Christmas 
97 
lin bags filled with popcorn. The spools had little 
tufts of bright colored worsted sticking out at each 
end, and they were suspended on narrow ribbon 
long enough to reach nearly to the table, which 
made it handy to play with them. The balls had 
something inside, which, when we squeezed them, 
would come out and tickle our noses, but we could 
never see the thing that came out. We used to try 
to catch it, but how could we catch a thing we 
couldn’t see? 
After we had admired the beautiful tree for a 
while, Guy took down a bag for each of us. The 
muslin of which the bags were made was so thin 
that you could see the popcorn that was inside. 
The bags were tied at each end with pretty colored 
ribbon, which made them look just like little white 
sausages ; but how to get them open and get at the 
popcorn was what puzzled me. But cats know just 
as well as people, that “ in union there is strength,” 
so all three of us took hold of the same bag. It 
was tied with blue ribbon and belonged to Budge. 
For a while we played with the bag, each one pull- 
ing in a different direction, and in a few minutes 
the whole floor was littered over with popcorn. 
For a while we were very busy helping ourselves, 
