d me to-night and listen,
because nurse says at midnight all birds and beasts talk so children can
understand every word; and papa and mamma are going to a party, and they
won't come home until ever so late."

"Nonsense!" said Louis, who felt very much wiser than Carrie, she being
to his mind "only a girl;" "I don't believe nurse's story. I can always
understand what Fritz says, and I say he can not bow-wow any plainer
than he did this morning when he bid me good-by."

"Yes, he can," persisted Carrie. "Nurse says so, and she knows, for her
grandfather told her all about it when she was a little bit of a girl,
and he was a real old, old man. If people believed it so many years ago,
it must be true."

Louis's confidence in his own wisdom was somewhat weakened by the
thought of nurse's grandfather, but, boy-like, he only began to sing
tauntingly:

"Into woods where beasts can talk,
I went out to take a walk."

"I'm going to stay awake anyway, and talk to my kitty," said little
Hope, "because I know what nurse said is true. I saw my kitty laugh when
she heard nurse say it." Carrie was silent. She walked at Louis's side,
kicking the pebbles of the gravelled path with her feet.

"Oh, if you girls are going to make such a fuss about it, I'll sit up
with you," said Louis; "and if nurse's grandfather said so," he added,
hesitatingly, "perhaps it is true, after all. He was a very old man, and
he must have known."

"Of course he knew," said Carrie, "for nurse said he had a cow, a red
and white one, that told him lots of things every year on this very
night."

After the mention of the red and white cow, Louis made no more
opposition, and the children soon separated, Louis to spend the day in
school while Carrie and Hope scampered home, said their lessons to
mamma, and then went to play with Fritz, the big dog, Bess, the white
kitty, Lorito, a large gray parrot, and the new canary which papa had
bought only the day before.

When evening came papa and mamma went to the party, and nurse, who had
forgotten all about her grandfather and the red and white cow, wondered
why the children went to bed so willingly, for they were sometimes very
willful, and made nurse a great deal of trouble when she undressed them.
She was very glad they were good to-night, because, as "missis" was
away, she had made up her mind to go to a party herself, the house-maid
having promised to run up to the nursery if she heard the children
callin