UC-NRLF
IDfl
HE GREAT
SltALLCAT
AND OTHERS
MAY E. SOUTHWORTH
GIFT OF
THE GREAT SMALL CAT
AND OTHERS
JIMINY CHRISTMAS: HIS FIRST
APPEARANCE
HE WAS PROBABLY A GRACELESS
VAGABOND, BORN IN THE GUTTER, WITH
PRETENSIONS TO BREEDING OR EVEN
GOOD LOOKS
NO
THE GREAT SMALL
CAT AND OTHERS
Seven Tales
BY MAY E. SOUTHWORTH
ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS AND
DECORATED BY PEDRO J. LEMOS
PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY
PUBLISHERS SAN FRANCISCO
Copyright, 1914
PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY
SAN FRANCISCO
IN LOVING
MEMORY OF THURSDAY
MY OWN
302347
INTRODUCTION
EVERYONE knows that there are all kinds of
people; also there are all kinds of cats, worthy
and unworthy. No two are exactly alike, and by
those who do not class them in a bunch, but study
them as individuals, they are found to have de-
cided characteristics all their own, ever presenting
strange surprises in a mixture of the unexpected
higher qualities of civilization and the evils of
lowest barbarism. The appeal of the kitten is al-
most universal, as there are few men, women or
children, even those who "shudder" at a real cat,
who can resist the subtle charm of these fuzzy
lumps of playfulness. But cats, the alley cat, your
cat, my cat, anybody's cat, all cats are in need of
some brave champion, someone who will endeavor
to portray their better side and be able to so
increase for them the appreciation of mankind
that they will come to what is only rightfully their
own. Whatever your faith or practice may be
touching cats, you are bound to admit that they
must surely have some kind of mission here on
earth. The trend of modern beneficence shows
the day of even the cat is on the way, the day
when they shall be better understood, making the
iv o rid kinder to them in recognizing that these
often sadly abused little creatures, have the feel-
ings common to flesh and blood and are times
U'ithout number, actuated by human thoughts and
impulses. Recent years have done much in the
way of atonement for persistent error in regard
[V]
INTEODUCTION
to their nature, by thrusting upon them a balance
long their due in the form of many happy literary
tributes, proving, in spite of much withering scorn,
that environment has much more to do with their
lack of worth than has original sin.
The lowly state of the average cat, just toler-
ated for its usefulness as a natural rat execu-
tioner, is unworthy of its better capabilities, and
to the heart of a lover of the species, a cruelty.
It is companionship which counts the most with
cats, and when, instead of being a comfortable
family institution as was intended, their nature
being of the warmest and most sociable kind, they
are mercilessly relegated to the cold cellar or
outhouse to battle for life and sustenance, they
are more miserable than anyone can imagine who
does not know how a cat longs for home life and
company. If left in this way to struggle for a
meager existence, without a word of kindness, and
chased for their very lives if they presume, in
their lonely longing, to timidly enter the family
refinement, is it a wonder that under these con-
ditions, these dwellers in solitude develop only
the worse and uglier traits in their disposition?
Although cats are brimful of human whims
and moods and are also very human in their de-
votion to home, order and cleanliness, they are
decidedly slow in attaching themselves to humans
and not quick to give them their friendship. Un-
like a dog, they maintain a rather haughty inde-
pendence in the matter of reciprocity, and after
they have decided that you are worthy of the
honor of their confidence, and they have given it,
[VI]
INTRODUCTION
it can only be retained by constant entreaty and on
the strictest terms of obligation, never forced. To
know something of the queer brain and really
glowing heart beneath the mystery of their grace-
ful furry coats, a heart which they guard almost
fiercely against mere "curious" intimacy, it is
necessary to make an effort; but as every cat
lover knows, they will surely repay such effort
in lavish response. And above all, in trying to
get acquainted with cats, show them the compli-
ment of companionship which they truly and cor-
dially appreciate, for they, too, are in various
ways "also human" and their readiness to re-
spond to intimacy of this kind is a most gratify-
ing surprise to the skeptical.
[vn]
The cat tails spring up in the hollow
But where can their late owners be?
The tale of their tails does not follow
When cat tails spring up in the hollow.
But the stream many secrets must swallow
So it may be their ghosts that we see.
So when cat tails spring up in the hollow
We surmise where their owners may be.
