She said that laugh
was the most awful and the saddest thing she ever heard.
"Well, she was so dumfounded that she didn't know what to do, and
she couldn't sense at first that it was anything supernatural. She
thought it must be one of the neighbour's children who had run away
and was making free of their house, and was teasing their cat, and
that they must be just nervous to feel so upset by it. So she
speaks up sort of sharp.
"'Don't you know that you mustn't pull the kitty's tail?' says she.
'Don't you know you hurt the poor kitty, and she'll scratch you if
you don't take care. Poor kitty, you mustn't hurt her.'
"And with that she said the child stopped pulling that cat's tail
and went to stroking her just as soft and pitiful, and the cat put
his back up and rubbed and purred as if he liked it. The cat never
seemed a mite afraid, and that seemed queer, for I had always heard
that animals were dreadfully afraid of ghosts; but then, that was a
pretty harmless little sort of ghost.
"Well, Mrs. Bird said the child stroked that cat, while she and
Mrs. Dennison stood watching it, and holding onto each other, for,
no matter how hard they tried to think it was all right, it didn't
look right.
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