THE CAT TO-DAY 233 



" ' Pussy-cat, Pussy-cat, 



Where have you been ? ' 

 ' I 've been to London, 



To look at the Queen.' 

 1 Pussy-cat, Pussy-cat, 



What did you do there ? ' 

 ' I frightened a little mouse 



Under her chair.' " 



It was good Queen Anne whom this adventurous 

 kitten had journeyed to see, and the history of her 

 exploit has been told to children ever since. These 

 verses prepare the way for the fairy tales to follow : 

 — " Puss-in-Boots," "The White Cat," and the 

 legend of Dick Whittington. Perhaps in some 

 favoured nurseries — as, long ago, in mine — the 

 charming French story of " Mere Michel et son 

 Chat " has a place of honour on the bookshelves ; 

 and little readers follow with breathless suspense 

 the wonderful escapes of Moumouth, whose crown- 

 ing victory over the wicked Lustucru was one of 

 the joys of my childhood; a joy as fresh at the 

 twentieth reading as at the first, — more satisfac- 

 tory, perhaps, because then I knew it all along, and 

 so could better bear the trials and dangers that pre- 

 ceded it. Sir Thomas Browne would never have 

 envied " the happiness of inferior creatures, who in 

 tranquillity enjoy their constitutions," had he known 

 Mother Michel's cat. Mr. Aldrich translated this 

 story some years ago, so that it is now as accessible 



