kid shoes, quite new, belonging to the
human child's big doll--and Mrs. Tabby White put them on her eldest
kitten's little browny feet.

"'Now, Brindle,' she said (he was named after the gentleman who told me
the story), 'you are grander than any kitten ever was before.' And at
first Brindle felt pleased--then he tried to feel pleased--then he knew
he wasn't pleased at all. Then the shoes began to hurt him horribly, so
he mewed sadly; and Mrs. Tabby White boxed his ears softly--as mother
cats do; _you_ know how I mean! But when she was asleep he took off the
pink shoes and bit them to pieces. And Nurse slapped him for it. Poor
Mrs. Tabby White was very miserable when she saw her son being slapped:
for it is one thing to box your son's ears (softly, as mother cats do;
_you_ know how I mean), and quite another to see another person do
it--heavily, as is the way with nursemaids.

"But the last and greatest effort Mrs. Tabby White made to imitate human
manners was one Saturday night.

"She saw the human child have its bath before the nursery fire, with hot
water, pink soap, dry towels, and much fussing, and she said to herself,
'Why should I waste hours every day in washing my children with my
little white paws and my little pink tongue, when this human child can
be made clean in ten minutes with this big bath. If I had more time I
could learn to be cleverer, and I should end by being the most
wonderful Cat in all the world.' So she sat, and watched, and waited.

"When the human child was in bed and asleep, Nurse went down to her
supper, leaving the bath to be cleared away later, for it was a hot
supper of baked onions and toasted cheese, and if you don't go to that
supper directly it is ready, you may as well not go at all, for it won't
be worth eating--at least so I have heard the kitchenmaid say.

"Mrs. Tabby White waited till she heard the last of Nurse's steps on the
stairs below, and then she put both her cat-children into the tub, and
washed them with rose-scented soap and a Turkey sponge. At first they
thought it very good fun, but presently the soap got in their eyes and
they were frightened of the sponge, and they cried, mewing piteously, to
be taken out. I don't know how she could have done it, I couldn't
have treated a kitten of _mine_ like that.

"When she took them out, Mrs. Tabby tried to dry them with the soft
towel, but somehow catskin is not so easy to dry as child-skin, and the
little cats began to