and the sugar and raisins, and they couldn't understand! Talk about animals not being as intelligent as human beings! Why can't they understand us as well as we can them, I should like to know!"
"It does seem strange they didn't know what you meant," said the canary; "I am sure you spoke plainly enough."
"I can't understand," said Mrs. Polly in an irritable tone, "how they can be so stupid. Here they know that the rats steal Major's oats, and that it is the habit of rats to steal anything that attracts their attention, and yet it never occurs to them that they are the ones that take the sugar and raisins! If the barn-cat and the house-cat were not so jealous of each other and didn't quarrel all the time, they might catch old Graywhisker, for he is the one that makes all the trouble; but no, they can't work together, and while one is at one end of the hole, he slips out of the other. If
