spoken kindly to it. What a pity that Nurse did not like cats!

She confided all this as usual to the man in the picture, who received
it with his narrow observant glance and seemed to give it serious
consideration. Perhaps it was he who at last gave her a splendid idea,
which she hastened to carry out as well as she could, though remembering
Nurse's strong expression of dislike she felt obliged to do so with the
greatest secrecy.

As a first step, she examined the contents of her little red purse. A
whole shilling, a sixpence, and a threepenny bit. That would be more
than enough. Might they go to some shops that afternoon, she asked,
when she and Nurse were starting for their walk.

"To be sure, Miss Ruth; and what sort of shops do you want? Toy-shops, I
suppose."

"N-no," said Ruth; "I think not. It must be somewhere where they sell
note-paper, and a baker's, I _think_; but I'm not quite sure."

Arrived at the stationer's, Ruth was a long time before deciding on what
she would have; but at last, after the woman had turned over a whole
boxful, she came to some pink note-paper with brightly painted heads of
animals upon it, and upon the envelopes also.

"Oh!" cried Ruth when she saw it, clasping her hands with delight.
"_That_ would do beautifully. Only--_have_ you any with a cat?"

Yes, there _was_ some with a nice fluffy cat upon it, and she left the
shop quite satisfied with her first purchase.

"And now," said Nurse briskly, whose patience had been a good deal
tried, "we must make haste back, it's getting late."

But Ruth had still something on her mind. She _must_ go to one more
shop, she said, though she did not know exactly which. At last she
fixed on a baker's.

"What should you think," she asked on the way, "that a cat likes to eat
better than anything in the world?"

"Why, a mouse to be sure," answered Nurse promptly.

"Well, but _next_ to mice?" persisted Ruth.

"Fish," said Nurse Smith.

"That would never do," thought Ruth to herself as she looked at a
fish-shop they were passing, "It's so wet and slippery I couldn't
possibly carry it home. Perhaps Nurse doesn't _really_ know what cats
like best. Anyhow, I'm sure it's never tasted anything so nice as a Bath
bun." A Bath bun was accordingly bought, carried home, and put carefully
away in the doll's house. And now Ruth felt that she had an important
piece of business before her. She spread out a sheet of the new
writing-paper on the window-s