Thomas Grant Springer
THE TALES IN THIS BOOK
PAGE
THE GREAT SMALL CAT 3
The tale of the black "stray," whose mother-love and
home-love steeled her to repeatedly brave the waters of
the dark, swift-flowing river, and how this "bunch hard
to beat" overcame the cold heart of the "widow lady"
of the ranch.
THURSDAY 27
The orphan foundling, fed from a spoon; her coquet-
tish tyranny over her friend and playmate, a magnifi-
cent Irish setter; and the story of her tragic end when
answering the home-call.
A MIXE, A MIXER, AXD A CAT .... 43
The story of the loyal comradeship of the miner and
the cat, and of how Puss proved to be the cleverer
prospector of the two and discovered the bonanza mine.
AIDA AXD SAADI 61
Twin blue-blooded aristocrats, whose temperamental
pranks and mischievous adventures caused startling sur-
prises and frequent shocks; their marauding, murder-
ous transgressions and how they were finally cured.
MAROOXED 77
The story of the intense hatred of the shanghaied cat;
his dignified aloofness ; his "tabasco temper" over the
pranks of the sailors; and his final survival of the
wreck, from which, after braving the ocean waves, he
reached the shore and gained his freedom amid the
mystery of the wild.
MAIDA 99
The strange but true story of the Maltese mother-cat
who adopted a brood of white rats, and the record of
her disciplinary methods in raising and controlling her
alien foster-children.
A MEMORY 109
The tale of Jiminy Christmas, a tramp cat, whose
wild and vagabond nature caused him to yield, inter-
mittently, to the call of the open, and to leave, uncere-
moniously, his protected home of plenty and comfort;
his last pathetic return.
[XI]
THE PICTURES IN THIS BOOK
JIMINY CHKISTMAS :
His FIRST APPEARANCE . . . Frontispiece
He was probably a graceless vagabond, born in the
gutter, with no pretensions to breeding or even good
looks.
FACING PAGE
THE GREAT SMALL CAT 8
Although the small stray was minus all signs of
pedigree, she held her head high and was accorded
the respect and good treatment due a lady.
THURSDAY 34
As she never attained the full stature of an ordinary
cat, she always looked but half-grown, but was the
very perfection of dainty symmetry, her coat a solid
black, almost blue in its depths.
THE CAT 52
Handsome, shining and saucy, the kitten had grown
into the most splendid bigness of his race: all muscle
and nerve, unusually broad of chest and looking as if
bred to the mountain fastness and able to endure all
sorts of pioneer hardships.
AI'DA AND SAADI 72
"Oh, lady! You do not suspect us of having seen
any of your birds this morning f"
MAROONED 84
Neither disappointment nor ugly temper had broken
his fierce sense of injury or his indomitable spirit.
MAIDA 102
In long-suffering patience Maida would stretch herself
in a streak of sunshine and survey the riotously in-
corrigible mites, indulging in their favorite pastime of
playing tag all over her body.
JIMINY CHRISTMAS, THE FREE SPIRIT . . 120
Born free, he kept his own wanton will free from
enslavement to the end, living his own life in honor
and honesty in an out- doors all his own.
[xm]
THE GREAT SMALL CAT
THE GREAT SMALL CAT
ONCE upon a time, a while ago, during pleasant
hours spent in the "land of big cows and
small horses, " I met one of the most modest of
black mother cats, but one with such a pathetic
experience in her life as to make her stand alone,
not as a cat, but as the cat. At any rate, the
story as told by the young ranchman is absolutely
true and surely worth the telling, if only to prove
that cats are singularly human in their love for
their offspring, and are all mother in sacrifice and
thoughtful care, giving life itself if necessary in
unselfish devotion.
The cat was small, bright-eyed and clean but
apparently of the most commonplace and ordinary
variety, and not distinguished by any special at-
tractiveness as to species. Still, on hearing the
"story of her life" as related by this man, one
of her most faithful benefactors, of how she
cheated fate and battled with fear and death,
conquering every natural antipathy, it made one
feel that it was an event to meet her. To en-
[3]
THE GKEAT SMALL CAT
counter such a plain unassuming little creature
who had given positive proof of harboring in her
small head the braiin of a diplomat and of being
so surprisingly shrewd, and so gloriously fear-
less, was an incident of such stirring revelation as
to make it of marked consequence.
