y great old-fashioned arm chair. Puss was by my
side in the chair, for there was plenty of room for us both.

O, that Puss, a famous cat she was. She was of a beautiful Maltese
blue, with a very nice white handkerchief on her breast, a white ring
for a necklace, and four white feet. She once met with an adventure
worth relating.

A young harum scarum Italian was a friend of my mother's, and was often
at our house. A young lady, to whom he was much devoted, had a fancy
for cats. He resolved, at the Christmas season, to gratify this taste
of hers, as well as his own love of all sorts of vagaries.

Christmas fell on Monday. On that morning, the young lady received an
elegant package which contained, wrapped up in seven papers, carefully
sealed, a picture of a great black cat, with fiery eyes, long whiskers,
and a flaming red tongue, The young lady was a good deal astonished,
you may believe.

The next morning, she found in her breakfast cup the prettiest little
sugar cat you can imagine. She asked all the family who had played her
the trick, but no one knew.

On Wednesday morning, when the house-maid opened the window to sweep
the drawing room, as she always did at seven o'clock, a small, soft
bundle came flying in at the window, and fell in the middle of the
floor. The bundle was directed to Miss Mary, and contained a large rag
cat, with a painted face, and with little bunches gathered up for nose
and ears.

Inquiries were in vain. No one had seen the daring hand that tossed the
rag pussy into the window. The lady's suspicions did not fall upon the
Italian, because he had made her think that he was out of town.

Early on Thursday morning, came a great double knock and ring at the
house door. So loud and long was the noise that the servant, a little,
scary old man, thought the house was coming down. With trembling hand,
he opened the door, when a black man, six feet high, delivered a huge
box. The two men together had to take it in, it was so clumsy, though
the weight was not much. In answer to the old man's inquiries as to who
sent it, &c., the black only pointed to his mouth and ears,
significantly, to intimate that he was deaf and dumb. On the top of the
box was marked in red chalk "Miss Mary--."

As soon as she came down, she was led to the box. It was opened with
some difficulty. Inside was a quantity of cotton wool, and scattered
about in the wool were little packages of soft paper, and inside of
each was a