iless snow, and not
even a tender-hearted robin to drop leaves over them.

_PATTY'S PATCHWORK._

'I perfectly hate it! and something dreadful ought to be done to the
woman who invented it,' said Patty, in a pet, sending a shower of gay
pieces flying over the carpet as if a small whirlwind and a rainbow had
got into a quarrel.

Puss did not agree with Patty, for, after a surprised hop when the
flurry came, she calmly laid herself down on a red square, purring
comfortably and winking her yellow eyes, as if she thanked the little
girl for the bright bed that set off her white fur so prettily. This
cool performance made Patty laugh, and say more pleasantly--

'Well, it _is_ tiresome, isn't it, Aunt Pen?'

'Sometimes; but we all have to make patchwork, my dear, and do the best
we can with the pieces given us.'

'Do we?' and Patty opened her eyes in great astonishment at this new
idea.

'Our lives are patchwork, and it depends on us a good deal how the
bright and dark bits get put together so that the whole is neat, pretty,
and useful when it is done,' said Aunt Pen soberly.

'Deary me, now she is going to preach,' thought Patty; but she rather
liked Aunt Pen's preachments, for a good deal of fun got mixed up with
the moralising; and she was so good herself that children could never
say in their naughty little minds, 'You are just as bad as we, so you
needn't talk to us, ma'am.'

'I gave you that patchwork to see what you would make of it, and it is
as good as a diary to me, for I can tell by the different squares how
you felt when you made them,' continued Aunt Pen, with a twinkle in her
eye as she glanced at the many-coloured bits on the carpet.

'Can you truly? just try and see,' and Patty looked interested at once.

Pointing with the yard-measure, Aunt Pen said, tapping a certain dingy,
puckered, brown and purple square--

'That is a bad day; don't it look so?'

'Well, it was, I do declare! for that was the Monday piece, when
everything went wrong and I didn't care how my work looked,' cried
Patty, surprised at Aunt Pen's skill in reading the calico diary.

'This pretty pink and white one so neatly sewed is a good day; this
funny mixture of red, blue, and yellow with the big stitches is a merry
day; that one with spots on it is one that got cried over; this with the
gay flowers is a day full of good little plans and resolutions; and that
one made of dainty bits, all stars and dots and tiny leaves,