Once there was a little girl named Alice, and she had an Uncle George whom she loved very dearly. One day, as Alice was looking out of the window, she saw her Uncle George coming into the yard with a covered basket in his hand.

Alice ran to meet him, and, as she was kissing him in the hall, she heard a faint sound in the basket, and exclaimed, "O Uncle George! what have you brought me?"

"Look into the basket and see," said her uncle.

So Alice peeped in very carefully, and saw a little black kitten. The little girl was delighted, and fairly danced around her uncle as she said, "What a dear little kitten! Is it for me, Uncle George? Who sent it to me? Did you bring it from your house?"

"Yes," said her uncle, "your Cousin Edith sent it to you; she thought you would like it."

"Well," said Alice, "you must thank Edith a thousand times, and here is a kiss for you for bringing it to me; and I'm sure the poor little thing must be hungry: so I'll give it something to eat."

She carried the kitten into the kitchen, and soon got from the cook a nice pan of milk. Her little brother Harry came running in to see the new kitten eat its dinner, and with him came the old family cat, Mouser, who rubbed and purred against Alice, as if he wanted her to pet him too.

The next thing was to find a name, "pretty, and not too common," Alice said. While she was trying to think of one, she went up to her own little room, and searched among her ribbons for a piece to tie around the kitten's neck. She soon found one that was just the thing.

In one of her drawers she found a tiny bell that somebody had given her, and thought it would be a good plan to hang that around kitty's neck by the ribbon. Kitty made no objection to being thus decorated, and a happy thought struck Alice; "Kitty Bell would be just the name for her!" and Kitty Bell it was.

Kitty grew very fast; and one morning, after she had got to be a good-sized kitten, she came to Alice, and mewed quite piteously. Alice gave her some milk; but Kitty Bell was not hungry, and mewed still more. Alice could not think what was the matter.

At last Kitty Bell gave her head a shake, and put one paw up to the ribbon on her neck, as if trying to pull it over her head. Alice untied the ribbon, and away ran Kitty Bell quite out of sight. In a short time she came back with a mouse in her mouth, which she laid at Alice's feet.

Do you see what had been the trouble? The bell had frightened the mice away, so that Kitty Bell could not get near enough to catch them.