lies. There
is a kind of fly round that bush which I like better than any other I
ever ate. You ought to see that there is a very great difference between
my catching flies and your doing it. I have noticed that you never eat
them, and I have wondered that when you were always so kind to me you
could be so cruel as to kill poor flies for nothing: I have often wished
that I could speak to you about it: now that your dear mother has taught
me to print, I shall be able to say a great many things to you which I
have often been unhappy about because I could not make you understand. I
am entirely discouraged about learning to speak the English language,
and I do not think anybody takes much trouble to learn ours; so we cats
are confined entirely to the society of each other, which prevents our
knowing so much as we might; and it is very lonely too, in a place where
there are so few cats kept as in Amherst. If it were not for Mrs.
Hitchcock's cat, and Judge Dickinson's, I should really forget how to
use my tongue. When you are at home I do not mind it, for although I
cannot talk to you, I understand every word that you say to me, and we
have such good plays together with the red ball. That is put away now in
the bottom drawer of the little workstand in the sitting-room. When your
mother put it in, she turned round to me, and said, "Poor pussy, no more
good plays for you till Helen comes home!" and I thought I should
certainly cry. But I think it is very foolish to cry over what cannot be
helped, so I pretended to have got something into my left eye, and
rubbed it with my paw. It is very seldom that I cry over any thing,
unless it is "spilt milk." I must confess, I have often cried when that
has happened: and it always is happening to cats' milk. They put it into
old broken things that tip over at the least knock, and then they set
them just where they are sure to be most in the way. Many's the time
Josiah has knocked over that blue saucer of mine, in the shed, and when
you have thought that I had had a nice breakfast of milk, I had nothing
in the world but flies, which are not good for much more than just a
little sort of relish. I am so glad of a chance to tell you about this,
because I know when you come home you will get a better dish for me.

I hope you found the horse-chestnuts which I put in the bottom of the
carriage for you. I could not think of any thing else to put in, which
would remind you of me: but I am afraid you