Читать книгу White Paws and Brownie - Eva Demoore - Страница 5

When the cat brought the brownie to the house, he didn’t know where to hide the child.

At first he decided to place him under Ervin’s bed. But the brownie constantly ran out from under the bed. Besides, Ervin always looked under the bed before going to sleep to make sure there was nobody. Then the cat thought about Rexy’s dog-house. But the brownie refused to live there. He said that brownies had to live in a house. Then the cat offered him to move into a washing machine. The brownie answered that he didn’t want to be washed together with laundry by accident. The cat promised his little friend that on Saturdays, when mum washed laundry he would take him out of the washing machine quietly and walk in the attic. But the brownie said that it was more interesting to do it in the house than in the attic. So if the cat wanted to walk him, let him walk him in the house. The cat couldn’t walk the brownie in the house. So he suggested to use for walking the old wardrobe where mum kept her favorite old things. She looked there very seldom perhaps once a month to wipe off dust as not to let moth to live there. The cat thought that even when she looked there she wouldn’t notice the brownie, because he might hide in a pocket of the old raincoat. Mum didn’t put it on for a long time. Dad didn’t let her wear old things. But mum didn’t throw them away, anyway. She liked them and that is why she put them into the wardrobe accurately. They all were so clean and soft. And the wardrobe was so spacious and comfortable. Even the cat liked to be there. It wasn’t only clean, softly and roomy there. It was dark there in the day time. And when White Paws wanted to sleep in the day time, he went and hid himself in the wardrobe.

White Paws told the brownie what a nice place for living he had found for him. And the brownie immediately agreed. He liked everything there: the wardrobe itself, the old things and even the pocket in the raincoat, where he could easily hide from mum.

But the wardrobe was very old. And its door was very creaking. The cat didn’t think about it at first. He placed the brownie there, but the latter one couldn’t sit there inside the wardrobe. So, he began to creak the door getting into the wardrobe and then getting out of it. And the whole family began to suspect something. That is why, the cat started urgently to look for another place for the brownie.

He remembered that there was a big pig in the hall. To be more exact, it wasn’t a pig. It was a money-box in the shape of a pig. Ervin placed it near the entrance for father not to forget to throw a coin there when he came back from his work. Sometimes father even put some bonds there.

And the pig was rather large. And for dad to be able to throw there big coins, Ervin made there a big hole. So, the brownie easily got through that hole. It was very good there too. First of all, the pig didn’t creak. Second, nobody watched TV in the hall, like they did

in the living room and nobody prepared dinner there, like in the kitchen. In fact, there was nothing there at all, except for shoes where one could hide, if someone came unexpectedly.

The brownie liked to live in the pig. He covered himself with bonds, which also were there and for more softness he put several bonds under his head and back. And when it was dull for him to sit there doing nothing, the brownie began to count coins. He put them in piles and they fell down from the tops of the piles and jingled. The brownie liked to count money so much, that he almost didn’t get out of the money-box. And the more he counted the more he liked it. He completely forgot about secrecy and started to count money when the whole family was at home. The coins jingled. The cat shuddered. Ervin ran to the money-box. But he couldn’t see anything there, because the brownie covered himself with bonds. Ervin shook the pig and the brownie was shaken together with coins. When Ervin became certain that all the coins were still there, he went back to the kitchen. And the cat stayed in the hall and reminded the brownie about necessity of secrecy. And when he had to do it for the fifth or even for the sixth time, the cat didn’t stand it and moved the brownie to another place. He dragged the brownie out of the money-box and put him into the first suitable place he saw. And that place was a pot on a bookshelf. The pot was red with spots. And though it was meant for preparing food, it was so beautiful that mum kept it on the shelf as an ornament. It had been there for a long time already.

At first it was empty. But then mum put petals of roses into it. And when the cat put the brownie down into the pot, the brownie lowered down on the rose petals. And he liked that place more than he liked the money-box. That was why since then he lived there. Besides, it was more interesting to live in the living room, than in the hall. There was always somebody there. And in the evening the whole family gathered there together. And the brownie heard everything they talked about. And he also saw everything. He even managed to watch TV. Everyone watched TV and the brownie wanted to watch TV too. He looked out of the pot to see if anyone was looking in his direction. And then he got out of the pot half way, so as he would see everything. Then they agreed with the cat that the cat would make signs for the brownie. If he mewed three times it meant “wait a bit”. And if he mewed five times it meant “everyone is watching TV already and you may get out a little”.

That helped the brownie to understand the situation in the living-room, and the cat was not nervous that the brownie might suddenly jump out. That is why both White Paws and Brownie were happy, that they found such a wonderful dwelling for Brownie: a pot with petals of roses. Only the family wondered why the cat started to mew so often.