HITTY – HER FIRST HUNDRED YEARS

RACHEL FIELDWINNER OF THE NEWSBERY MEDAL

CHAPTER 1In Which I Begin My MemoirsThe antique shop is very still now. Theobold and I have it all to ourselves, for the cuckoo clock was sold day before yesterdayand Theobold has been so industrious of late there are no more mice to venture out from behind the woodwork. Theobold isthe shop cat--the only thing in it that is not for sale, which has made him rather overbearing at times. Not that I wish to becritical of him. We all have our little infirmities and if it had not been for his I might not now be writing my memoirs. Still,infirmities are one thing, and claws are another, as I have reason to know.Theobold is not exactly a bad cat, but he is far from considerate. Besides, he is prowlishly inclined and he has the mostpowerful claws and tail I have ever known. Then, just lately he has taken to sleeping in the shop window with his head on thetray of antique jewelry. If Miss Hunter could have seen how narrowly he missed swallowing one of the garnet earrings whenhe yawned night before last, she would be very uneasy indeed. But Miss Hunter has had Theobold ever since she opened theantique shop and she seems to set great store by him for his trying ways. Miss Hunter has a good many queer ones of her ownand I must say that I felt a little

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, as Phoebe Preble'e mother used to say, at first over her habit of poking and peeringand turning everything upside down. One grows used to this in time, though it wasn't what I was brought up to consider thebest manners. But Miss Hunter means well and if she decides you are genuine there is nothing she will not do for you. That iswhy after she found me knocked off my chair and on my nose three different mornings she said she would run no chanceswith such a valuable old doll but would take me out of the window each night before shutting up shop.So here I am in the midst of her very untidy desk with my feet on a spattered square of green blotting paper, my back against