“Dear little kitty, you will love me, wont you? My dollies just lie still, and can’t love a bit. You nice, warm, live kitty, you wont let me be lonesome any more.” [Illustration: Decoration] [Illustration: Girl hugging cat] CHAPTER IV. LITTLE THIEVES. So now there were only two kittens in aunt Abby’s house. Julia found them in mischief that very day, up on the kitchen table. Aunt Abby was getting ready to make a custard. She had gone to the pantry for some eggs, and had left the milk on the table, and the sugar-jar uncovered. When she stepped out of the kitchen, the kittens stepped in. The flies, perhaps, had been in before. No little boy or girl would meddle with sugar or milk left in the way; but it is hard to teach kittens that it is wrong to touch what is not theirs. [Illustration: Two cats eating] When aunt Abby and Julia came back with the eggs, the flies were stealing the sugar and the kittens were lapping the milk from the pan. I wonder if those kittens told their mother that Ellen gave each of them a rap on the ear. [Illustration: Decoration] CHAPTER V. A VISIT. One morning Mr. Cary and uncle Benjamin started for a long day’s ride. When her papa kissed Julia good-by, tears came in her eyes. “My heartache will come back again,” she said. But work is a good thing for a sad heart, and aunt Abby had plenty of that for Julia. There were a hundred babies in feathers, out of doors, which Julia liked to feed. For breakfast, dinner, and supper, and for lunches between, Julia carried them food in a tin pail. There were turkeys, chickens, and ducks. When they saw aunty and Julia and the tin pail coming, they knew they should be fed. So out of the coops came chickens and turkeys, peeping and chirping like little birds. And up from the little pond waddled the tiny ducks. It was fun to see how fast they came; how they tumbled down and hopped over one another in a hungry scrabble. Aunt Abby thought Julia would not miss her dear father so much if she were with Anne and Rose. So after dinner they went to visit them. [Illustration: Two kids playing with cat] The little girls had but few playthings, but the kitten made fun enough for them. Anne had already taught her puss to play with a string. Before tea was quite ready for the grown folks, Anne and Rose took a box of very small dishes out on the grass, and set a table of their own. Their mamma gave them a part of each dish she had for her own guest, which made a nice feast. They laughed and ate a great deal, and drank a great many cups of tea. But as the most of their tea came out of the milk-pitcher, and the rest from the teakettle, it did not keep either of them awake that night. They had romped so hard, that soon after tea aunt Abby thought best for Julia to say “Good-night,” and each of the little tea-drinkers was soon asleep.