sp out, "Sophie, the child must be ill!" Fortunately for my
reputation, the illness was not long in arriving. The other episode must
have happened at about the same period, and is likewise concerned with
Aunt Lizzie. We had a cat, and the cat had had kittens a day or two
before. Aunt Lizzie came into the nursery, where Una and I were building
houses of blocks, and sat down in the big easy-chair. The cat was in
the room, and she immediately came up to my aunt and began to mew and to
pluck at her dress with her claws. Such attentions were rare on pussy's
part, and my aunt noticed them with pleasure, and caressed the animal,
which still continued to devote its entire attention to her. But there
was something odd in the sound of her mewing and in the intent regard of
her yellow eyes. "Can anything be the matter with pussy?" speculated
my aunt. At that moment my father entered the room, and my aunt rose to
greet him. Then the massacre was revealed, for she had been sitting upon
the kittens. Their poor mother pounced upon them with a yowl, but it
was too late. My dear aunt was rather a heavy woman, and she had been
sitting there fifteen minutes. We all stood appalled in the presence of
the great mystery.

One day a big man, with a brown beard and shining brown eyes, who
bubbled over with enthusiasm and fun, made his appearance and talked
volubly about something, and went away again, and my father and mother
smiled at each other. The Scarlet Letter had been written, and James
T. Fields had read it, and declared it the greatest book of the age. So
that was the last of Salem.

II

Horatio Bridge's "I-told-you-so"--What a house by the sea
might have done--Unknown Lenox--The restlessness of youth--
The Unpardonable Sin and the Deathless Man--The little red
house--Materials of culture--Our best playmates--The mystery
of Mrs. Peter's dough--Our intellectual hen--Fishing for
poultry--Yacht-building--Swimming with one foot on the
ground--Shipwreck--Our playfellow the brook--Tanglewood--
Nuts--Giants and enchanters--Coasting--Wet noses, dark eyes,
ambrosial breath--My first horseback ride--Herman Melville's
stories--Another kind of James--The thunder-storm--Yearning
ladies and melancholy sinners--Hindlegs--Probable murder--"I
abominate the sight of it!"--The peril of Tanglewood--The
truth of fiction--An eighteen-months' work--We leave five
cats behind.