"I don't know it," said Mrs. Gano. "Ethan likes it for some unknown reason. When he had scarlet-fever last year--" She stopped, seeing the sudden change in Mrs. Gano's face. "We had an epidemic of it," said Mr. Tallmadge, as though that fact lessened the danger. "Ethan came out of it famously--didn't you, my little man?" "Nwingy Tat!" said Ethan. "Oh yes, he came out all right," said Miss Hannah; "but before the crisis I sat up with him at night, and I sang 'The New England Cat' to him till I nearly died of it. Through sheer exhaustion my voice would get weaker and weaker, till it seemed to die too natural a death for him to notice. But the moment I stopped he would start up and say feverishly, 'Nwingy Tat!' It was the only thing that quieted him." Mrs. Gano might have been supposed to regard this passion for New England cats as a depraved taste on the part of a Gano, but she said, graciously: "Let me add my petition to Ethan's. I would like to hear his favorite song." Perhaps in the dim recesses of her mind she had some formless idea of learning this lyric. "It's not a song," said Miss Hannah, hurriedly. "Come, child, it's time you went to bed." "Nwingy Tat, first," said Ethan, firmly. "Oh, hum it for the child!" said Mr. Tallmadge, impatiently. Miss Hannah's face took on a dull-red hue, but obediently she began in a thin, sweet little voice: "'There was an old New England cat, New England cat, New England cat-- There was an old New England cat went out to seek her prey. "'She chased a mouse from house to house, From house to house, from house to house-- She chased a mouse from house to house upon the Sabbath day. "'The parson so astonished was, Astonished was, astonished was-- The parson so astonished was to see--the cat profanes! "'He took his book and threw it down, And threw it down, and threw it down-- He took his book and threw it down, and bound the cat in chains.'" Mrs. Gano was as "astonished" at this performance as "the parson." Ethan nodded a grave encore. "Nwingy Tat!" Whereat they all laughed with the best humor in the world, and Ethan was carried off to bed. Mrs. Gano, under plea of weariness from travel, made her "good-nights" at the same time, arranging to return to Ashburton Place the next day.