after tessie and teddy arrived home they hunted around for mother to tell her the awful news, and how sorry they were that the bag of eggs was lying out on the sidewalk in funny yellow patches, with bits of broken shell strewn all around.

about half an hour later tessie was telling her little kitten what mother had said. "and, pussy dear," confided tessie, "don't you ever try to carry any robin's eggs down from the nest. if you do, you'll find you get sliding faster and faster, and before you reach the ground your foot will slip and down you'll come with a crash!"

pussy looked up out of the corners of her blinky green eyes but said nothing.

"and maybe your mother won't be so nice about it," added tessie. "my mother didn't scold me 'cause when i 'splained how my skate nearly came off and tripped me up she just wiped my eyes, 'cause i felt awful sorry, and told me not to cry about it any more, and by and by she gave us all a lump of sugar."

just then puss jumped through the low open window and skipped over the lawn. tessie stepped out on the piazza to see what she was about. at the foot of the old apple tree pussy stopped and then ran up the trunk and out on a limb.

"i do believe," exclaimed tessie, "that she is going to try to bring down some eggs from the robin's nest."

"what did my little girl say?" asked mother, who came out on the porch at that moment. when tessie explained it all, mother laughed and said, "why, there aren't any eggs now in that nest, little girl—don't you know all the little robins were hatched long ago?"

"well, i don't believe pussy knows it," answered tessie, "for there she is now looking into the nest—how disappointed she'll be!"