In telling the story, the cattleman said it was
partly owing to the accident of the little mother-
cat's being black in color that she was here on
the ranch in a little corner that she felt was home
and that meant happiness to her. There may
be in some out-of-the-way corners of the world,
people who still believe in magic and folk-lore
and with them the fair fame of black cats ever
suffers from that benighted superstition of ancient
times, that they are creatures of witches and
devils. But the more modern belief makes double
reparation for this uncanny ignorance by giving
them the reputation of not only always bringing
good luck in their wake, but lovers as well.
Larry was squatting upon his heels, his broad
back leaning carelessly against the "bunk house, "
while he gazed reminiscently down over his pipe
at the modest bunch of black fur neatly snuggled
in the dust at his side, all four paws tucked out
of sight, when, in Western cameraderie, I coaxed
from him the story I had wondered so much about
and longed to hear in detail. As he began to
tell me about it in the lazy, good-natured, pro-
vincial dialect of the plains, one hand strayed
caressingly to the head of the "little pard" and
lingered there lovingly while he talked and
smoked.
[4]
THE GEEAT SMALL CAT
"Oh, she's just a small stray that loped in on
our range, but y'u can bet ye'r life she's a winner
all right and a bunch hard to beat. She's 'just
cat,' but there ain't nothing nowhere purtier, and
y'u couldn't go out in a whole round-up of felines
and rope a gentler one, though she's grit clear
through to the backbone. ' '
The "bunch hard to beat" looked up into her
friend's face with bright, inquiring eyes, under-
standing the love and approval in his glance if
not the great distinction conferred upon her of
being the bright, particular star in the story he
was relating.
"Well, y'u see, it's this-a-way," explained
Larry, in his pleasant drawl, removing his briar
and stiffening his muscles: "Cats is mighty use-
ful things. What would the blamed country be
without them anyway! an' it's no way reason-
able that we could run t his ranch without this little
peacherino. She's just a soft pretty thing, but
she's sure got spunk enough for a wild bull.
Lordy me! we're just plumb foolish over her,
and she don't step on nobody's bunions no more,
y'u bet! She ain't that sort. She's so modest
and quiet it beats all how good it makes y'u feel
just to have her round; a sort of spiritual uplift
and missionary 'home sweet home' broke gentle
to the gang."
Evidently these men, really manly men, some
of them as brown and wrinkled as an old leather
shoe, were the little cat's sincere admirers. As
I listened to the story, I stole her from the ranch-
man's hand and gathered her, almost reverently,
[5]
THE GREAT SMALL CAT
in my lap, more then as a testimony to the big-
heartedness and sterling human qualities of the
Western cattlemen, than as the distinguished
heroine of the narrative./
It seems that at the noon hour, about the
middle of one April, while the men were idly
loitering on the shady side of the adobe, waiting
for the hour to strike which called them to work
again, a dusty, fuzzy little black streak scooted
in from the direction of the road and dropped
all in a heap, breathless and exhausted, at their
feet. The "deboo" of this miserable little
stranger had been unannounced and the sudden-
ness of this rather dramatic entrance upon the
scene of the unexpected, though tiny debutante,
caused quite a flutter among the men, and pipes
and cigarettes were hastily laid aside in order
that they might look over at close range this
"feeble short horn." The bedraggled little " black
streak" proved on examination to be the thinnest,
most woebegone, footsore, starved and wholly ex-
hausted black kitten ever seen, whose tired legs
had been able to carry her just this far not a
step farther could she have gone. She was in-
deed a pitiful creature, half -dead with fear and
fatigue, and in looks so painfully appealing that
she waked compassion in even the stoniest heart.
Evidently she had traveled far, without food or
rest, as she was completely done for. Why she
came, or from where, nobody could tell, but prob-
ably chased and hunted until absolutely worn out,
she had in her extremity ventured into this refuge
of humans, taking her chances. To the ever-
[6]
THE GEEAT SMALL CAT
lasting honor of these rough ranch hands, their
tough bachelor hearts were touched by this help-
less, sick-looking little mite of a kitten, and they
decided that she was to stay and be made com-
fortable. Feeling half-ashamed of their compas-
sionate impulse and in order to hide even from
one another any unmanly sentiment in the matter,
one said:
"H'its powerful good luck to have a black cat
hit the camp! I like the color, boys, and have a
hunch it'll bring us great; let's rope and brand
her for our diggins."
