there is a meat-shop in the house. I have lived there a very long time. I make myself useful by driving off cats and dogs that come to steal meat. Of course I never steal. I do not need to. I am fed so well that I never know what it is to be hungry, and have no wish for mouse-meat or rat-meat. In fact the rats and I are such friends, I sit near them in the garret and watch their goings on in their families, and they never mind me at all.

“My good fortune came from knowing how to open doors. I will say no more, for I know the company wish to hear Madame Pussy Hunter’s story.”

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“I am chiefly an out-doors cat. I like to catch moles and field-mice and rabbits, and bugs, and butterflies. I like butterflies almost as well as Pussy Gray did. Poor Pussy Gray who was stung in the eye by a bumble-bee while watching for butterflies and went crazy! I am fond of birds too.

“In this I am different from the renowned Tabby Furpurr, who found out a way of not liking birds, and on that account had her picture taken and put in a frame!

“I was always a butterfly hunter, but not always a mole hunter, a field-mouse hunter and rabbit hunter. I will tell you how I happened to become a mole hunter, a field-mouse hunter, and a rabbit hunter.

“One day I went out among some tall flower stalks to catch butterflies, and got very tired of jumping, and lay down to take a nap under the flower stalks. I was just dropping off to sleep when I heard a noise and looked up and saw my sister coming. She asked me to go to her house and get some cream. She knew where there was a good deal of cream in a good place. She wanted me to open the pantry door. As my sister was anxious for me to go, I went, and we both enjoyed a hearty meal. We crept out of the pantry and then softly under chairs and tables to the passage-way. In that passage-way was my sister’s kitten playing with a ball of yarn. She pawed it, and clawed it, and pushed it, and tumbled heels over head over it, as kittens will do—ah, we were all kittens once! and at last she pushed it into a room. We peeped in at the door and saw the kitten leave the ball suddenly, and pop behind the screen. Her tail was very big, and her back was up, so we knew something had frightened her, and crept in to see what had frightened her. In the middle of the room was a great chair, and from that chair was something hanging down, something furry. We went near to see what it could 

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