When he was not crying he smiled and looked like a very happy little boy; and this was the way he looked now. Then there was Baby Alice, a dear little girl who had to be carried and who could not speak a word yet. Mr. and Mrs. Mason, who were Bessie’s Uncle Ralph and Aunt Lou, lived on a large farm, where they had plenty of people to help do the work; and these people had houses of their own not very far from the large house in which Bessie’s cousins lived. There were a great many fields around the house, and woods, and a pretty little brook that seemed to be singing a song the whole time. The place was called “Brook Farm;” and there were so many horses, and cows, and sheep, and pigs, and chickens that Bessie wondered if any one could count them. “Eat your breakfast, dear,” said Aunt Lou when she saw that Bessie left her bread-and-milk to look at the pets her cousins were already bringing in to show her, for they had all had their breakfasts; “there will be plenty of time for all that afterward.” But the little pilgrim could not stop long to eat. Charlie had just whispered, “Tree tittens--four, five, tree--tome and see!” and away she flew. “I expect my little girl to run wild now,” said mamma, smiling. “It will do her a great deal of good,” replied Aunt Lou; “she is looking too pale, and I want to see her cheeks like roses before she leaves here.” In a few moments there was a great screaming and boo-hoo-ing from Charlie, who came running to the house crying as hard as he could. “What is the matter now?” asked his mamma, who did not seem to think there was much the matter. Then Charlie roared harder than ever, and held up a little fat hand to show a great scratch on it. Pussy had scratched him because he was taking her babies up by the tail. “He is real naughty,” said Nellie, who had followed him; “he makes the little kittens squeal, and that is why Pussy scratches him.” Charlie fairly bellowed now, because his scratch hurt him and because he could not do as he liked with the kittens. He had been sick a great deal, and had had his own way too much. Aunt Lillie put a piece of thin plaster on the scratch, and then Charlie said, “All well now,” and ran back to the barn with his face full of smiles. His mamma thought he had been punished enough, for Pussy gave him a pretty hard scratch, and he promised to be very gentle with the kittens. Bessie was seated on the barn-floor with all the little kittens in her lap, and Mother Puss was purring around her and not minding it at all. They were such pretty little things--white, with black tails, and they all had blue eyes! They had just got their eyes open. “Here is some milk for you, Pussy,” said Martha as she put a large dish of it down on the floor. Martha was the girl who took care of the milk and butter, that were kept in a little house half sunk in the ground. This was the dairy.