With folded paws she laid her down,
      And meditative look,
    While every wicked little cat
      Its own diversion took.

    Said Snowball to his brother Kit,
      “Get out of this—­now do;
    For Smut and I, we live in here,
      And there’s no room for you!

    “And Smut feels rather sick to-day,
      He told me so just now;
    So off you go, again I say,
      Or there will be a row.

    “And Kit, just leave that stick alone;
      Come, drop it now at once;
    Of all the cats I ever knew
      You are the greatest dunce.”

    Cried little Smut, “Quick, Snowball, quick! 
      Or you will be too late;
    Here’s sister Flossie pushing in;
      Come quick, and shut the gate.”

    “How strange it seems, when you and I,
      Dear Snowball, are so good,
    That other cats should be so pert,
      Inquisitive and rude!”

    Said mother Puss, “This summer day
      I thought to lie at rest,
    While my dear children romp and play,
      Which seems to suit them best.

    “But really, how they snarl and fight,
      And kick, and growl, and riot! 
    Ah, well! when they are old like me
      They’ll like a little quiet.”

[Illustration:  Fun for the kittens.]

TOMMY GREEN AND TOMMY RED.

Tommy Green was a little boy only eight years old when his parents sent him to “boarding school,” where he was thrown into the company of boys older than himself.  It is strange how most all boys enjoy teasing those who are younger than themselves.

At Tommy’s boarding school all the boys slept in one large room, on cots conveniently arranged.  Tommy was a heavy sleeper.  One morning he awoke with a strange feeling of stiffness about his face, and no sooner did he sit up in bed than a laugh rang around the whole room.

“What are you laughing at?”, he asked, but the boys only laughed the harder at his confusion.  At last one little boy named Frankie Jones cried out “Tommy, it’s your face.”

Tommy rushed to a looking-glass, and found on his forehead and on each cheek an enormous dab of red paint.

“Halloo, Green?” shouted one of the boys, “You’re red now, ain’t you?”

Tommy was greatly teased for a while, but kept his temper, and it was not very long before he was joining with his school-mates to tease some other small boy in a similar manner.

Such things are provoking, but it is best to treat them good-naturedly, as Tommy did, and not lose one’s temper.

[Illustration:  Painting Tommy’s face.]

FOND OF CATS.

Pussy has always been a favorite in the East, but the country where she was held in the highest estimation, and treated with the greatest respect, was Egypt.