Pussy did not like to leave her kittens long, even to get something to eat, and Martha often brought her milk, so that she would not be hungry. “Come with me,” said Martha to the children, “and I will show you some babies smaller than these kittens; I found them yesterday.” The kittens were quickly put back into their straw nest in the manger, and the children followed Martha to see what she had to show them. She took them into the corn-crib, which was near the barn; and where the corn was all kept with which the animals were fed. In a dark corner, right under a sloping beam, there was an old box, and in this box there was a funny sort of nest made of straw and rags. “Are they birds?” asked Nellie as she tiptoed up to it. “Birds!” repeated Jimmie, who was just behind her: “don’t you know better than that? They are mice--white mice, I shouldn’t wonder.” “No, they ain’t,” said Bessie, who was stretching her little neck to get a good view of them; “they’re all pink. I see ’em!” She did not know why she was laughed at, for they certainly were pink--very pink indeed, and very little. “La, child!” said Martha, laughing too, “that ain’t the color they’re going to be. They’re pink because they haven’t got any fur yet, only their skins. I guess, though, that they’ll be just mouse-color. But ain’t they cunning?” “Me want one,” said Charlie, “to play with.” And when they told him that he could not take any of Mrs. Mouse’s children, as she had only gone out for a little while, he, as usual, began to cry. “Go ahead, Cry-Baby!” said Jimmie; and Charlie did go ahead. But something dreadful happened just then. No one knew that Mrs. Puss had just followed them in to see what was going on; and as soon as she caught sight of the nest with three little mice in it, she knew what they were in a minute. She made one jump and gobbled them up; every little mouse was gone, and Puss sat licking her chops and feeling that she had made a very good breakfast. “Well, I never!” said Martha, almost out of breath with surprise. “You horrid cat!” said Nellie, just ready to cry for the fate of the poor little mice. Bessie quite cried, it seemed so dreadful; and as to Charlie, his roars were heard at the house. Aunt Lou and Bessie’s mamma and Aunt Lillie all came running out to see what was the matter. Had Charlie’s eyes been scratched out now? “Oh, mamma!” sobbed Bessie as she buried her head in her mother’s dress, “that wicked cat has eaten up the little mouses!” “Do have her killed, mamma,” said Nellie; “she is too bad to live.” Every little face looked angry and excited, and Charlie kept on screaming. Then Martha told about the little nest with the three pink mice in it, and how Puss had eaten them for her breakfast. “I wish the cow or something big would eat her kittens,” said Jimmie; “see how she would like that!”