rabbit did."

"Well, we must be going," said the man; and as he started away he picked
up the net and swung it over his shoulder. The prisoners struggled madly
again, and the boy, who walked along the forest path a few steps behind
his father, watched them.

[Illustration: "THE PRISONERS SCAMPERED AWAY."]

"Daddy," he said softly, coming to the man's side, "I don't want to keep
those rabbits."

"Oh, they'll make us a good dinner," was the reply.

"I--I couldn't eat 'em for dinner, Daddy. Not the mama rabbit and the
little one she tried to save. Nor the dear little squirrel that wanted
to help them. Let's--let's--let 'em go!"

The man stopped short and turned to look with a smile into the boy's
upturned, eager face.

"What will Mama say when we go back without any dinner?" he asked.

"You know, Daddy. She'll say a good deed is better than a good dinner."

The man laid a caressing hand on the curly head and handed his son the
net. Charlie's face beamed with joy. He opened wide the net and watched
the prisoners gasp with surprise, bound out of the meshes, and scamper
away into the bushes.

Then the boy put his small hand in his father's big one, and together
they walked silently along the path.

* * *

"All the same," said Chatter Chuk to himself, as, snug at home, he
trembled at the thought of his late peril, "I shall keep away from old
Juggerjook after this. I am very sure of that!"

"Mama," said Fuzzy Wuz, nestling beside her mother in the burrow, "why
do you suppose the fierce Men let us go?"

"I cannot tell, my dear," was the reply. "Men are curious creatures, and
often act with more wisdom than we give them credit for."

[Illustration: "What you burying, a bone?"
"Nop, interning a muzzle."]

THE LITTLE GRAY KITTEN

BY MARY LAWRENCE TURNBULL

Once upon a time there was a little gray kitten, who had wandered far
away from home. At first she liked all the strange sights she saw, but
by and by she began to feel very homesick, and wished she was once more
cuddled up with her brothers and sisters.

Now the only word this little gray kitten knew was "Mew, mew!" So when
she was lonely she would say "Mew;" when she was hungry, "Mew;" when she
was cold or tired, glad or sad, it was always "Mew." At home they knew
what she meant when she said "Mew," but out in the wide, wide world,
nobody seemed to know.

Wandering along the street, she came upon a little sq