CHOOSING THE KITTEN.
In the morning two little girls, Anne and Rose, from the next
farmhouse, came to ask for a kitten.
Aunt Abby said Julia must first choose her own.
The liveliest kitty had a black-and-white coat, with black cap and
ears. Its clean white face and hands and feet pleased Julia so well,
that she tied her red ribbon around its neck.
Anne and Rose were just as content with the gray ones the boys gave to
them.
When they went away, each carried a kitten in her arms, and each very
sweetly asked Julia to come to see them.
“We will,” said aunt Abby, “to see how the kittens like their new
home.”
“Come here, Papa Cary,” this kind aunt said after breakfast, when
he sat under the cherry-tree reading his newspaper; “come to my
kitchen-door and see a pretty picture.”
Papa went with her, and saw his Julia trying to make the kitten love
her.
She had a basin of new milk, of which kitty had been drinking. Now it
was purring its thanks. Julia laid her fat cheek against its furry
side to hear the purr-purring sound.
“Dear little kitty, you will love me, wont you? My dollies just lie
still, and can’t love a bit. You nice, warm, live kitty, you wont let
me be lonesome any more.”
[Illustration: Decoration]
[Illustration: Girl hugging cat]