So the "good luck" was not scatted off, but
was introduced to the ranch and seemed very
grateful for their soft-hearted hospitality. When
she had lapped some good warm milk into her
vacant stomach she gained sufficient strength to
express her satisfaction with what had been
"handed out to her," and showed a most beauti-
ful willingness to stay by it.
The "hostess" of this ranch was a large, wide
"widow woman," in eloquent vernacular "grass,"
one of those very capable, hard-working individ-
uals whose precarious temper even when all went
well with her, was never to be imposed upon. Her
brisk, ponderous tread was a power, real and felt,
and not to be trifled with for a moment in any
mood. The boys realized that she would be
"plumb discouraging" to any scheme for the
adoption of this tiny waif, and knew the utter futil-
ity of trying to pull her heartstrings in any kind of
sympathy for "only a cat." So they turned all
their energies into the most guilty, barefaced
[7]
THE GEEAT SMALL CAT
personal coaxing and cajolery in order to get any
kind of concession in her department for this ad-
ditional feeder. As they expected, she was about
as responsive as a Chinese Joss and as hard as
a stone to any possible allurements the kitten
might develop as a home-maker, and the very most
they could gain from the "old grouch " was a
grudging consent to just "let her stay round till
some other place can be found for her."
"And her face wasn't a mite smiling or even
friendly as she said it." So the poor little kitten,
being only on sufferance, accepted such crusts of
charity as came her way, and was mighty grateful ;
for she was very hungry, very weary, and good
food had long been a strange thing in her small
stomach. It was plain the kitten had never known
anything of home or a fireside and was simply
of the humble garden variety of cat. Yet she
was not an outcast or a tramp by nature, for she
proved very quick to fall into ways which con-
tributed to the cosiness of the cabin kitchen, even
with the scant encouragement she received. The
feminine eternal heart-throb of home-making was
certainly there in her breast, for just like "other
folks" she took her allotted place in the corner
back of the big stove and was singularly human
in the snug enjoyment of the comfort of it.
In the cattle country the one momentary lull in
affairs is when the day's work is over and night
has settled down over the lonesome miles of ranch
and the men are all gathered in a circle round the
open fire. In this good-fellowship under the big
stars one night, they fell to discussing their little
[8]
THE GEEAT SMALL CAT
ALTHOUGH THE SMALL STRAY WAS
MINUS ALL SIGNS or PEDIGREE, SHE HELD
HER HEAD HIGH
AND WAS ACCORDED THE RESPECT AND
GOOD TREATMENT DUE A LADY
THE GREAT SMALL .CAT
black protegee, and the permission they had to
only "let her stay round. " As they were almost
maternally solicitous that she should have a per-
manent home with them, they decided that as her
sponsors they were in a way responsible and had
better get busy at once and attend to her serious
education, laying out the details of her conduct
on a straight and narrow path of duty.
Larry was the one selected to "break her
gentle," and at his very first opportunity was
requested to "do the decent" and to start her
off with a strictly private and business tip, speak-
ing for the whole outfit. In recalling this incident
in the game, Larry's big laugh rang out until he
wiped the tears away with a corner of the gay
bandanna knotted about his neck.
"I took this tenderfoot aside," he said, "and
gave it to her personally and straight, y'u bet.
Come here, pard, says I, I've got to give it to
y'u private and special. We want y'u to camp
in this yere diggins for always, but, if y'u get
a chance to stay, y'u've got to conduct yereself
decorus. This yere is a bachelor round-up with
one skirt that's the big boss of the whole outfit.
What she says goes and y'u want to get that into
yere system from the start-off. We want to give
y'u a square deal with no superfluous language,
but She's the cinch and y'll get what's coming to
y'u, all right, if y'u don't go cautious."
The recounter said that the very grave and
polite way the kitten took this "rounding-up
spiritually" was killing, solemnly looking him
straight in the eye with painful concentration,
[9]
THE GEEAT SMALL CAT
her little nose in nervous crinkles. Larry con-
fessed that the big effort this small vagrant made
"to get the drift " of what he was trying to im-
press on her mind, made him feel like a huge
brute. Anyway, by some trick of his slow, de-
licious drawl, the timely warning "sunk in" and
found a responsive chord in her consciousness.
In some way she fathomed his friendly intention
and understood, at least, the magic timbre of his
soothing voice which flashed back entire confi-
dence and drew to him a friend, one who was
infinitely shy, but one who would trust him ab-
solutely while life lasted.
