ould be glad enough of your present
condition.'

'Humph!' muttered the cat, 'I really don't know how you have contrived
to see so much of the world, sitting as you do in a tree all day,
blinking your eyes as if you couldn't bear a ray of sunshine: now,
with all due submission to your superior wisdom, I should think the
magpie ought to know something of life, after the high society she has
lived in,--and I do say it is a shame that one cat should have
buttered crumpets and cream for breakfast, just because she happens
to live in a palace, while another has only brown sop, because _she_
happens to live in a cottage!'

'But suppose,' replied the owl, 'that some other cat, who lives in a
cellar, and never gets anything to eat, except what she can pick up in
the gutters, should take it into her head to say, "What a shame it is
that some cats should have nice snug cottages over their heads, and
warm hearths to sit by, and bread and milk for breakfast, while I am
obliged to live in this horrid cold cellar, and never know how to get
a mouthful?"'

The cat was rather disconcerted by this observation at first; but
presently answered:

'My dear Mr. Owl, don't let us exaggerate,--you can't seriously mean
to say there are any cats in the world in such a condition as you
speak of? I am sure the magpie, with all her experience of life, would
have told me about it, if it were really so--you must be mistaken.'

The magpie, by this time, had become exceedingly tired of such a long
silence, and was beginning to think that she had stood upon her
dignity quite long enough.

'You will excuse me, my worthy friend,' she said, turning to the owl,
'but really you do sit there so, day after day, blinking in the sun,
without a soul to speak to, that I don't wonder at your taking very
strange fancies into your head. I can only say, that during the whole
of my residence in the palace of the Countess Von
Rustenfustenmustencrustenberg, my late respected mistress, _I_ never
came in contact with any cat in the condition you are pleased to
imagine; and I should know something of the world, I think.'

'Well,' replied the owl, quietly, 'I will not dispute your ladyship's
knowledge of the world, but I strongly advise our friend Mrs. Puss to
remain contented at home, and not try to improve her fortune by going
into the town: people should learn to know when they are well off.'

Just then, patter, patter, patter, came a few large drops through the