"He wasn't a cat."

"A cat?"

"Yes, he wasn't a cat, that Moses--a boy was he."

"But of course he wasn't a cat," I said with some severity; "no one ever
supposed he was."

"Yes, but mummy," she explained eagerly, with much appropriate hand-
action, "the cook's Moses _is_ a cat."

"Oh, I see. Well?"

"And he was put in a basket in the water, and that did swim. And then
one time they comed, and she said--"

"Who came? And who said?"

"Why, the ladies; and the _Konigstochter_ said, _'Ach hormal_, _da_
_schreit so etwas_.'"

"In German?"

"Yes, and then they went near, and one must take off her shoes and
stockings and go in the water and fetch that tiny basket, and then they
made it open, and that _Kind_ did cry and cry and _strampel_ so"--here
both the babies gave such a vivid illustration of the _strampeln_ that
the verandah shook--"and see! it is a tiny baby. And they fetched
somebody to give it to eat, and the _Konigstochter_ can keep that boy,