These paternal young cowmen, having deliv-
ered their souls of this religious act of discipline,
"pulled the stake" and let her go free. By the
time the days of kittenhood had passed the
"stray" had grown plump and her coat glossy,
and although minus all signs of pedigree, she
held her head high and had acquired a certain
modest dignity, sufficient to deceive a laynjan and
to insure the respect and good treatment due a
lady. Evidently she had been careful to mind the
warning and was conducting herself "decorus."
In return for their hospitality she attended to
her part of the ranch business by keeping the
cabin and pantry strictly clear of all rats and
mice. Occasionally she gave chase to the wild
things good for cats, and at milking time, if she
happened to "hang round," the men were sure
to give her a fine dessert of warm milk. As the
days and weeks went happily by for her, she
unobtrusively arranged her life to suit the pleas-
[10]
THE GREAT SMALL CAT
ant place she had fallen into, gaining an honest
living by her skill, with a few luxuries thrown in
at unexpected intervals by the men, who would
forget her for days at a time, owing to her modest
way of keeping in the background. If on some
lean and hungry days, when hunting had not been
so successful, she would sometimes wistfully sniff,
with eager, yearning stomach and longing, though
decently distant eyes, the bountiful, savory mess
of the kitchen, or venture to rub too coaxingly
near the bustling form juggling the pots and pans
with energetic vehemence, she was soon made to
understand that she had overstepped the bounds
of her tolerance, in trespassing on the particular
domain of one who just endured her unwelcome
presence. Being feminine and an unusually sen-
sible and peaceable cat, she soon developed a
surprising acuteness in diplomacy and in warding
off unnecessary trouble. After various mortifying
experiences she found it best to be "only handy "
at such times as the feasts were in progress,
creeping most cautiously in, a-tiptoe on her soft
noiseless pads, just to be there in case any tid-
bits should come her way.
All might have been well, and life a long holi-
day, leading her in pleasant ways to the end, had
she not erred, and so innocently and blindly erred.
Of course it was scandalous, if natural, and not
to be tolerated for one moment by the already
much overburdened landlady. The downfall came
as a terribly stiff jolt to poor kitty, for her heart
had swelled with guiltless pride over her sin and
its achievement.
[11]
THE GREAT SMALL CAT
One sad Sunday morning she was discovered
in her cosy corner, a very picture of innocent
content over the beautiful surprise she had cre-
ated for the family. There she lay with her eyes
half -closed, softly beaming in rapture on six very
small, newly born infants at her breasts. As she
was " discovered " she looked up in her delirium
of happiness with a hesitating, half -apologetic
sort of smile, as one longing for, yet meeting, no
response. Her anxiety was so exactly human that
no one could mistake her meaning or her little
weak smile of hesitating conciliation. But it froze
in a flash when with frightened dismay she heard
the hustling housewife's loud and angry denuncia-
tion of "the march that hussy had stolen on us,"
and the sentence of "immediate death" or "trans-
portation" pronounced on "her and her brood,"
in stentorian and not-to-be-trifled- with tones.
These square men with square jaws were "all
in a heap" over the size and caliber of the shock
their pet had handed out to them. The smolder-
ing spark of guardianship that had been fanned
to a warm, comfortable flame in their breasts was
not so easily extinguished, but they realized that
all pleading and diplomacy with the outraged Au-
thority would be in vain this time. No pet on the
ranch had ever, in an unobtrusive way, gained so
firm a hold on their stout hearts and i ' their pile of
hope was busted well" by this rude interruption to
the tremendous bid they had made on the bad-tem-
pered woman's favor. Not only did they hate
to part with this shy, little, inoffensive protegee,
but that she had failed to "make good" in the
[12]
THE GEEAT SMALL CAT
eyes of the one whom, in their fiercest rage they
dared not oppose, and so had lost her home, was
a sickening disappointment. As they braced
themselves for the worst and stood there smiling
indulgently down on the cat so snug in her bed,
there was a long and rather anxious pause during
which they all seemed tongue-tied, until at last
one said in playful disgust:
" Humph! y'uVe been plumb busy to-day,
hav'n't y'u, old girl, and this time, like all females,
handing out trouble for yereself with both hands. ' '
They were both disgusted and "plenty sor-
rowful" over the terrible fiat, but it was a case,
on their part, of "have to," and a bad case, too.
