"Michael," said Mr. Winton, as the horse

was brought around to the door to take him to the depot, "the rats gnawed a hole through the wall in the china-closet last night, and I want you to stop it up with mortar and broken glass."

"All right, sir," answered Michael. "If the barn-cat could be in two places to onst, it's no rats ye'd have in the house. She's a rale knowing baste, is the barn-cat. If you could only see the sinsible way she has wid them kittens of hers. She kapes thim out of doors in foine weather; and when the jew begins to fall, if it's shut the door is, she kapes thim walking about, for fear it's a cold they'll get."

"Let's go and see them," said Tom; and off ran the children as Mr. Winton stepped into the carriage and drove off.

Then, when all was still in the dining-room, a slight noise might have been heard in the china-closet, and a long nose and a