THE ABUSED KITTEN. 
18 
Miss 'Winston did not wait to hear more. 
She gave the kitten into Annie’s charge, 
and hurried Dick into the house to change 
his clothes and to examine the wound on 
his face, which looked quite formidable. 
She was very much relieved to find that it 
was only a bad bruise and had not touched 
his eye, though it had narrowly missed it; 
and when she had made him comfortable 
she went to the nursery, whither she had 
sent the other children. Here she found 
Annie with the kitten in her lap, and the 
other children standing by, looking on with 
faces of the deepest interest as she carefully 
rubbed and dried its wet and dirty form 
with a piece of warm flannel,—an operation 
which the kitten seemed to enjoy very much, 
for she purred, and combed with her claws 
the piece of blanket on which she was 
lying, and looked up into Annie’s face with 
half-shut eyes, as if she were very thankful. 
Presently she jumped down, and went of 
her own accord to the bowl of milk pro¬ 
vided for her; and, after drinking as much 
as she wanted, she began to explore the 
room, examining the furniture, as is the 
custom of cats brought into strange places. 
