MARIAN DOUGLAS.

KIT MIDGE.

[Illustration]

KIT MIDGE was thought in the family to be a wonderful little cat. She
enjoyed sitting in the sunshine; she liked to feast upon the dainty
little mice; and, oh, dear me! now and then, she liked to catch a bird!

This was very naughty, of course; but the best trained cats have their
faults. One morning Kit ate her breakfast with great relish, washed her
face and paws, smoothed down her fur coat, and went into the parlor to
take a nap in the big arm-chair.

The sun shone full in her face; and she blinked and purred and felt very
good-natured; for, only the night before, she had caught her first rat,
and for such a valiant deed had been praised and petted to her heart's
content.

Well, Kit Midge fell asleep in the chair, with one little pink ear
turned back, that she might wake easily, and a black tail curled round
her paws. By and by one eye opened; and, peeping out, she saw her
mistress walking across the room with a dear little yellow-bird in her
hand, which she placed on a plant that stood on the top shelf of the
plant-stand.

Now, Midge had looked with longing eyes for weeks upon a lovely canary,
which sang on its perch far out of her reach; and I suppose she thought
this was the same bird among the green leaves.

But she was a wise little cat: so she slept on, with both eyes open,
until her mistress had left the room. Then Kitty came down from the
chair, and, creeping softly to the stand, made a spring, and seized
birdie between her teeth. Then, jumping down, she dropped the bird on
the carpet, smelled it, looked ashamed, and sneaked away.

It was only a stuffed bird; and when her mistress, who had been peeping
in at the door all the time, said, laughing, "O Kit Midge, I am
perfectly ashamed of you!" Kitty just ran out of the room, and did not
show herself the rest of the day.

Kit Midge was never known to catch a bird after that.

AUNTY MAY.

[Illustration]

HETTIE'S CHICKEN.

WHAT can be prettier than a brood of chickens with a good motherly hen,
like the one in this picture! See how the little chicks nestle and play
about their mother! and see what a watchful eye she has over them! But
some chickens do not have such kind mothers, as you shall hear.

There was a little black one in our yard this spring, which none of the
mother-hens would own. They would peck at it, and dri