teach you to smoke a cigar, that is Pussy. If a boy wants you to go
into a billiard-saloon, that is Pussy. If a boy wants you to learn
to drink anything with spirit in it, however sweetened and disguised,
remember Pussy is there. And Pussy's claws are long, and Pussy's
teeth are strong; and if she gives you one shake in your youth, you
will be like a broken-winged robin all your days."



MISS KATY-DID AND MISS CRICKET



Miss Katy-did sat on the branch of a flowering azalea, in her best
suit of fine green and silver, with wings of point-lace from Mother
Nature's finest web.

Miss Katy was in the very highest possible spirits, because her
gallant cousin, Colonel Katy-did, had looked in to make her a morning
visit. It was a fine morning, too, which goes for as much among the
Katy-dids as among men and women. It was, in fact, a morning that
Miss Katy thought must have been made on purpose for her to enjoy
herself in. There had been a patter of rain the night before, which
had kept the leaves awake talking to each other till nearly morning;
but by dawn the small winds had blown brisk little puffs, and whisked
the heavens clear and bright with their tiny wings, as you have seen
Susan clear away the cobwebs in your mamma's parlour; and so now
there were only left a thousand blinking, burning water-drops,
hanging like convex mirrors at the end of each leaf, and Miss Katy
admired herself in each one.