nd enjoyment when the parcel was opened in the evening; everything that
happened was treasured up to tell it when they met, or, if it was not
there, to write to it on the pink note-paper; the very smartest sash
belonging to her best doll was taken to adorn the cat's thin neck; and
the secrecy which surrounded all this made it doubly delightful. Ruth
had never been a greedy child, and if Nurse Smith wondered sometimes
that she now spent all her money on cakes, she concluded that they must
be for a dolls' feast, and troubled herself no further. Miss Ruth was
always so fond of "making believe". So things went on very quietly and
comfortably, and though Ruth could not discover that the kitchen cat got
any fatter, it had certainly improved in some ways since her
attentions. Its face had lost its scared look, and it no longer crept
about as close to the ground as possible, but walked with an assured
tread and its tail held high. It could never be a pretty cat to the
general eye, but when it came trotting noiselessly to meet Ruth,
uttering its short mew of welcome, she thought it beautiful, and would
not have changed it for the sleekest, handsomest cat in the kingdom.

But it was the kitchen cat still. All this did not bring it one step
nearer to the nursery. It must still live, Ruth often thought with
sorrow, amongst the rats and mice and beetles. Nothing could ever happen
which would induce Nurse Smith to allow it to come upstairs. And yet
something did happen which brought this very thing to pass in a strange
way which would never have entered her mind.

The spring came on with a bright sun and cold sharp winds, and one day
Ruth came in from her walk feeling shivery and tired. She could not eat
her dinner, and her head had a dull ache in it, and she thought she
would like to go to bed. She did not feel ill, she said, but she was
first very hot and then very cold. Nurse Smith sent for the doctor; and
he came and looked kindly at her, and felt her pulse and said she must
stay in bed and he would send some medicine. And she went to sleep, and
had funny dreams in which she plainly saw the kitchen cat dressed in
Aunt Clarkson's bonnet and cloak. It stood by her bed and talked in Aunt
Clarkson's voice, and she saw its grey fur paws under the folds of the
cloak. She wished it would go away, and wondered how she could have been
so fond of it. When Nurse came to give her something she said feebly:

"Send the cat away."

"Bless yo