“’Boule de Neige! what a funny name.  I haven’t named our white kitten yet.  I believe I’ll call it Boule de Neige for a change,’ said Karl.

“Then Jett was brought in and Bessie pounced upon him for a ride, she chuckling and singing and looking from side to side with proud satisfaction, knowing she was being observed by everybody.  The children almost screamed with delight at this performance.

“‘Now, Bessie,’ said Johnny, as the poor cat at last shook her off and slank away.  ’You did that beautifully, and you deserve something to eat.  I am going to let you have some bread and milk right here in the parlor, and the company can see how nicely you can feed yourself with a spoon.’

“‘All right,’ croaked the parrot.  Sarah brought in a saucer in which was a little bread moistened with milk, and two spoons with it.  A cloth was spread over one corner of the table and Bessie crawled up to the top of a chair which had been placed with its back close to the table.  This brought the bird almost in line with the saucer.  Johnny took his seat beside her and broke the bread into tiny pieces with his spoon, shoving the particles into the other spoon as fast as Bessie disposed of them.  She gravely clasped her spoon with one claw and brought it to her mouth quite dextrously and ate the contents with evident relish, though it was plain that she enjoyed being admired for being able to do it really more than she enjoyed the bread.  Once in a while her grasp was uncertain and the food was spilled on her breast feathers or fell to the floor.  At this she scolded herself roundly and seemed quite ashamed.

“’One of these days, when I get time, I am going to train her to use a napkin when she eats,’ said Johnny.

“‘She’ll be a perfectly accomplished lady then,’ added Mary Ethel.

“By this time some of the stranger children had left the table and had come over to my cage to look at me.

“‘The admiral’s an awful purty feller,’ said one.

“‘Wouldn’t his tail be sweet on a Sunday hat?’ suggested another.

“‘Oh, I choose his wings for my hat,’ exclaimed a third.

“‘I choose his head and breast for mine,’ said the first one who had spoken.  ‘And Naomi chooses his whole body for her hat, I expect,’ she added as Naomi joined them.

“‘No,’ said Naomi, ’we don’t wear birds any more in our family.  My sister and I used to have our hats trimmed with them, but we’ve quit.  I had a lovely one on my blue velvet hat last year.  It was a beautiful hat,” and she smiled at the recollection.  ‘But we’ve quit now,’ she added gravely.

“‘Why?’ asked the other girls in a breath.

“’Oh, because my mother thinks it is wrong to wear them.  Little boy, little boy, be careful or you’ll let the bird out,’ she called hastily.

“But the warning was too late.  While the girls had been talking the small boy who was with them had been entertaining himself by slightly opening my cage door and letting it spring back to its fastening.  Suddenly he was seized with fright at discovering that it had stuck while half-way back, and refused to come together.