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 of your stomach feels all gone and your thoughts are catawampus . Then when I see the headlines , be they good or be they bad , I calm down and am able to go about my business again . It is an unfortunate thing that the mail comes in just when our dinner rush is on , and I think the Government could arrange things better .
But the drive on Calais has failed , as I felt perfectly sure it would , and the Kaiser will not eat his Christmas dinner XXXXX London this year .
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