This is the picture of a kit-ten who lived once at a farm-house. He was
such a pret-ty lit-tle cat as to be made a great pet and used to trot
a-bout af-ter the peo-ple like a lit-tle dog. His name was A-grip-pa
and he knew it quite well.
To this farm-house came a boy and girl named Ned and Lau-ra, to spend the
sum-mer. Both were fond of pets and both played so much with A-grip-pa
that he grew rath-er la-zy and did not try to catch ma-ny mice.
Ned and Lau-ra were ver-y good friends, but it happened now and then that
both want-ed the same thing and then, sad to say, some loud words might
be heard. Ned would say, "Give me Grip-pa," and Lau-ra would an-swer,
"You shan't have Grip-pa!" and Ned would say a-gain, "I will have Grip-pa,"
and so it would go on till some-times poor Grip-pa would run a-way. But
they al-ways made up and were friends a-gain.
Grip-pa grew up a large, fine cat, and lived some years. But he was at
length taken ill. He came no more to the house, but stayed in the barn
and grew ver-y weak, till he could hard-ly walk. At last, one day he
came walk-ing fee-bly to the house. He went in-to the kitch-en, then
to the pan-try, then to the din-ing room. In-to all the rooms went
Grip-pa, and in each room sat down and looked a-round, as if tak-ing
a last fare-well; then slow-ly walked out of doors. It was in-deed his
last vis-it. Next morn-ing poor Grip-pa was found dead.
[Illustration]