"Indade, miss, if you'll manage
for me to have the day I'll gladly stay to home to make ye welcome."
"Then it's settled, Patrick, and we'll make it the very first day Papa can
spare you. " The had raked down, while they had been having this conversation,
to close proximity to two pretty rows of apple-trees that had been left on the
front lawn, a reminder of the farm that "used to be," and the sight of the
trees brought a troubled look into Tattine's face. "Patrick," she said
ruefully, "do you know that some of the nests in these trees have been robbed
of their eggs? Four or five of them are empty now. Have you an idea who could
do such a thing?"
"Yes, I have an idea," and Patrick rested his hands upon the handle of his
rake and looked significantly towards the barn; "somebody who lives in the
barn, I'm thinkin'."
"Why, Joseph would not do it, nor Philip the groom, and little Joey is too
small to climb these trees."
"It's something smaller than Joey, miss. Whisht now, and see if she's not up
to mischief this minute."
Tattine's little black-and-white kitten, whose home was in the barn, had been
frisking about her feet during all the raking, but as the raking came under
the apple-trees, other thoughts came into her little black-and-white head, and
there she was stealthily clawing her way up the nearest tree.
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