ith an air of superior wisdom: "it's not my place to speak about the
little ladies' clothes, Miss, but whatever will Mrs. Posset say when she
sees your frock? and the barn-yard gate open, too, and the fowls all
over the place!"

Brighteyes hung down her head and blushed as red as her petticoat: then,
without saying a word, she turned away, and walked slowly toward the
house.

Yes, she had been very naughty, much naughtier than the twins, whom she
had been blaming; and now she would go directly in to Mrs. Posset and
tell her all about it, and say she was very sorry.

That was what she thought as she walked along, and that was what she
meant to do, doubtless; but dear me! sometimes I think that you people
on the earth _never_ do what you mean to do. I know a gentleman in
London, if you will believe it, who has been trying for five years to
see the sun rise. Every night when he goes to bed he says, "Aha!
to-morrow morning I shall be up bright and early, sir! Want to see the
sun rise. Haven't seen it since I was a boy. Ha! ha! ha!" and then he
goes to bed, and knows nothing till nine o'clock the next morning, when
the sunbeams flirt gold-dust into his eyes and wake him up. Then he rubs
his eyes, and says "Bless me! overslept myself again, hey? well, I never
_was_ so sleepy before in my life! the sun will have to see _me_ rise
this morning, hey? ha! ha! ha!"

[Illustration]

Yes, that is the way with you all, and that was the way with Brighteyes
that day. I did but turn away from the mirror for five minutes, to chat
with a passing meteor, and ask him how his grandmother was; and when I
turned back, where was that bright-eyed mouse but up at the very top of
a tree: trying with all her might to catch a small cat, the very same
cat which the dogs had been chasing an hour before.

"Dear little Pusscat!" cried Brighteyes in her most winning tones. "I
wouldn't hurt you for the world. Do come, and let me take you down, and
you shall be my own dear little pet, and I will love you very much
indeed!" and she stretched out one arm toward the kitten, while the
other clasped a branch of the tree.

The kitten looked hard at her, and on the whole seemed to approve of
her, for it advanced slowly, and finally allowed itself to be captured.
Yes, that was very nice; but how about getting down?

"Oh! that is easily managed!" said Brighteyes, thinking aloud as usual.
"I'll hold my kitty so, you see, with one hand, and with the other I