you beast!' and so on;--and how the cat got her out."

"These are old stories, girls, and you have told them for me."

"Our old cat Jane," said Eliza Ann Jones, "is a regular cheat. You see,
she _would_ lie in grandma's chair. She used to jump in if grandma left
it only for a minute; and grandma wouldn't know she was there, and two
or three times sat right down on her. Why, it was just awful, and scared
poor grandma half to death. Well, ma whipped the old cat every time she
caught her in the chair, and we thought she was cured of the habit; but
one day ma came into the room and there was nobody there but Jane, and
she was stretched on the rug and seemed to be fast asleep; but grandma's
chair was rocking away all by itself. Ma wondered what made the chair
go, so she thought she'd watch. She left the door on a crack and peeped
through, and as soon as the cat thought she was alone she jumped into
the chair and settled herself for a nap; but when ma made a little
noise, as if somebody were coming out, she hopped out and stretched
herself on the rug and made believe she was fast asleep. 'Twas her
jumping out so quick that set the chair rocking. Now, wasn't that cute?"

"I never knew till the other day," said Florence Austin, "that cats
scatter crumbs to attract the birds, and then watch for them and spring
out on the poor things when they are feeding."

"What a shame! I wouldn't keep a cat who played such a cruel trick,"
Mollie said.

"My Dinah Spot doesn't catch birds or chickens," said Nellie Dimock;
"only mice."

Mrs. Elliot had come in with a message to her sister while this talk
went on, and had lingered to hear Eliza's story of old Jane.

"Girls," she said, "with your President's permission, I will tell you a
story about a cat. It is curious, because it proves that a cat remembers
and reasons much as a man or woman would in similar circumstances. Susie
and Mollie, I have told it to you before, but you will not mind hearing
it again.

"When my brother Charles was a young man he kept a bachelor
establishment in the country, and with other pets owned a beautiful gray
cat he had; brought with him from Germany. She was very intelligent and
docile, a great favorite with her master, and was allowed many
privileges in the house. She came in and out through a small door cut in
the side of the house which she opened and closed for herself. A chair
was regularly placed for her at the table; she slept at the foot of my
b