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"Cats!" Florence cried "Are there cats in that basket, Kitty Silver? Let's look at 'eer, slie slightly beyond kittenhood They were of a breed unfamiliar to Florence, and she did not obey the i cat at sight and caress it Instead, she looked at them with some perplexity, and after a moment inquired: "Are they really cats, Kitty Silver, do you b'lieve?"

"Cats what she done tole me," the coloured woman replied "You betta shet lid down, you don' wan' 'em run away, 'cause they ain't yoosta livin' 'n 'at basket yit; an' notrue: they wile cats!"

"But what ?" Florence asked "I never saw cats with hair a couple inches long like that"

"Miss Julia say they Berjum cats"

"What?"

"I ain't tellin' no mo'n she tole me You' aunt say they Berju I've seen plenty Persian cats My goodness, I should think you'd seen a Persian cat at yow age Thirteen goin' on fourteen!"

"Well, I have seen Persian cats plenty tiht Persian cats hite, and these are kind of gray"

At this Kitty Silver per!" she said "These cats, they white; yes'ray as----"

"No' white, else you' Aunt Julia gone out her ray cats' 'White,' she say 'Them two cats is white cats,' she say 'Them cats been crated,' she say 'They been livin' in a crate on a dirty express train fer th'ee fo' days,' she say 'Theot all smoke' up thataway,' she say 'No'm, Miss Julia,' I say, 'No'm, Miss Julia, they ain't no train,' I say, 'they ain't no train kin take an' sray clean plum up to they hide' You betta put the lid down, I tell you!"

Florence co cats fro out of the basket, but she did not fasten the cover Instead, she knelt, and, allowing a space of half an inch to intervene between the basket and the rim of the cover, peered within at the occupants "I believe the one to this side's a he," she said "It's got greenisher eyes than the other one; that's the way you can always tell I b'lieve this one's a he and the other one's a she"