shall like to have them with me."

It really was a trial to Edith to see all her neat arrangements upset,
and to find how very coolly Fred did it, too. She sighed and thought,
"Ah, I shall not be mistress here now I see!" but Fred was gone down
stairs for some water and seed, and did not hear her laments. He was
very full of his scheme for canary breeding at supper, and Emilie was
quite as full of sympathy in his joy as Fred desired; she took a real
interest in the matter. Her father, she said, had given much attention
to canary breeding, for the Germans were noted for their management of
canaries; she could help him, she thought, if he would accept her help.
So they were very merry over the affair at supper time, and Mr. Parker,
in his quiet way, enjoyed it too. Suddenly, however, the merriment
received a check. Margaret, who had been to look at the birds, came in
with the intelligence that Muff, the pet cat of Miss Edith, was sitting
in the dusk, watching the canaries with no friendly eye, and that she
had even made a dart at the cage; and she prophesied that the birds
would not be safe long. A bird of ill omen was Margaret always; she
thought the worst and feared the worst of every one, man or animal.
"Why, it is easy to keep the door of the cage shut," John remarked, but
to keep puss out of her old haunts was not possible.

Muff was not a kitten, but a venerable cat, who had belonged to Edith's
elder sister, and was given to Edith, the day that sister married, as a
very precious gift; and Edith loved that grey cat, loved her dearly. She
always sat in the same place in that dear little room. Edith had only
that day made her a new red leather collar, and Muff looked very smart
in it. "Muff won't hurt the birds, Fred dear," said Edith, "she is not
like a common cat." Whatever points of dissimilarity there might he
between Muff and the cat race in general, in this particular she quite