Great preparation was made for my party. I was truly a fortunate cat. I could not help them work, but rushed to and fro from one to the other, knocking down spools of cotton and everything I could get at, jumping up in their arms, disarranging their work, and trying in every way to amuse myself; but when I was wanted to try on my clothes, I would rush under the bed and elude even the longest arm. Then Will would crawl under the bed, and, after a good frolic, would land me where I was needed. Mrs. Rice made a tall black hat with a cockade on it. She had to tie it on with strings, for as soon as she put it on I jerked it just as I had seen monkeys do. Miss Eleanor made me a pair of red pants, leaving a good slit for my tail, for I was to represent a monkey, and the tail was very important, though, as my mistress said, no monkey ever had such a beautiful tail as mine. Miss Milly made me a dress-coat, with white ruffles at the neck and wrists, brass buttons, and a white shirt front. They covered a large pasteboard box with green cloth, for the organ. Will and his friend Josie were to be the organ-players. The long-looked-for day came at last. I had raved up stairs and down, as Miss Milly said, "just like a maniac." I superintended all the preparations, walked over the tree that they were to decorate in my honor, and scratched it well, as they said, sharpening my claws for the evening. I was too busy to take a cat-nap or one of my "forty winks." We had before this eventful day rehearsed our parts, and I had provoked them with my stupidity. I did make fun enough with that hat. I hitched it on the back of my head, getting out first one ear, then the other; for they had tucked my ears in, saying my face looked so innocent without them. It was all mischief, for I intended to do my best. Mrs. Knight threw open her nice rooms, and in the hall room off the back parlor the tree was placed. They were obliged in the afternoon to keep me prisoner upstairs. I was disgusted, for I wanted to be in the thick of it all. I could not sleep, and I kept pretty near the door, ready to run out if I could get a chance. At seven o'clock they dressed me in all my finery, and before eight all our guests had arrived: Madam A., a lovely woman, and one of our best friends, with her three noble boys, and a sweet-faced little bit of a woman whom every one who knew her called cousin; then Madam M., with her daughter and granddaughter,--charming people, and all my dear friends. These, with Mr. and Mrs. Knight and their son Stacy, with ourselves, made a party of (reckoning myself) seventeen,--quite a roomful.