ng.

The maid looked out then and threw down her mixing-spoon for laughing.
It was an odd sight to see a cat prancing about, waving her plume-like
tail with a clam at the end of it! Nancy was sorry for the kitten, but
did not know how in the world to get off the clam.

"Take an axe! Take a hatchet!" cried Mrs. McQuilken.

And without waiting for Nancy she seized a hatchet herself, split the
shell of the clam, and let poor kitty free.

When Kyzie got home from school, Mrs. McQuilken had just mended Zee's
bleeding member with a piece of court-plaster. All the boarders were
grouped about on the lawn and veranda talking it over. Mrs. Dunlee held
in her lap a very forlorn and crumpled little bundle of kitty; and Edith
and Eddo were crying as if their hearts would break.

"That beautiful, beautiful tail!" sobbed Edith.

"Don't be unhappy about it, darling," said Aunt Vi, "it will heal in
time."

"I know 't will heal, auntie; but what I'm thinking of is, won't it be
stiff? Aren't you afraid 'twill lose the--the--_expression of the
wiggle?_"

No one even smiled at the question; everybody tried to comfort Edith.
And right in the midst of this trying scene another event occurred of a
different sort, but far more serious. It was little wonder that nobody
once thought of saying to Kyzie:--

"Well, Grandma Graymouse, you promised to tell us to-night how you like
your school."

The school was quite forgotten, and so was the injured kitten. It
happened in this way: As soon as the kitten had been placed in a basket
of cotton and seemed tolerably comfortable, Jimmy and "the little two"
went along the road as they often did to watch for the stage. "The
colonel" might be coming now at almost any time, to find the lost vein
of the gold mine, and they wanted to see him first of any one. Lucy had
her papa's watch fastened to the waist of her dress, and took great
pleasure in seeing the hands move. This was not the first time she had
been allowed to carry the watch, and she was very proud because papa had
just said, "See how I trust my little girl."

Jimmy had Uncle James's spy-glass.

"Nate thinks the colonel won't come till to-morrow; but I expect him
to-night. Let's go farther up," said Jimmy-boy.

They all climbed a little way and stood on a rock gazing down toward the
dusty road. They could see the roofs of several houses, and Lucy asked
why there was so much wire on them.

"Oh, that's to hold the chimneys on," was Jimm