that presently she was not
satisfied with being at the very top of the cat profession.

"'Cat-people have more sense than human people, of course,' she said to
herself; 'but still there are some things one might learn from them. I
must watch and see how they do things.'

"So next morning when the cook gave Mrs. Tabby White her breakfast, she
noticed that cook poured the milk out of a jug into a saucer. That
afternoon Tabby felt thirsty, but instead of putting her head into the
jug and drinking in the usual way,--you know--she tilted up the jug to
pour the milk out as she had seen the cook do. But cats' paws, though
they are so strong to catch rats and mice and birds, are too weak to
hold big brown jugs. The nasty deceitful jug fell off the dresser and
broke itself. 'Just to spite me, I do believe,' said Mrs. Tabby. And the
milk was all spilled.

"'Now how on earth could that jug have been broken?' said cook, when she
came in.

"'It must have been the cat,' said the kitchenmaid; and she was quite
right, but nobody believed her.

"Then Mrs. Tabby White noticed that human people slept in big
soft-cushioned white beds, instead of sleeping on the kitchen
hearth-rug, or in the barn, like cat people. So she said to her children
one evening--

"'My dears, we are going to move into a new house.'

"And the kittens were delighted, and they all went upstairs very
quietly, and crept into the very best human bed. But unfortunately that
bed had been got ready for a human uncle to sleep in; and when he found
the cats there he turned them out, not gently, and threw boots at them
till they fled, pale with fright to the ends of their pretty tails. And
next morning he told the Mistress of the house that horrid CATS had been
in his bed, and he vowed that he would never pass another night under a
roof where such things were possible. Mrs. Tabby White was very
glad--because no lady can wish for the visits of a person who throws
boots at her. But the Mistress of the house said sadly, 'Oh, Tabby!--you
have lost us a fortune!' And Tabby for all her cleverness didn't
understand what the Mistress meant, but went on purring proudly, and
wondering what clever thing she could do next. And _I_ don't know what
it meant either, so don't you interrupt with silly questions.

"'I think we ought to wear shoes,' was the next thing Mrs. Tabby White
said; but all the human shoes were too big for her. However, there was a
nice pair of salmon-coloured