it was coming, had
prepared a surprise for him. They knew his tastes to a nicety, and had
put their money together and bought the present that he would be sure to
welcome most. Only he was not to know what it was to be; and yet it
being "such fun" to hear him guess, he was allowed three chances, and if
he guessed right he was to be told. Only you mightn't say, "You're
burning" (which is the same as "you're near it," you know), or anything
more to help him than this, namely, that the present was "half alive and
half not," and that "one part of it was within the other."

Papa said that he would rather not have been helped in this way, as it
did him more harm than good, by putting all probable things--the guesses
he would naturally have made--out of the question. The children gave him
one minute to guess in, and not till fifty-nine seconds had gone by did
he utter a syllable, and _then_ he only said, "I give it up."

They thought it rather stupid of dear papa, but then, you see, they
_knew_, and he didn't, which makes an immense difference in guessing.

Then he asked them to give him "a light"--not a light for his cigar, of
course, for all this took place in the drawing-room--but a hint as to
what the present was. Then they said, which was a pretty broad one, that
it was "a fair Persian;" but even then he couldn't guess. "I have never
heard," he said, twiddling his watch chain, "of any fair Persian, except
in connection with Nourhadeen, and _she_ was not half alive and half
not." "Very good," said Polly, who had given the biggest subscription,
and had therefore the best right to speak; "it is plain to us, dear
papa, that you want more prompting. When I tell you that Nourhadeen, in
this case, is a little basket house, with a lovely red rug in it, that
will let the cat out of the bag;" whereupon dear, clever papa guessed it
was a Persian cat.

But it wasn't, for it was only a kitten.

It didn't look like a kitten, however, being, when rolled up and asleep,
a mere round fluffy black ball, and, when awake, a little black bear,
looked at through the wrong end of a telescope. It would have taken
about ten thousand of it to have made a real bear, and even then it
would have been a small bear, only its tail was by no means small, but a
splendid article. Otherwise it was so very tiny that it lay upon its red
rug like an ink spot on a piece of blotting-paper. It had a fine house
of basket-work, just like what Robinson Crusoe bu