ther! Her loss was heaviest of
all; and I had scarce recovered from the shock when my kind friend, my
good cousin, also caught the disease, and quickly passed away.

One would have thought that these various calamities, coming so quickly
upon each other, would have destroyed me at once, or would have so far
affected me as to kill me by degrees. The very greatest of them however
seemed to produce a contrary effect, and I, who would sometimes mourn
for days over a trifling misfortune, found myself sad indeed, but calm
under these heavy losses.

The disease passed away; and when I was sufficiently recovered to
examine my position, I saw myself mistress of a fine house, left me by
my poor cousin, with all her books, papers, musical instruments, and
other things, too numerous to mention.

It was on looking over the store of articles which I became thus
unexpectedly possessed of, that I discovered a bundle of letters,
written in a bold, Cat-like style. Although the ink had become pale with
time, and many parts were torn into holes, I yet managed to make out
their contents, and learn that they had been written to my cousin in her
youth by some Cat of noble birth, who had wished to marry her, but whose
attentions she had for some reason refused. Perhaps she had regretted it
afterwards, and for that reason had always lived alone; perhaps he had
died, or left the city, or----a number of ideas came into my mind about
him, and I even tried to imagine what he was like, and whether he at all
resembled the Tom in black I had been so rude to some time before.

[Illustration: A SELECT CLASS.]

I then began to consider what I should do with the packet. When I
reflected that my cousin had never mentioned the subject, or even the
name of her correspondent, I thought the only plan was to be equally
silent, and, in order to avoid the remarks of others, put the letters in
the fire; for, although I had read them myself, I felt quite persuaded
she had no wish that they should be generally known. My resolution was
soon taken; and casting the papers one by one into the flames, I watched
them slowly burn until there was a little black heap of ashes on the
hearth. The last letter was in my paw; I tore it in halves, and threw
the first sheet on to the pile; the second was just going the same
way, when my eye caught sight of two verses of a song, which I had not
observed till then. I stopped and read them through: they were stanzas
I had sometim