`` That beast is in torment , and whatever my opinion of him may be , I can not endure to see him suffering pain . You keep away , Rilla , for little Kitchener 's sake , and I will see what I can do . '' Susan stalked undauntedly into the kitchen , seized an old storm coat of the doctor 's and after a wild pursuit and several fruitless dashes and pounces , managed to throw it over the cat and can . Then she proceeded to saw the can loose with a can-opener , while Rilla held the squirming animal , rolled in the coat . Anything like Doc 's shrieks while the process was going on was never heard at Ingleside . Susan was in mortal dread that the Albert Crawfords would hear it and conclude she was torturing the creature to death . Doc was a wrathful and indignant cat when he was freed . Evidently he thought the whole thing was a put-up job to bring him low . He gave Susan a baleful glance by way of gratitude and rushed out of the kitchen to take sanctuary in the jungle of the sweet-briar hedge , where he sulked for the rest of the day . Susan swept up her broken dishes grimly . `` The Huns themselves could n't have worked more havoc here , '' she said bitterly . `` But when people will keep a Satanic animal like that , in spite of all warnings , they can not complain when their wedding bowls get broken . Things have come to a pretty pass when an honest woman can not leave her kitchen for a few minutes without a fiend of a cat rampaging through it with his head in a salmon can . '' CHAPTER X THE TROUBLES OF RILLA October passed out and the dreary days of November and December dragged by . The world shook with the thunder of contending armies ; Antwerp fell -- Turkey declared war -- gallant little Serbia gathered herself together and struck a deadly blow at her oppressor ; and in quiet , hill-girdled Glen St. Mary , thousands of miles away , hearts beat with hope and fear over the varying dispatches from day to day . `` A few months ago , '' said Miss Oliver , `` we thought and talked in terms of Glen St. Mary . Now , we think and talk in terms of military tactics and diplomatic intrigue . '' There was just one great event every day -- the coming of the mail . Even Susan admitted that from the time the mail-courier 's buggy rumbled over the little bridge between the station and the village until the papers were brought home and read , she could not work properly . `` I must take up my knitting then and knit hard till the papers come , Mrs. Dr. dear .
Knitting is something you can do , even when your heart is going like a trip-hammer and the pit XXXXX your stomach feels all gone and your thoughts are catawampus .
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