Well, I am a beauty! though that spiteful cat next door says my face is
streaked. She calls me “Miss Vanity,” but my good looks got me this nice
home, with plenty to eat, and nothing to do.
This is the way it came about. My mother belonged to a little French boy
named Henri, and being a French cat, she was very clever. One day when I
was a tiny baby, a lady from New York came to stay at the house. My
mother lay on the rug listening to the conversation, but pretending to
be asleep. Henri said to the lady, “My cat has kittens, and one of them
is beautiful.”
“Ah,” said she, “I wish I could see it.”
Upon hearing this, my mother trotted down stairs, and brought me up in
her mouth. My, what a shout there was when we appeared! The lady said
she must have the kitten of so wise a cat, and that I was perfectly
lovely.
She promised Henri to be very good to me, so I was put in a basket, and
brought to New York, where I am much admired, and happy as the day is
long.
The last thing my mother said to me was, “Beauty is as beauty does.” I
wonder what she meant?
[Illustration: VAIN MINETTE.]