ngs."

Our Uncle Peter began to strut again.

"Oh pshaw!" he said. "It's only the outdoor things that are really
important,--how to climb mountains, how to stop a runaway horse,--how to
smother a grass fire!"

It put the Lady all in a flutter.

"Oh pshaw!" said our Uncle Peter. "That's nothing!--The very first
instant you hear the maddened hoofs on the pavement you place yourself
thus! And THUS!--And----"

The Lady tried to explain to him the difference between a morning and an
evening prayer. "Now at night, of course," she explained, "everything is
so very lonely that--"

Our Uncle Peter didn't seem to care at all how lonely it was.

"The instant you see the horses's blood-red nostrils,--JUMP!" cried our
Uncle Peter.

It sounded pretty muddled to me.

"Personally," insisted the Lady, "I consider a rather soft sponge best
for the neck."

"So that with your hands clutched like a vise on either side of the
mouth," cried our Uncle Peter, "you can saw up and down with all the
violence at your command! Now in fighting a grass fire, it's craft, not
might, that you need. In that case of course--"

"Two hours if you're using a double boiler," explained the Lady, "but
many people consider a rapider action more digestible, I suppose."

"My dear Lady----let me finish my explanation!" said our Uncle Peter.

"But I want to finish mine!" said the Lady.

Our legs got pretty tired waiting for all the explanations to get
un-mixed up again.

It was nine o'clock before the Lady gave our Uncle Peter a cup of hot
chocolate and turned him out doors.

"Just like a dog," said our Uncle Peter. We heard him say it across his
shoulder as he went down the steps.

It made the Lady laugh a little.

It was warm milk in two great blue bowls that she gave us. "Just like
kittens," we thought it was!

We heard the little boy's feet come thud-thud-thudding up the stairs. We
heard Tiger Lily's toe-nails click-click-click along behind him.

The little boy looked very full of chicken and joyfulness. So did Tiger
Lily.

"Cook says I've got to romp him!" he said. "Every day!--Twice every
day!--More'n a hundred times some days! Out doors too! Not just in
parks,--parks are good enough for cats,--but in real fields! Else he'll
DIE!" Almost as though he was frightened he stooped down suddenly and
laid his little ear on Tiger Lily's soft breast. "He's alive now!" he
boasted. "You can hear his heart nibbling!" He threw back his little
he