kittens, lady, lived, drowned, quiet, packed, together, mischief, window, curtain, table, angry.

There was once a cat who had four kittens, and the old lady whom the cat lived with was so kind to her that, when the kittens were born, she would not let one of them be drowned. So all the kittens grew up, and played with their mother's tail, and ran after their own tails, and each other's tails and

D

were as full of fun as four kittens could be. Now, there was one room in the house where the kittens were not to go. Even the old cat had never been there but once or twice, on a Sunday, and she told the kittens it was a very grand room, with a large fire and a soft rug. A room for a king,' said the mother-cat, and the kittens longed to go in. Now be quiet, and sit all in a row,' said the cat, and I will tell you more.' So the kittens all sat in a row, with their four little paws packed close together, and their four little tails laid close round their four little paws. You might have thought they were four old wise cats at that moment.

THE FOUR KITTENS.-(2.)

'Well, my dears,' said the mothercat, in this room there sits, under a glass-case, a bird who never flies away; and on the shelf above the fire, there is a mouse with a long tail, and he never runs down, but always sits and

looks at me with bright eyes.' 'Oh, if we might only go!' said all the kittens at once;' and off they were after their tails again.

Well, one day the old lady had a party, and the cat and kittens were told they might go into the room. Of course they were much pleased, and very quiet at first; but when they were left alone there, sad to tell, they would not listen to their mother, but fell to all kinds of mischief. One ran up the window-curtain; another dragged off the table-cloth; a third jumped up at the glass-case, and pulled out the bird; and the fourth sprang on to the shelf, and came down with the mouse in her mouth. Then, while their mother scolded all the time, two of them pulled the bird to pieces, and the other two ran at the mouse. But the bird was a dead bird, stuffed with wool, and the mouse could not run away, for it was made of wood. In came the old lady, and very angry she was. She drove them all out with a stick, and the next day the kittens were

sent away to the country, and never saw their mother again.

pleasant, sitting, boughs, bus-i-ly, building,

1.

Hark! the little birds,
Now in pleasant May,
Sitting on the boughs,
Sing aloud all day.

2.

See, the little birds,
Now the May is come,
Busily they fly,

Building each its home.

3.

Busily they work,

Singing as they fly;
Glad are they of May,
And glad too am I.

THE CAT AND THE BULLFINCH.-(1.

[Spell]

behind, hedges, hidden, mewing, trembles, hungry, eyes, fault, naughty, children, dinner, defend.

very

Sophy and Paul went out for a walk one day, and as they came home, they played at hide-and-seek behind the hedges. Sophy was hidden, and Paul was looking for her, when she heard a sound of mew mew ' faint and sad. 'Paul,' she cried, 'come here; there is a cat mewing in the bush.' Paul came and heard it too, and when he looked in the bush, he saw a poor sickly kitten lying there. Its hair was white, but wet with dew, and dirty with mud.

'Poor little thing,' said Sophy; 'how it trembles.'

'And how thin it is!' said Paul.

They took it home with them, and begged some milk from their mother. She gave it them, and the