Mrs. Chinchilla was not a lovely lady, with a dress of soft gray cloth and a great chinchilla muff and boa.  Not at all.  Mrs. Chinchilla was a beautiful cat, with sleek fur like silver-gray satin, and a very handsome tail to match, quite long enough to brush the ground when she walked.  She didn’t live in a house, but she had a very comfortable home in a fine drug-store, with one large bay-window almost to herself and her kittens.  She had three pretty fat dumplings of kittens, all in soft shades of gray like their mother.  She didn’t like any other color in kittens so well as a quiet ladylike gray.  None of her children ever were black, or white, or yellow, but sometimes they had four snow-white socks on their gray paws.  Mrs. Chinchilla didn’t mind that, for white socks were really a handsome finish to a gray kitten, though, of course, it was a deal of trouble to keep them clean.

At the time my story begins the kits were all tiny catkins, whose eyes had been open only a day or two, so Mrs. Chinchilla had to wash them every morning herself.  She had the most wonderful tongue!  I’ll tell you what that tongue had in it:  a hair-brush, a comb, a tooth-brush, a nail-brush, a sponge, a towel, and a cake of soap!  And when Mrs. Chinchilla had finished those three little catkins, they were as fresh and sweet, and shiny and clean, and kissable and huggable, as any baby just out of a bath-tub.

One morning, just after the little kits had had their scrub in the sunny bay-window, they felt, all at once, old enough to play; and so they began to scramble over each other, and run about between the great colored glass jars, and even to chase and bite the ends of their own tails.  They had not known that they had any tails before that morning, and of course it was a charming surprise.  Mrs. Chinchilla looked on lazily and gravely.  It had been a good while since she had had time or had felt young and gay enough to chase her tail, but she was very glad to see the kittens enjoy themselves harmlessly.

Now, while this was going on, some one came up to the window and looked in.  It was the Boy who lived across the street.  Mrs. Chinchilla disliked nearly all boys, but she was afraid of this one.  He had golden curls and a Fauntleroy collar, and the sweetest lips that ever said prayers, and clean dimpled hands that looked as if they had been made to stroke cats and make them purr.  But instead of stroking them he rubbed their fur the wrong way, and hung tin kettles to their tails, and tied handkerchiefs over their heads.  When Mrs. Chinchilla saw the Boy she humped her back, so that it looked like a gray mountain, and said, “Sftt!” three times.  When the Boy found that she was looking at him, and lashing her tail, and yawning so as to show him her sharp white teeth, he suddenly disappeared from sight.  So Mrs. Chinchilla gave the kittens their breakfast, and they cuddled themselves into a round ball, and went fast asleep.  They were first rolled so tightly, and then so tied up with their tails, that you couldn’t have told whether they were three or six little catkins.  When their soft purr-r-r-r, purr-r-r-r had first changed into sleepy little snores, and then died away altogether, Mrs. Chinchilla jumped down out of the window, and went for her morning airing in the back yard.  At the same time the druggist passed behind a tall desk to mix some medicine, and the shop was left alone.