"i declare!" farmer green's wife cried one day. "somebody's been stealing my cream in the buttery."
the buttery was a big bare room on the shady side of the house, where great pans of milk stood on a long table. when the cream was thick enough on the milk mrs. green skimmed it off and put it in cans. at one end of the buttery there was a trap door in the floor. when the trap was raised you could look right down into a well. and into its cool depths mrs. green dropped her cans of cream by means of a rope, which she fastened to a beam under the floor, so the tops of the cans would stay out of the water.
mrs. green made butter out of that cream. so it was no wonder she was upset when she discovered that some one had meddled with one of her pans of milk.
"it can't be the cat," said farmer green's wife. "the buttery door has been shut tight all the time."
miss kitty cat was right there in the kitchen while mrs. green was talking to her husband. and it was easy to see that miss kitty agreed with her mistress. she came close to mrs. green and purred, saying quite plainly that she was a good, honest cat and that she deserved to be petted. at least, that was what mrs. green understood her to mean.
often, after that, mrs. green discovered traces of the thief in the buttery. flecks of cream on the side of a milk pan, drops of cream on the table, smudges of cream now and then on the floor! such signs meant something. but farmer green's wife couldn't decide what.
and another strange thing happened. miss kitty cat lost her appetite for milk. she would leave her saucer of milk untasted on the kitchen floor.
now and then mrs. green picked miss kitty up and looked closely at her face. at such times miss kitty purred pleasantly. she did not seem to be the least bit disturbed.
one evening, after dark, johnnie green went into the buttery to get a pail. the moment he opened the door there was a crash and a clatter inside the room.
johnnie jumped back quickly.
"there's somebody in the buttery!" he shouted.
but when his father brought a light they found no one there. a tin dipper lay on the floor.
"when you opened the door it must have jarred the dipper off the edge of the table," said farmer green.
"meaow!" said a voice behind them. there stood miss kitty cat, saying that everything must have happened exactly as farmer green said.
"she couldn't have been in here, could she?" farmer green puzzled. "come, kitty!" and he picked up miss kitty and held her where the light fell full upon her face. "clean as a whistle!" said farmer green. "i guess she just followed us in." he set her down again. and once more, with a plaintive meaow she agreed with him perfectly.
