Bond.

"Yes, Mr. Morrison and his wife are going to New York, and Frances is
coming to stay with us."

Emma listened to this story with breathless interest. It seemed to her
quite the most natural and suitable thing that such good fortune should
come to Frances, but it made her feel sorrowful to think she was going
away.

After their visitor had gone Mrs. Bond said, as she folded her work:
"Now, Emma, I do not want you to be foolish. Make up your mind not to
see anything of Frances after this, and you'll not be disappointed."

"Why, mother?"

"Because they are rich and we are poor, and it is not to be expected
that they will care for your society. I never go where I am not wanted,
and I do not choose to have you. Understand, I am not saying anything
against the Morrisons. Frances is a nice child, and her mother is very
pleasant and kind, but you can't change the world; birds of a feather
will flock together."

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIRST.

OVERHEARD BY PETERKIN.

Peterkin was taking a nap in one corner of the big sofa in the hall. It
was a delightful spring afternoon and everybody was out; he knew this,
for he had seen them go. First Miss Moore hurried away with some books
under her arm; next Frances danced downstairs, followed by her father
and mother; a little later Emma and the General started out for a walk;
and last of all came Miss Sherwin, and sat beside him while she put on
her gloves.

She stroked him gently for a minute before she left, and, bending over
him till her face touched his soft fur, said, "Oh, pussy, pussy! so many
things are happening, and it's going to be so lonely. It must be nice to
be a cat."

Peterkin rubbed his head sympathetically against her hand, for her tone
was sad. He had had confidences made to him before and knew how to
receive them. He understood it all as well as if she had spent hours in
the telling, an advantage a cat possesses over a human confidant.

He had been dozing undisturbed for a long time when he heard the door
open again, and a man's voice he did not recognize say: "How fortunate
that I met you! I seem to have had the wrong number."

It was Miss Sherwin who replied, "I am very much surprised; I did not
know you were in this part of the country."

Then they came and sat on the sofa, and the stranger, who, Peterkin saw,
was a pleasant looking young fellow, said he had been back only a short
time. "I stopped in Maryville a day, and then at home for two m