Hearing this, and seeing the cat was evidently a favorite of my uncle's, I ventured—having finished my dinner—to stroke him, an attention which he received with condescending kindness. My aunt poured some cream into a saucer, and Turk drank it as calmly as if it were a matter of course—as indeed it was for him—to sit at table and eat cream. "Loveday opens her eyes!" said my aunt. "I dare say she never saw a cat sit at table and be served like a Christian before. Do you like pets, Niece Loveday?" "Yes, madam!" I answered, and indeed I had a kind of passion for them, which I had heretofore gratified almost on the sly, for my Lady Peckham did not like pet animals of any kind. "That is well, for we have plenty of them," said my aunt. "Sambo must show you his popinjay." Sambo bowed, and grinned till his face seemed all white teeth. "There, run away, children, and play in the garden if you like!" said my uncle. "Take Loveday to see the flowers." We went out into the garden, and the girls showed me many lovely flowers, such as I had never seen before. "My father trades with the Dutch merchants, who bring all sorts of curious plants from the Indies," said Katherine. "That is the way we got our cat and Sambo." "Father bought Sambo from a man who treated him cruelly," added Avice. "When he first came here he was a heathen, but my aunt has taught him better, and now he can say his paternoster and creed in English. We all like him because he is so droll and so kind. My Lord Cardinal wanted him for a fool, but my father would not give him up." "I never saw a black man before," said I. "I did not know there were such things, and when I first saw him I thought it was the evil one himself." "Some of our neighbors believe he is not quite right," observed Katherine, "but he is as good a Christian as any one." "Better than some, because he is grateful!" said Avice. "Come, now, and we will show you the last new tree our father got from foreign parts. There is not another in the country, and we are in a great hurry to have it bloom, that we may see what the flowers are like." I duly admired the foreign tree, or shrub, which had thick, glossy loaves, and on which the flower buds were just forming, and then, Turk appearing and putting in a claim for notice, we had a great frolic with him, and found him an excellent playfellow, as my uncle had said. When we went into the house, my aunt called me up stairs and showed me my clothes neatly arranged in a press, while a small blue bed, like my cousins', was being put up for me in the light closet I have mentioned. "This will be your room as long as you stay here," said she. "Let me see that you keep it neat and orderly, as a young maid should."