Gentle Julia | Page 6

asked.
"Whut you' Aunt Julia say when?"
"When you told her these were gray cats and not white cats?"
"She tole me take an' clean 'em," said Kitty Silver. "She say, she say
she want 'em clean' up spick an' spang befo' Mista Sammerses git here
to call an' see 'em." And she added morosely: "I ain't no
cat-washwoman!"
"She wants you to bathe 'em?" Florence inquired, but Kitty Silver did
not reply immediately. She breathed audibly, with a strange effect upon
vasty outward portions of her, and then gave an incomparably dulcet
imitation of her own voice, as she interpreted her use of it during the
recent interview.
'Miss Julia, ma'am,' I say--'Miss Julia, ma'am, my bizniss cookin'
vittles,' I say. 'Miss Julia, ma'am,' I tole her, 'Miss Julia, ma'am, I cook
fer you' pa, an' cook fer you' fam'ly year in, year out, an' I hope an'
pursue, whiles some might make complaint, I take whatever I find, an' I
leave whatever I find. No'm, Miss Julia, ma'am,' I say--'no'm, Miss
Julia, ma'am, I ain't no cat-washwoman!'"
"What did Aunt Julia say then?"
"She say, she say: 'Di'n I tell you take them cats downstairs an' clean
'em?' she say. I ain't nobody's cat-washwoman!"
Florence was becoming more and more interested. "I should think that
would be kind of fun," she said. "To be a cat-washwoman. I wouldn't
mind that at all: I'd kind of like it. I expect if you was a cat-washwoman,
Kitty Silver, you'd be pretty near the only one was in the world. I
wonder if they do have 'em any place, cat-washwomen."
"I don' know if they got 'em some place," said Kitty Silver, "an' I don't
know if they ain't got 'em no place; but I bet if they do got 'em any
place, it's some place else from here!"

Florence looked thoughtful. "Who was it you said is going to call this
evening and see 'em?"
"Mista Sammerses."
"She means Newland Sanders," Herbert explained. "Aunt Julia says all
her callers that ever came to this house in their lives, Kitty Silver never
got the name right of a single one of 'em!"
"Newland Sanders is the one with the little moustache," Florence said.
"Is that the one you mean by 'Sammerses,' Kitty Silver?"
"Mista Sammerses who you' Aunt Julia tole me," Mrs. Silver responded
stubbornly. "He ain't got no moustache whut you kin look at--dess
some blackish whut don' reach out mo'n halfway todes the bofe ends of
his mouf."
"Well," said Florence, "was Mr. Sanders the one gave her these Persian
cats, Kitty Silver?"
"I reckon." Mrs. Silver breathed audibly again, and her expression was
strongly resentful. "When she go fer a walk 'long with any them callers
she stop an' make a big fuss over any li'l ole dog or cat an' I don't know
whut all, an' after they done buy her all the candy from all the candy
sto's in the livin' worl', an' all the flowers from all the greenhouses they
is, it's a wonder some of 'em ain't sen' her a mule fer a present, 'cause
seem like to me they done sen' her mos' every kine of animal they is!
Firs' come Airydale dog you' grampaw tuck an' give away to the
milkman; 'n'en come two mo' pups; I don't know whut they is, 'cause
they bofe had dess sense enough to run away after you' grampaw try
learn 'em how much he ain't like no pups; an' nex' come them two
canaries hangin' in the dinin'-room now, an' nex'--di'n' I holler so's they
could a-hear me all way down town? Di'n' I walk in my kitchen one
mawnin' right slam in the face of ole warty allagatuh three foot long
a-lookin' at me over the aidge o' my kitchen sink?"
"It was Mr. Clairdyce gave her that," said Florence. "He'd been to
Florida; but she didn't care for it very much, and she didn't make any

fuss at all when grandpa got the florist to take it. Grandpa hates
animals."
"He don' hate 'em no wuss'n whut I do," said Kitty Silver. "An' he ain't
got to ketch 'em lookin' at him outen of his kitchen sink--an' he ain't
fixin' to be no cat-washwoman neither!"
"Are you fixing to?" Florence asked quickly. "You don't need to do it,
Kitty Silver. I'd be willing to, and so'd Herbert. Wouldn't you,
Herbert?"
Herbert deliberated within himself, then brightened. "I'd just as soon,"
he said. "I'd kind of like to see how a cat acts when it's getting bathed."
"I think it would be spesh'ly inter'sting to wash Persian cats," Florence
added, with increasing enthusiasm. "I never washed a cat in my life."
"Neither have I," said Herbert. "I always thought they did it
themselves."
Kitty Silver sniffed.