at horrid old Mr. Cat was
held fast."

"What became of Mr. Cat?" asked Mamie.

"He came to a bad end, as all such creatures do," said Nannie in a
terrible voice.

At this point Jim's interest outran his pride, and he swung open the
door so that he could hear better.

"What became of him?" persisted Mamie.

"He received a sound trouncing," said Nannie.

Just at this juncture of affairs she caught sight of Mr. Earnest's
eyes peering at her above his paper. Had they been filled with tears
or dark with remorse she might have relented, but, shocking to
relate, they were fairly twinkling with merriment, and Nannie
perceived that she was amusing her auditor hugely, instead of reading
him a terrible lesson, and in her anger she all but lost control of
herself.

"Wasn't anything else done to him?" asked Jim in a rather disappointed
tone.

"Yes," said Nannie, glaring at Mr. Earnest in a fierce, defiant
manner.

"Oh, that's enough to do to him," pleaded little Mamie.

"No, it isn't," said Jim. "He ate up the rabbits."

"Maybe he didn't eat the rabbits," urged tender-hearted Mamie.

"No, he didn't eat the rabbits. A weasel did that," said Nannie, her
awful gaze still fixed on Mr. Earnest's laughing eyes. "But he had
been ugly to his family, and that's the worst, the meanest thing a
man--a cat can do, and Providence caught him in a trap to punish him."

"What else was done to him?" persisted Jim.

"He was hung," said Nannie, and she almost smacked her lips with
savage relish.

"Oh!" said Jim, and he condescended to enter the parlor and plant
himself in front of Nannie. "Then what else was done with him?"
reiterated this young avenging fury.

"I don't like this story," said Mamie.

"I do!" said Jim. "It's most bester than Indians."

Nannie was going to say that was all, but just then she caught sight
of those mocking eyes again, and in a sudden fury she added:

"He was drawn and quartered."

"Oh!" gasped Jim, while Mamie began to weep.

Just then a roar of laughter ensued from behind the newspaper, and
Nannie, whose every nerve was taut, leaped from her chair.

The newspaper fell, and the two chief actors in this drama confronted
one another, one of them convulsed with laughter and the other with
flashing, defiant eyes and tightly pursed mouth.

"And after that--" urged Jim. "Go on, Miss Nannie. Oh, this is a bully
story! It's bestest than Indians!"

"After that," said Nannie, turning squarely on Mr.