Chapter III: Friends

ONE night when Katy was coming home, she met a girl by the name of Sally Dike, who lived in the same alley. Sally was a red-haired girl about ten years old, with a freckled face and a very big mouth. It seemed to be able to do more work than most mouths, for Sally managed in one way and another to keep it employed in eating the greater part of the time. As Katy passed along, Sally caught sight of a bit of mince pie. Now mince pie was what Sally hungered after more than almost anything else. She was afraid to snatch it out, because Peter had taught her a lesson on that point by means of kicks and cuffs. So she looked very smilingly at Katy, and said:

"Say, Katy Hanks! Don't you want to come into my house and see my little cat?"

"My name isn't Katy Hanks; it's Katy Hunter."

"Well, what's the odds; I say, don't you want to see my cat? If you do, come along in here."

And the door of Sally's home was stretched invitingly open.

A kitty! Oh, she had not seen or touched a kitty in such a long time, and she remembered a dear little white one she used to have, so Katy looked before and behind to see if she could see anything of Peter, and then slipped softly in at Sally's door. There, curled up in a chair, was a forlorn-looking gray kitten.

Katy forgot everything else; she put down her basket and took the kitty and smothered it and hugged it and kissed it. In the meantime, Sallie helped herself to the mince pie and whatever else she could find that suited her in Katy's basket.

"See here, Katy," said Sally, "whenever you bring me home something real good to eat, some pie and such, you may come in here nights and see this cat."

Katy hesitated; Nancy and Peter were fond of nice things, too, and people did not give of dainties plentifully to beggars. They always scolded her when she had not a good share of them, and charged her with eating them herself. But she promised she would when she could, for she wanted to come and see the kitty so much.

So it happened after that, that Katy, instead of going to bed when she got home, went in to play with kitty, if sitting in a corner with kitty in her lap could be called playing, calling it pet names and hushing it to sleep. She always carefully treasured up some nice bit for kitty from the basket, and it was something to look forward to all day. Doubtless kitty looked forward to it with pleasure as well, for she was a poor, half-starved thing.

Katy had found something to love. If it had been kitty's company only that Katy found at the Dikes', but she began to be quite intimate with Sally and Jane Dike, and they were bad, coarse girls, and often had a company of boys and girls ruder and wickeder than themselves gathered there. So Katy mingled in scenes that she never had before. They counted her in, and tried to make her drink some beer, but she never did that, although she was beginning to be poisoned. She used to be afraid of telling a lie, but now it did not seem so bad to her, neither did the coarse language and the rude oaths seem as bad as they did at first, and she would often laugh with the rest over things that, young as she was, her conscience told her were very wicked.

The little heart was forgetting all about "Jesus, tender Shepherd," that she used to pray to. The little lamb was so far away from the Shepherd that she did not hear his voice any more.

One morning as it drew near spring, Katy went as usual to a large handsome house to ask for cold pieces. It was a warm, bright morning, and the front windows were wide open. The lace curtains were blown about by the soft air, but it was something besides curtains that made Katy stop and stare so. A little girl about her own age stood looking down the street. She did not see Katy, so that poor little thing had time to look at her. She had wavy golden hair hanging over her shoulders. Her skin was so white and her cheeks so rosy that Katy said to herself, "She looks just like candy." Her dress was of soft blue cashmere, and she had a pretty little white ruffled apron on.

As she stood there, she sang a line of a hymn two or three times over,—

"Jesus loves me, this I know."

"Yes," thought Katy, "I guess he does love her, so pretty, and such nice clothes, and lives in such a big house. He loved me a little when I had good clothes and was clean. Then I s'pose the bigger house they live in and the nicer clothes they have, the more He likes them."

And Katy stood and looked at the handsome house and wished so much that she could live in such a place. As she went slowly on her way, she kept thinking about it and wondering why that little girl lived in a nice house and had pretty clothes, and she lived in a cellar and wore, oh, such dirty rags.

"How warm and nice the sun shines to-day," she said. "I s'pose He made the sun for the rich folks, too, but I'm glad there is so much of it they can't use it all up."

And the little one sat down on the edge of the curb-stone, and spread out her hands in the sun, and enjoyed it like a poor, half-frozen little pussy that she was.

For many days she watched to get another glimpse of the little girl who stood in the window, and she began to be afraid she would never see her again, when one morning, just as she was turning away, the same little girl came skipping down the broad stone steps dressed for a walk. It made Katy breathe very fast to be so close to her.

Daisy Grant looked at Katy and said:

"What is your name?"

"Katy."

"What are you going to do with all those pieces in your basket?"

This made Katy blush, for she had not yet become used to being a beggar, so she said, with her eyes on the ground:

"Take them home for dinner."

"Don't you have anything but them for dinner? I'll ask my papa to send you some roast beef. Why don't your papa buy you nice dinners?"

"I haven't got a papa."

"Well, your mamma, then."

"My mamma is dead, too."

"Oh, dear! No papa and no mamma. I should think you would die yourself. Don't the cold come in bad, in the holes in your shoes? And I do declare! You haven't got any stockings on. I mean to ask my mamma if you can't have some of my clothes, I have so many."

Just then a handsomely dressed lady came down the steps and took Daisy by the hand and they walked away.

One more brightness had come into Katy's life. She was eager to get out in the morning now to see if she might get a look at the little girl that she thought of by day and dreamed of by night.

And Daisy, too, was on the lookout for Katy. She had told her mother an eager story about the little Katy with "such pretty eyes," and begged to be allowed to give her some clothes. But Mrs. Grant was accustomed to hear just such stories every day, so she did not pay much attention to Daisy's request. But Daisy herself did not forget to do what she could. Sometimes she would come to the basement door and slip a little cake into Katy's hand; sometimes two or three little flowers from the conservatory, and once she put into her hands a mysterious little parcel done up in paper.

Katy hurried away to a place where she might sit down and undo her treasure. Oh! Could she believe her eyes? It was a little doll with a pink dress. True, it had lost a foot and its nose was almost worn off; it had seen hard service, but its eyes were left, and they were blue like Daisy's, and it had some tangled locks of curly yellow hair left, too. Katy hugged and kissed it, and wrapped it up carefully and went on her way, a very happy little girl.

As she went along, her little head was planning how she should get dolly in without Nancy and Peter finding it out, for she had learned to know that anything they could lay their hands on was sold. If only they would be out or asleep!

So Katy went softly in with her prize under her shawl. Sure enough they were both out, and she uncovered her dolly and feasted her eyes upon it. It was almost as good as having a kitty, and this was her very own, too, and she should sleep with her every night. So dolly was safely tucked away in her bed. Then Katy sat down by her and patted her and sung a little low song to her. She had not felt so happy in a long time. She did not go over to see the Dikes at all that night, but soon lay down to sleep with dolly in her arms.