Presently a neighbor's cat came stealing along the fence, keeping one eye on Malta and the other on the sparrows.
Malta was so angry! She sprang up and chased her away, and then came back to the platform, where she lay down again and waited for the sparrows to come back.

For a long time she stayed there, and never once tried to catch them.
Miss Laura was so pleased.

She went to the door, and said, softly, "Come here, Malta." The cat put up her tail, and, meowing gently, came into the house.

Miss Laura took her up in her arms, and going down to the kitchen, asked Mary to give her a saucer of her very sweetest milk for the best cat in the United States of America.
Malta got great praise for this, and I never knew of her catching a bird afterward.

She was well fed in the house, and had no need to hurt such harmless creatures.
She was very fond of her home, and never went far away, as Jim and I did.