MRS. CHINCHILLA.

THE TALE OF A CAT.

"See what joyous faces, what shining eyes, and what glad jubilee
welcome the story-teller, and what a blooming circle of glad children
press around him!"--FROEBEL.


Mrs. Chinchilla was not a lovely lady, with a dress of soft gray cloth
and a great chinchilla muff and boa. Not at all. Mrs. Chinchilla was a
beautiful cat, with sleek fur like silver-gray satin, and a very
handsome tail to match, quite long enough to brush the ground when she
walked. She didn't live in a house, but she had a very comfortable
home in a fine drug-store, with one large bay-window almost to herself
and her kittens. She had three pretty fat dumplings of kittens, all in
soft shades of gray like their mother. She didn't like any other color
in kittens so well as a quiet ladylike gray. None of her children ever
were black, or white, or yellow, but sometimes they had four snow-
white socks on their gray paws. Mrs. Chinchilla didn't mind that, for
white socks were really a handsome finish to a gray kitten, though, of
course, it was a deal of trouble to keep them clean.

At the time my story begins the kits were all tiny catkins, whose eyes
had been open only a day or two, so Mrs. Chinchilla had to wash them
every morning herself. She had the most wonderful tongue! I'll tell
you what that tongue had in it: a hair-brush, a comb, a tooth-brush, a
nail-brush, a sponge, a towel, and a cake of soap! And when Mrs.