`` Here 's a knot hole in the box , '' groaned Phil . `` I never saw it . That 's why he did n't die . Now , we 've got to do it all over again . '' `` No , we have n't , '' declared Anne suddenly . `` Rusty is n't going to be killed again . He 's my cat -- and you 've just got to make the best of it . '' `` Oh , well , if you 'll settle with Aunt Jimsie and the Sarah-cat , '' said Stella , with the air of one washing her hands of the whole affair . From that time Rusty was one of the family . He slept o'nights on the scrubbing cushion in the back porch and lived on the fat of the land . By the time Aunt Jamesina came he was plump and glossy and tolerably respectable . But , like Kipling 's cat , he `` walked by himself . '' His paw was against every cat , and every cat 's paw against him . One by one he vanquished the aristocratic felines of Spofford Avenue . As for human beings , he loved Anne and Anne alone . Nobody else even dared stroke him . An angry spit and something that sounded much like very improper language greeted any one who did . `` The airs that cat puts on are perfectly intolerable , '' declared Stella . `` Him was a nice old pussens , him was , '' vowed Anne , cuddling her pet defiantly . `` Well , I do n't know how he and the Sarah-cat will ever make out to live together , '' said Stella pesimistically .
`` Cat-fights XXXXX the orchard o'nights are bad enough .
From against by if in like of on to with