would be right before her. If she
went to the closet to get any thing, she was sure to knock one of the
kits over as she came out. When she was making pies, something would
come up her dress; and, before she could stop it, there would be a
kitten on her shoulder ready to fall into the pie.

One day, after mamma had stepped on kittens, and fallen over kittens,
till her patience was all gone, she said she believed she must have the
kittens drowned, they were so much in the way. Pussy Gray, their mother,
was in the room, and heard what was said. She at once went out of the
door, calling the kittens after her.

That night they didn't come back, nor the next day, nor the next; and,
now that they were really gone, mamma began to feel badly. So she
searched all through the garden, calling "Kitty, kitty;" but though she
looked down the cellar-stairs, and under the back-doorsteps, and
everywhere she could think of, no kitten came.

MATTIE.

[Illustration]

A FUNNY LITTLE GRANDMA.

CRADLED on a rose-leaf
By her mother-miller,
In her tiny egg slept
Baby caterpillar,

Till the sunbeams coaxed her
From her cradle cosey,
To her pretty chamber,
Velvet soft and rosy.

Dew and honey drinking
As from fairy chalice,
A merry life she led
In that rosy palace.

Till at length she wove a
Bed of cotton-down,
Where she slept to waken,
Dressed in satin brown.

Once more in the sunshine,
Oh! how sweet to roam,
And on satin pinions
Seek her flowery home!

She had joined the noble
Family of millers,
And last I heard was grandmamma
To six small caterpillars.

CLARA BROUGHTON.

[Illustration]

A MORNING RIDE.

MAUD is spending her vacation among the woods and mountains of Maine,
where she went with her father and mother about two weeks ago.

One very pleasant morning papa said, "I think we had better take a ride
this morning." So Maud was called in to get ready; and Hannah, the good
white horse, was harnessed into the buggy.

The buggy had but one seat: so mamma found a nice box, and folded her
shawl and put on it; and that made a good place for the little girl,
between her father and mother; and they all started on