tarted off up the pond to the place where the pussy willows grew.
They gathered quite a number, breaking off the stems in their strong
yellow bills, and then, putting the willows under their wings, they
started back home again. They didn't have to hurry because, you see, it
was Saturday, and there wasn't any school. Oh, my no! Ducks don't have to
go to school on Saturday any more than you do, even if they are only in
the kindergarten class.

Now, if you please, pay close attention, for something is going to happen
very shortly, if Uncle Wiggily Longears doesn't come along and bother me,
and I don't believe he will. Well, Lulu and Alice and Jimmie got safely
home with the pussy willows, and as they were putting them in water to
keep until Monday, Aunt Lettie came into the room.

"What have you there, my dears?" she asked, wiggling her horns and looking
over the tops of her glasses as easily as you can draw a picture of a
horse. "What have you there, my dears?"

"They are pussy willows, Aunt Lettie," replied Lulu.

"Oh dearie me! oh Sacramento!" cried Aunt Lettie, who was quite excitable
at times. "Why ever did you bring them here, little ones?"

"Why, we want them for teacher," explained Alice.

"I don't," declared Jimmie. "Boys never bring the teacher flowers; that is
unless they don't want to be kept in when there's a ball game. But don't
you like pussy willows, Aunt Lettie?"

"Oh, no indeed," she answered. "I don't like cats of any description."

"But these are only pussy willows," said Alice.

"Oh, they'll turn into cats quickly enough," remarked Aunt Lettie. "There
was a family who once lived next to us, and they had kittens. Why it
wasn't any time at all before those kittens had turned into cats, and land
goodness, how they did howl nights and keep me awake! And I had lumbago
that summer, too! Oh, yes, indeed, kittens are all very well, but when
they turn into old cats they're not so nice."

"Oh, but Aunt Lettie, you don't understand," explained Jimmie, smiling the
least bit. "You see these are only plant pussies. They can't ever become
real cats you know."

"They grow, don't they?" asked the old lady goat, shaking her horns again,
"Don't they grow?"

"Yes," admitted Lulu. "They certainly grow."

"Well, if they're pussies now they'll grow to be cats soon enough, you
mark my words," went on Aunt Lettie quite sorrowfully. "That is unless
they drown in that water," she added quickly.

"Why, no; pussy w