himself. One day Mr.
Puff, being out in the rain, found a poor little kitten, covered with
mud, and crying bitterly: so Mr. Puff took the kitten between his
teeth, carried it home, and set it down on the drawing-room hearth-rug.
The lord and the lady had the kitten washed, and gave it food, and
called it Smut. Then Smut went and sat him down on the lord's
writing-table.

When Smut grew to be a cat, but before he was yet a large one, the lord
and the lady thought awhile, and spoke, "We have a dear friend," they
said, "and he is catless; therefore, if Mr. Puff will agree, we will
take Smut to him as a present." And Mr. Puff agreed. So Smut was put
into a birdcage, for there was nothing else to serve him for a
travelling carriage, and taken to the dear friend's house. The dear
friend had a little girl with golden hair, and when she saw Smut, she
cried out for joy, and said, "Never before did I see a dicky-bird with
a furry coat, a long tail, and little white teeth." But Smut shook his
head, as if to say, "I am not a dicky-bird, sweet maid, but only a
four-legged cat;" then they opened the birdcage door, and he walked
out, waving his tail.

Now, when Smut grew up, his gravity and dignity made all who knew his
history wonder, and few could believe that he had once been a dirty
kitten, covered with mud, glad to accept the charity of Mr. Puff. When
a year had gone, or perhaps even a longer time, there was a great war
in Turkey, and terrible battles were fought. Then Smut looked very
anxious, and went quite bald, and his coat fell off in little patches;
but none could tell why. At last he died, and the little girl wept
sorely, and all who had known him grieved and lamented.

And when Smut had been sleeping only a little while beneath the lilac
tree, accident revealed that, instead of a lowly foundling, he had been
of high degree, for the little vagrant Mr. Puff had found was no less a
person than the Turkish Ambassador's coachman's wife's cat's kitten.

SEE-SAW.

Get into the boat and away to the west,
See-saw! see-saw!
For they've cut down the tree with the poor linnet's nest,
See-saw! see-saw!
The bulrushes nod and the water-lilies sigh,
See-saw! see-saw!
And all of us know the sad reason why,
See-saw! see-saw!

For, oh! the tree--the tree's cut down,
And every one of its leaves are brown;