pray

"Humph!" said Glumdalkin; "and wonderful things have you been seeing?"

what

"Why," replied Friskarina, "I got uncommonly tired this morning of the palace-garden, I know every stick and stone in it so well. I had been racing nine times round the gravel walk, and had got half-way round to make up ten, when, luckily, I saw that the gardener had left the outer door a-jar; so I thought I might as well take the opportunity of seeing what there was on the other side of the wall: accordingly I peeped out and found that I was in a kind of road, with some such oddlooking things, here and there, I don't know what to call them, but I fancy people live in them, for I saw some persons going into one of them. They were not in the least like this house that the princess lives in; I am sure Grandmagnificolowsky, the tall page, could never have stood upright in any one of them—and so black and dismal and dirty they looked!"

"And you went into one of the nasty places, of course?" growled Glumdalkin; "cottages, child, they are called."

"You shall hear, all in good time," answered Friskarina; "I was peeping about, outside our garden door, rather afraid to venture further,

when I saw such a cat come out of one of these cottages, as you call them-O Glumdalkin! it really would have made your heart ache to have seen her. I had no idea there were such cats in the world. It was dreadful to look at her; she was so horribly thin, you might have counted her bones, and as dirty as if she had lived all her life in a coal-hole; she crawled out of the door as if she had hardly strength to walk, and such a thin tail she had; it made me shudder to look at her. I couldn't help going up and asking her what was the matter with her

"What!" interrupted Glumdalkin, rousing herself up, her eyes flashing fire, and her whiskers standing on an end, "do you mean to say that you a cat descended from such an honourable and distinguished family as ours-one of the most ancient in Catland-that you actually demeaned yourself so far as to enter into conversation with a filthy, beggarly wretch, crawling out of a miserable cottage? Friskarina, on the honour of a cat, I am ashamed of you."

"I certainly did enter into conversation with her," replied Friskarina, plucking up a little spirit; "for I asked her where she lived, and why she was so thin and dirty."

"I wonder," said Glumdalkin,

bear to go near her."

"how you

could

"But one couldn't help it, you know," said Friskarina, "when she looked so very wretched. Poor thing! when I asked her how it was she was so thin, the tears came into her eyes, and she said, she had so very little to eat. I asked her if her mistress never gave her any cream?-and would you believe it?-she actually asked me what

cream was."

66

Why, you simple child," said Glumdalkin, "do you suppose cottage cats ever taste such a thing? They think themselves lucky if they can get a drop of skimmed milk now and then(Some people suspected; but this is quite between ourselves, that Glumdalkin, though she boasted that she had never been outside the walls of the palace garden in her life, knew more about the ways of cats in humble stations than she chose to confess her father, it was said, had married sadly beneath his family.)

"I don't believe," continued Friskarina, "that

that poor cat ever gets even skimmed milk; for she told me her mistress could not get enough to eat herself, and that she hardly ever gave her anything at all; so that all she lives upon is a

chance mouse, when she can catch it, or the black beetles she finds on the floor at night. And when she is thirsty, she goes to a gutter that runs by the side of the road, and laps a little muddy water. Only fancy what a dreadful life to lead. I had no notion that there was a cat in the world so badly off. I really could not eat my dinner to-day for thinking about it. It seems so sad, to have all these nice things, all the great saucers of cream that we have for breakfast, and these soft cushions to sleep upon, and then to think of that poor cat, so near us, catching black beetles (nasty things!) for her supper, and lapping out of the dirty gutter; it makes me quite wretched."

"Friskarina," said Glumdalkin, rising from her velvet cushion, with a great deal of majesty in her air, and curling her tail very solemnly round her toes" Friskarina, let us have no more of this nonsense, if you please! I consider your behaviour this morning, and your conversation at present, utterly beneath the dignity of a cat of condition. Remember the distinguished family from which you have sprung, and that you have the honour to belong to the household of the princess-so, pray, let me hear no more

of making acquaintances among the vulgar cats of the village; you will be a disgrace to the

court!"

Friskarina shrugged her shoulders, and replied, in rather an under tone, "that she really did not see anything disgraceful in being sorry for the unfortunate- "to which Glumdalkin made no

answer.

She seemed to be seized with a violent fit of cleanliness, and began washing and biting her right paw with extraordinary vehemence.

Just, then, the entrance of Grandmagnificolowsky, and three or four more of the pages, with the princess' supper, put an end to the conversation. A fine gold dish, containing several dainty morsels, which the princess had carved with her own royal hands, was put down upon the velvet cushion, and Glumdalkin did them full justice.

When supper was over, two of the maids of honour carried the two cats to their beds, where we will leave them for the night, in pretty little baskets lined with yellow satin, and made so delightfully soft and warm, that it almost made one go to sleep only to look at them. Nevertheless, Friskarina lay awake a whole quarter of an hour, turning over a plan in her little head, that she meant to try and bring to pass the next day, if possible.