The cat came close and brushed around Ann Mary so she took it up in her
lap; and wrapped the shawl around it, and felt a little comforted.
She sat there on the door-step and held the cat until it was quite
dusky, and she was very stiff with the cold. Then she put down the cat
and prepared to go home. But she had not gone far along the road when
she found out that the cat was following her. The little white creature
floundered through the snow at her heels, and mewed constantly.
Sometimes it darted ahead and waited until she came up, but it did not
seem willing to be carried in her arms.
When Ann Mary reached her own house the lonesome look of it sent a chill
all over her; she was afraid to go in. She made up her mind to go down
to Sarah Bean's and ask whether she could not stay all night there.
So she kept on, and Loretta's white cat still followed her. There was no
light in Sarah Bean's house. Ann Mary knocked and pounded, but it was of
no use; the old woman had gone to bed, and she could not make her hear.
Ann Mary turned about and went home; the tears were running down her
cold red cheeks. The cat mewed louder than ever. When she got home she
took the cat up and carried it into the house. She determined to keep it
for company, anyway. She was sure, now, that she would have to stay
alone all night; the Adamses and Sarah Bean were the only neighbors, and
it was so late now that she had no hope of her grandparents' return.
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