“I’m going to look here, Flossie!  Maybe there’s kittens in it!”

“Oh, let me see!” exclaimed the little girl.  Forgetting, for a time, the stray cat they had started to pet, she and her brother ran over to the little box-like house.

“Better look out!” exclaimed Flossie, as they drew near.

“Why?” asked Freddie.

“’Cause maybe there’s a strange dog in that box.”

“If there was a dog in this yard I guess this cat wouldn’t have come in here,” replied Freddie.  “The cat ran when the other dog barked, and there can’t be a dog here, else the cat wouldn’t come in.”

“I wonder what’s there?” murmured Flossie.

“We’ll soon find out,” her brother said, as he bent over the little house, which was made of some boxes nailed together.  There was a tiny window, with a piece of glass in it, and a small door.

Freddie began to open the little door, and he was not very much afraid, for now the cat was purring and rubbing around his legs, and the little boy felt sure that there could be no dog, or anything else scary, in the box-house, or else the cat would not have come so close.

“Maybe there isn’t anything in there,” suggested Flossie.

“Oh, there’s got to be something!” declared Freddie.  “It’s a place for chickens, maybe.”

“It’s too little for chickens,” said Flossie.

“Well, maybe it’s a place for——­”

That is as far as Freddie got in his talk, for, just then, a voice called from somewhere behind the children: 

“Hi there!  What do you want?”

“Oh!”

Freddie and Flossie both called out in surprise as they turned.  They saw, standing on the back steps of the big house, a boy about as big as Bert.

“We came in after this cat,” said Freddie, and he pointed to the stray pussy that was rubbing against his legs.

“Is it your cat?” the boy wanted to know.

Flossie shook her head.

“We just followed after him,” she said.  “He was out on the street, and we saw him, and we got down to rub him, and he heard a dog bark, and he ran in here, and we ran after him.”

“Oh, I see,” and the boy on the back steps smiled in a friendly way.  “So it isn’t your cat.”

“No,” answered Freddie, “Is it yours?”

The boy shook his head.

“I never saw the cat before,” he answered.  “It’s a nice one, though, and maybe I’ll keep it if you don’t want it.”

“Oh, we don’t want it!” Freddie said quickly.  “We have a cat of our own at home.  His name is Snoop.”

“And we have a dog, too,” added Flossie.  “But his name is Snap.  And we have Dinah and Sam.  Only they aren’t a cat or a dog,” she went on.  “Dinah is our cook and Sam’s her husband.”

“Where do you live?” the boy asked.

“Oh, away off,” explained Freddie.  “We live in Lakeport, and we go to school.”

“Only now there isn’t any school,” went on Flossie.  “We can’t have a fire ’cause something broke, and we came to Washington.”