hung with
tapestry representing all sorts of strange things, and very convenient
for the two kittens to play at hide-and-seek behind it; and as the
room faced the south, they got all the sun to warm them. The elder of
them was called _Wishie_, the younger _Contenta_. Their papa and mamma
had given them these names, because Wishie was always saying she
wished she had this, and she wished she had that, and never seemed
satisfied unless she had everything she mewed for: while Contenta, on
the contrary, was of the sweetest disposition in the world, and always
pleased with what was given to her. One would have thought that
neither of them could have had anything to wish for; for they had
plenty to eat and drink--nice long galleries to run about in--no dogs
or children to tease them--and a garden with many tall trees, and
abundance of sparrows. What could they want besides?

One bright summer-day, the sun was shining splendidly--the flowers
were in full bloom--the air was laden with sweet scents from the
honey-suckles and moss-roses, and the larks were singing away high up
in the sky, as merry as if they had all gone out for a holiday, when
Wishie took it into her head to have a stroll in the garden. Now, it
so happened that Contenta, who had been keeping the baron company at
his breakfast, had carried off into the garden a very nice
chicken-bone which her master had given her. So she sat down under a
rose-tree to eat it. But she did not remain there long before Wishie
spied her out. 'Well, to be sure!' exclaimed she to her herself, as
she drew near the rose-bush, 'What a bone Contenta has got there! She
has been breakfasting with our master, that's very clear. I'm sure
nobody ever gives _me_ such great bones! I wish Contenta would let me
have a bit of it--;' and so saying, she threw herself down beside her
sister, pretending to look very tired and hungry, and whined out, 'Do,
Contenta, give me a bit! I am so hungry!'

'Willingly,' replied Contenta, who was very good-natured; 'but have
you had no breakfast, Wishie, this morning?'

'O, nothing to speak of,' said Wishie, falling tooth and claw upon the
bone; and in a very few minutes she had devoured by far the largest
share of it. Now, I don't mean to say that Contenta was such an
unnaturally amiable cat, as to be exactly well pleased to see her
breakfast disappear in such a wholesale fashion; but she consoled
herself with reflecting, that dinner would come some time or ot