ke a silver crown. He did not look young for his years, but
he was still young, always young--indestructibly young in spirit and
bodily vigor. Susy tells how that summer he blew soap-bubbles for the
children, filling the bubbles with tobacco smoke; how he would play
with the cats, and come clear down from his study on the hill to see how
"Sour Mash," then a kitten, was getting along; also how he wrote a poem
for Jean's donkey, Cadichon (which they made Kiditchin): She quotes the
poem:

KIDITCHIN

O du lieb' Kiditchin
Du bist ganz bewitchin,
Waw- - - -he!

In summer days Kiditchin
Thou'rt dear from nose to britchin
Waw----he!

No dought thoult get a switchin
When for mischief thou'rt itchin'
Waw- - - -he!

But when you're good Kiditchin
You shall feast in James's kitchin
Waw- - - -he!

O now lift up thy song
Thy noble note prolong
Thou living Chinese gong!
Waw---he! waw---he waw
Sweetest donkey man ever saw.

Clemens undertook to ride Kiditchin one day, to show the children how
it should be done, but Kiditchin resented this interference and promptly
flung him over her head. He thought she might have been listening to the
poem he had written of her.

Susy's discovery that the secret of her biography was known is shown
by the next entry, and the touch of severity in it was probably not
entirely unconscious:

Papa said the other day, "I am a mugwump and a mugwump is pure from
the marrow out." (Papa knows that I am writing this biography of
him, and he said this for it.) He doesn't like to go to church at
all, why I never understood, until just now. He told us the other
day that he couldn't bear to hear anyone talk but himself, but that
he could listen to himself talk for hours without getting tired, of
course he said this in joke, but I've no doubt it was founded on
truth.

Susy's picture of life at Quarry Farm at this period is realistic and
valuable--too valuable to be spared from this biography:

There are eleven cats at the farm here now. Papa's favorite is a
little tortoise-shell kitten he has named "Sour Mash," and a little
spotted one "Fannie." It is very pretty to see what papa calls the
cat proces