother had taught me to do. But being in a new 
