he
managed to drag himself to the edge without any help at all; and as we
feared that all of us would get punished if the adventure were known, my
sisters and myself set to work and licked him all over; and then getting
into bed, we cuddled up together to make him dry, and were soon fast
asleep.

Although the accident was not known at the time, we all suffered for it;
for my brother caught a dreadful cold, and myself and sisters were ill
for several days, through the quantity of the stuff we had licked off my
brother's coat, and one of us nearly died through it.

As we grew stronger and older, we were permitted, under the care of our
nurse, to go into the country for a few hours to play. It may be perhaps
thought, from what I have said, that nurse's care was not worth much,
and that we might just as well have looked after ourselves, as the
poorer Kittens of our city were accustomed to do. But this was not
precisely the case; for when nurse had nobody to chat with she was very
strict with us, I assure you, and on such occasions made up for her
inattention at other times. That unlucky fondness of hers however for
gossiping, was the cause of a great deal of mischief; and about this
time it partly occasioned a sad misfortune in our family. I said
_partly_, because the accident was also due to an act of disobedience;
and as the adventure may serve as a double warning, I will briefly
relate it.

It was a lovely morning in early summer; the sun shone gaily upon the
city, looked at his brilliant face in the river, danced about among the
leaves of the trees, and polished the coats of every Cat and Dog which
came out to enjoy the beautiful day he was making.

To our great delight we were allowed to take a long walk in the country.
Two of our cousins, and a young Pussy who was visiting at our house,
were to accompany us; and nurse had strict charge to prevent our getting
into mischief. Before we started our mother called us and said, that,
although she had desired nurse to look after us, and take care that no
harm should happen while we were out, she desired also that we should
take care of _ourselves_, and behave like Kittens of station and
good-breeding, not like the young Cats about the streets, poor things!
who had no home except the first hole they could creep into, no food but
what they could pick up or steal, and no father or mother that they knew
of to teach them what was good. Such creatures were to be pitied and
rel