I pretended as hard as ever I could, and it was a beautiful party, though I did not like the Sunday doll, because she looked proud, and as if she thought kittens were too young. The everyday doll was much nicer, though her hair was a little tufty and she was cracked. How Betty did enjoy herself that lovely sunny afternoon we had the first tea-party in the playhouse! How she laughed and talked, and ran backwards and forwards to her mamma for the cups of milk and bits of cake. I ran after her every time, and she was as happy as a little bird. “See how the kitty likes me now, mamma,” she said. “Just watch, it runs every time I run. It isn’t afraid of me the leastest bit. Isn’t it a pretty kitty?” I never left her when I could help it. She was such fun. She was a child who danced about and played a great deal, and I was a kitten who liked to jump. We ran about and played with balls, and we used to sit together in the swing. I did not like the swing very much at first, but I was so fond of Betty that I learned to enjoy it, because she held me on her knee and talked. She had such a soft, cosey lap and such soft arms that it was delightful to be carried about by her. She was very fond of carrying me about, and she liked me to lay my head on her shoulder so that she could touch me with her cheek. My pretty little Betty, she loved me so! She used to show me the flowers in the garden and tell me which ones were going to bloom, and what color they would be. We were very much interested in all the flowers, but we cared most about the white rose-bush. It was so big and we were so little that we could sit under it together, and we were always trying to count the little, hard, green buds, though there were so many that we never counted half of them. Betty could only count up to ten, and all we could do was to keep counting ten over and over. [Illustration: “I DID NOT LIKE THE SWING AT FIRST”] “These little buds will grow so big soon,” she used to say, “that they will burst, and then there will be roses, and more roses, and we will make a little house under here and have a tea-party.” We were always going to look at that rose-bush, and sometimes, when we were playing and jumping, Betty would think she saw a bud beginning to come out, and we would both run. I don’t know how many days we were so happy together, playing ball, and jumping in the grass, and watching the white rose-bush to see how the buds were growing. Perhaps it was a long time, but I was only a kitten, and I was too frisky to know about time. But I grew faster than the rose-buds did. Betty said so. But oh, how happy we were! If it could only have lasted, perhaps I might never have grown sober, and sat by the fire thinking so much.