The White Cat by Edith Nesbit — Read

The White Cat lived at the back of a shelf at the darkest end of the / inside attic which was nearly dark all over. It had lived there for / years, because one of its white china ears was chipped, so that it was / no longer a possible ornament for the spare bedroom.

Tavy found it at the climax of a wicked and glorious afternoon. He had / been left alone. The servants were the only other people in the house. / He had promised to be good. He had meant to be good. And he had not / been. He had done everything you can think of. He had walked into the / duck pond, and not a stitch of his clothes but had had to be changed. / He had climbed on a hay rick and fallen off it, and had not broken his / neck, which, as cook told him, he richly deserved to do. He had found a / mouse in the trap and put it in the kitchen tea-pot, so that when cook / went to make tea it jumped out at her, and affected her to screams / followed by tears. Tavy was sorry for this, of course, and said so like / a man. He had only, he explained, meant to give her a little start. In / the confusion that followed the mouse, he had eaten all the / black-currant jam that was put out for kitchen tea, and for this too, he / apologised handsomely as soon as it was pointed out to him. He had / broken a pane of the greenhouse with a stone and. But why pursue the / painful theme? The last thing he had done was to explore the attic, / where he was never allowed to go, and to knock down the White Cat from / its shelf.