e garden.

Such a kitten! Coal black she was, except for a snowy shirt front and
four dainty, snow-white paws.

A delicate ribbon of pale blue satin was fastened in a bow round her
neck, and she blinked at the passers-by in friendly consciousness of
her superior beauty.

"Oh, you darling!" Hansie exclaimed. "I wish you belonged to me!"

"She does," Mrs. van Warmelo answered, and stooping, she picked up the
unresisting kitten and placed it in her daughter's arms.

It was done in a moment and was meant for a joke, but Hansie took the
matter seriously and walked on, rapturously caressing her small
"trophy of the war."

"Hansie, put that cat down," Mrs. van Warmelo said, looking anxiously
up and down the street.

"No indeed, mother; you gave her to me."

"You know very well I did not mean you to keep her. I decline to have
anything more to do with the matter."

She walked rapidly on and Hansie followed in some uncertainty, but
holding on to her new-found treasure as if her life depended upon it.

Soon she caught up with her indignant parent and said in a
conciliatory tone of voice:

"Surely, mother, you don't suppose I would steal a cat from any one
else! But Lord ---- is trying to take my country, why should I not
take his cat?"

"Two wrongs never made one right," her mother answered, "but do as you
please. You always do."

Hansie kept that kitten and, after Carlo, loved it better than any
other pet, and even Mrs. van Warmelo relented as she watched the
playful creature hiding in the shadows and springing out at every
passer-by.

"What are you going to call her?" she asked her daughter.

"Oh, I don't know. Perhaps I'll go and ask Lord ---- what _he_ called
her."

She stopped, observing her mother's frown, and then went on:

"We must think of a name, a nice, appropriate war name."

A few moments later the kitten crept into a corner, with a small mouse
held firmly between her jaws.

"Oh, mother, look, she has caught a mouse already. She is going to be
a splendid mouser. And oh, now I have a name for her. We'll call her
'_Mauser_,' mother dear!"

So be it. "Mauser" is her name, and hereafter she may be seen
invariably in Hansie's company, a welcome addition to the small,
harmonious family.

Perched on Hansie's shoulder as she sat reading under the verandah, or
purring round her as she lay under the trees, with Carlo watching by
her side, Mauser was ever to be found where her young mistress was;
a