because they just suited me to a T."

In vain did the clean little sister endeavor to persuade him to wash himself oftener, take more exercise, mingle more with his family, eat less, and try to make himself more respected; it was all of no use: instead of becoming better, he got worse.

There was a hole under the wooden steps that led up to old Granny's cottage, and the Greedy Duckling, having found it out, used to creep in and watch until the old woman's back was turned, when Sukey would be sure to feed him; and very often he found food about, and helped himself to it, no matter what it was. One day Granny had made a custard, which she left standing on the table until the oven was hot, when the Greedy Duckling got at it, and after putting in his beak, and having had a good drink, he held his head aside, and said, "Bless me! though rather thick, it's very nice—not at all like muddy water. I can taste milk, and I'm sure there are eggs, also plenty of sugar; what that brown powder is floating at the top I don't know; but it must be spice, I think, for it warms the stomach. But here comes old Granny: I must hide under the table until she goes out, or I shall have another taste of that horn-handled stick of hers; then, if she hits me fairly on the leg, I shall have to go hoppity kick, as she does. I should like to finish that lot very much, it's so good. O, how comfortably I could sleep after in my little nest under the step! I'll keep a sharp eye on old Granny and her cat."

The cat had been blamed for many things it had never touched, which the Greedy Duckling had gobbled up; and as he sat washing himself on the hob, which was beginning to be warm, Granny having lighted a fire to heat the oven, he spied the duckling under the table, and kept his eye on him without seeming to take any notice at all.

"I shall be having the cat lapping up all this custard, if I don't put it somewhere out of the way," said the grandmother; "it will be the safest here;" and she put it into the oven without quite shutting the door, then went out to get some more wood to put under the oven, which was hardly warm.

"I shall have time enough to finish that lot before old Granny comes back, for she has the wood to break into short pieces," said the Greedy Duckling, who had seen her put the custard into the oven; so he just put out his wings and went in after it, and began pegging away at the custard, for it was a big oven and there was plenty of room.

"I've been blamed often enough for things you've stolen and eaten, and I'll get out of that," said the cat; "for though I know you'll be out of the oven and hiding somewhere the instant you hear her hoppity kick on the cottage floor, yet if she looks at the custard before she shuts the oven door, and finds half of it eaten, she'll say I've had it." So saying, the cat made a spring from off the oven on to the floor, and while doing so, his hinder legs caught the oven door, and, with the force of the spring, shut it to with a loud clap and a click, for the handle always caught when the door was pushed to sharp. Away ran the cat, and in came old Granny with the stick, which she began to shove under the oven, until in time it was so hot that she couldn't take hold of the handle to turn her custard without holding it with the dishclout. "Why, I declare, if it isn't burnt to a cinder!" exclaimed old Granny, as she threw open the oven door; when there was such a smell of burnt feathers and fat as nearly knocked her down; for the fat duckling first ran all to dripping, which ran all over the oven bottom, and then got burnt black, it was so hot; and she never could, nor never did, nor never will make out what it was that made her oven in such a mess and spoiled her custard, nor what became of her Greedy Duckling.

JUVENILE BOOKS.
PUBLISHED BY
SHELDON & COMPANY,
NEW YORK.