"Please, my lady, I never am warm," said poor Tibb, in a very melancholy voice.

Friskarina was ready to cry, "And you say they never give you any dinner, either?" she said.

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Very seldom, indeed, your ladyship."

"But your mistress must be dreadfully cruel," exclaimed Friskarina, "to take no more care of you than that!"

"What can she do?” replied Tibb, “she has not got enough for herself and her daughter, so it is not likely she can give me anything. If your gracious ladyship would just please to step this way, and peep under the door, you will see how my mistress lives." So saying, Tibb led the way to the hut; and Friskarina, crouching down to a very wide chink under the door, saw a dwelling, the mere notion of which had never entered her imagination till that moment.

"And have you lived here all your life?" she said, drawing back at length, and looking with the most sincere compassion at Tibb.

"Where else could I go, my lady?" replied the poor cat; "it is better than lying in the road."

"And you absolutely don't know what it is to have a good dinner? How very shocking! But now listen to me, Tibb; do you think you can manage to climb over that wall?"

"I can but try," replied Tibb, looking as if she began to have an indistinct idea that her new friend meant to do something for her.

"Then," continued Friskarina, "if you will follow me, and keep quiet behind the trees in the garden, I will give you part of my dinner every day."

Tibb's eyes sparkled as they had never sparkled before, at this generous proposal; and, running to the wall, by the help of a projecting stone here and there, she was presently at the top; then, turning round, she watched Friskarina ascending after her. To scramble down by the ivy-branches was the work of a moment, and the two cats were soon hidden behind some low evergreen bushes that grew in front of the wall.

"Now lie quiet here," said Friskarina, “till I come and call you." So saying, she scampered off through the snow towards the palace. The door of the princess's drawing-room was not quite shut, so Friskarina softly pushed it a little open, and peeped cautiously in.

Just as she expected, there sat Glumdalkin, on high stool close by the fire, looking more solid than ever, and her back so awfully broad! Moreover, she did not look by any means in the best of humours; but she unbuttoned her eyes a very

little atom as Friskarina came towards the fire, and in a very gruff voice, asked her where she had been so long?

"I'll tell you directly," replied Friskarina; “but really I must get a little warm first, my jaws are quite stiff."

"And it serves you right, too," remarked the amiable Glumdalkin: "if you will go out in the snow, when you might have a good warm house over your head, and sit by the fire, you must take the consequences."

Now, from some cause or other, Friskarina felt just then in a very particularly good humour; so she answered, in a very cheerful tone, that she was quite ready to take all the consequences, and that she hoped some good ones, at least, would follow from her going out that morning." Though, indeed," she added, "I have been seeing some very sad things."

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Then, as sure as cream is cream," exclaimed Glumdalkin, quite fiercely, "you've been talking to that good-for-nothing wretch of a cat again. I am astonished at you, Friskarina!"

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Now, my dear cousin," answered Friskarina, very quietly, "just hear me-let us talk the matter over a little: I am sure you would feel just as I do about it, if you had been with me this morning."

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