SUMMER DAYS 



57 



which had been dropped upon the floor ; but my 

 poor whiskers took months to recover, and I hoped 

 that the match remained ahght and burnt the house 

 down. I did not wait to see, as I have said. 



Something seems to have taken me away from 

 my first summer, as usual. I remember that we 

 had a great deal of bother of the same sort once 

 before about a birthday, or something of the kind, 

 owing to your incessant interruptions, so just you 

 keep quiet and let me go on in my own way. I was 

 telling you that I enjoyed it enormously, and could 

 remember every day of it. Of course, after poor 

 mother's tragic end, I was very lonely at first, the 

 more so as my remaining brothers and sisters 

 soon vanished. They may have lived, but when 

 there is any doubt we generally suspect the worst. 

 I had always been my mother's favourite child, 

 though I had not altogether enjoyed her partiality, 

 as it meant extra washings and less chance of going 

 away on my own hook, and a lot of lectures and 

 good advice, while the others were larking about 

 and falling into mischief and other troubles. But 

 I was glad of it now, for I remembered all her rules, 

 and stuck to the thickest part of the hedgerows, 

 and lay very quiet in the daytime and evening. I 

 chose the very early morning as my time for feeding, 



