her mother came in from hanging out clothes she did not know her own baby, but thought she was a little blue goblin, and had to take her to the wash-tub and put her in like a dirty dress to get her looking like herself again.

In

Now as Martha Primrose was celebrated as one of the nicest housekeepers in the country, of course she could not allow such proceedings; and as Pussy did not yet understand English, the only way she could keep her from them was to watch her and catch her away when she saw her going about any piece of mischief. consequence, Baby's life was a perfect series of disappointments. It often seemed to her that she was stopped in everything she undertook to do. First, she would scuttle across the floor to the kitchen fireplace and fill both little hands with ashes and black coals, just to see what they were made of; and then there would be a loud outcry, and she would be made to throw them down, her apron would be shaken, and

her hands washed, and the words, 'No! no! naughty!' pronounced in very solemn tones over her. She would look up and laugh, and creep away, and bring up next by the dresser, where she would reach up for a pretty, nice dish of flour which she longed to pull over; and then the 'No! no!' and 'Naughty!' would sound again. Then Pussy would laugh again, and go into the back kitchen and begin paddling in a delightful pail of water, which was to her the dearest of all forbidden amusements, when suddenly she would be twitched up from behind, and 'No! no! naughty baby!' once more sounded in her ear. Pussy heard this so much that it began to amuse her; and so, when her mother looked solemn and stern at her, she would shake her little head and look waggish, and try to imitate the 'No! no!' as if it were something said for her diversion.

'You can't put her out,' said Martha to her husband; 'she's the best little thing; but it is

wonderful the mischief she does.

She just

goes from one thing to another all day long.'

The fact is, baby once got a pan of molasses pulled over on her head, and once fell, head first, into her mother's wash-tub, which luckily had not at the time very hot water in it; and once she pulled the tap out of her mother's cask of beer, and got herself pretty well blinded and soaked with the spurting liquid. But all these things did not disturb her serenity, and she took all the washings and dressings and scoldings that followed with such jolly good-humour that the usual amusement, when her father and brothers came home, was the recital of Pussy's adventures for the day; and Pussy, sitting on her father's knee and discovering herself to be the heroine of the story, would clap her hands and crow and laugh as loudly as any of them.

'She's got more laugh in her than a whole circus,' said John Primrose. 'I don't want no theatre nor no opera when I can have her;'

and her brothers, who used to be gone whole evenings over at a neighbouring tavern, gradually took to staying at home to have a romp with little Pussy. When the hay about the old house was mown, they had capital times, tumbling and rolling with Pussy in the sweet grass, and covering her up and letting her scratch out again, and toss the hay about in her little fat hands, enchanted to find that there was one thing that she could play with and not be called 'Naughty baby!' or have 'No! no!' called in her ear.

In my next chapter I will tell you all about what little Pussy had to play with, and what she did when she got older.

III.

CANNOT make my young folks understand just the value of the

gift which the fairies brought to

Little Pussy Willow, unless I tell them about another little girl who did not have any such present, but had everything else.

Little Emily Proudie was born in a splendid house, with a white marble front, and a dozen marble steps leading up to the door. Before she was born there were all sorts of preparations to receive her whole drawers full of little dresses with worked waists, and of little caps. trimmed with pink and blue rosettes, and cunning little sacks embroidered with silk and