Not that they were afraid, but they were "hob-
bled," all right, as well as "bridle wise," and
frankly confessed that when it came to women,
they were "a mite timid." But since there was
a choice of evils, in sorrowfully bending to the
inevitable they, of course, decided on "transpor-
tation." In indignation they considered places,
finally determining to take the offending family
across the river, far, far, away where they would
never more be able to trespass on so reluctant a
hospitality as the ranch cabin afforded. In wide-
eyed wonderment and feverish anxiety, the crest-
fallen young mother followed every movement in
the preparations that were being made for her
journey. She, of course, could not understand,
but watched with vastly puzzled eyes all this
strange confusion about her bed, feeling that she
was surely in some way responsible for this un-
usual excitement. In nervous haste she passion-
[13]
THE GREAT SMALL CAT
ately licked the wee babies with tender, mothering
tongue, and with soft caressing murmurs as if as-
suring them of safety and was about to do it all
over again with utmost care in hopes of being able
to disperse the gloom they had evidently created
when she and the kits were lifted gently into a
covered basket which the men had been carefully
preparing for the conveyance. They knew of a
place, "the furtherest ever," a real home ranch
where the house-mother would be really glad of
this family. It was far enough away so that the
exile could never return, and besides, what made it
an absolutely safe asylum in the judgment of these
men was that it was across a deep flowing river,
which meant that there could be no " stampede "
back. Even for the most homesick of kitties and
one who "sure had spunk/' it would be madness
to attempt to return across that.
These big men, big physically and big in ten-
derness and sympathy, usually "took the bit in
their mouths and got whatever they went for,"
and with pretty smart directness, too. But they
were shy, their nerve forsaking them entirely,
when it came to tackling a woman on her own
stamping ground, and that woman the very cap-
able provider of their "three square per." Why
she had taken this obstinate caprice and unrea-
sonable dislike they did not try to conjecture. It
was beyond male understanding and they lov-
ingly alluded to her as the "one and original
Chinese puzzle." They said "women is queer"
with that long-suffering tolerance which the male
human accords the vagaries of the female.
[14]
THE GEEAT SMALL CAT
The rangeman is nothing if he lacks that one
remarkably comfortable trait of adaptability, and
so, although they were not " stuck on the job"
of removing the cat, they were forced by virtue
of their very large necessity not to get into a
"mix-up," by reason of the woman 's crabbed
temper and strange antagonism.
So two volunteer martyrs, boiling, seething
volcanoes inside, shamedly and reluctantly took
up the basket, holding it as gingerly as if it were
a case of eggs instead of a case of a mother and
her harvest of shame, and dismally started for
the ferry. After crossing the river they "pulled
their freight" on the trail a mile farther back
inland, which led upwards into a wide broad
meadow and to the home of a friendly ranch-boss.
The buxom wife welcomed their unexpected ar-
rival and the "family" with open arms, telling
them that she had long been wanting a younger
breed of cats to take the place of "old Tom,"
now getting lazy and "no 'count," and that she
felt flattered that these faithful friends had se-
lected this ranch as the home for their pet. The
men fixed a nice warm bed in the sanctuary of a
vacant manger in one of the corrals, counted out
the infants and found them all 0. K., and then
tried to coax the cat to nestle down and mother
them. But she would not, merely crouching over
them instead, in an anxious sort of way with her
ears perked inquiringly forward, in an attitude
of miserable bewilderment.
The outcome of her "happy surprise" had
been a crushing blow, but one which would wake
[15]
THE GREAT SMALL CAT
within her such a marvelous spirit of determina-
tion and endurance as to render her distinguished
among cats. The second "happy surprise" she
was to unfold for their entertainment was one
little anticipated and one that would take the
breath from even these hardened men.
As they turned finally to leave her she gave a
long agonized mew that was so like a human call
of utter desolation, and which caused such queer
fluttering thumps in the men's hearts, that they
went back to console her, if possible, and to tuck
the babies all in again, with the caution to lie
still and be good.
"Now look here, Cat, y'u don't want to take
it to heart like this! Y'u've been treated low
down and it's a darned shame, but there's no use
getting all fussed up over it. Y'u can bank on
yere pards making things pretty mean and sassy
for that 'old porkypine.' She's sure in fer sor-
row ! The rats and mice will do things, something
scandalous, in that old pantry of hern. Now, go
by-low, and take good care of the babies till we
come again."
Waving her a sorrowful "ta-ta" with their
hands, they at last left her, to return by way of
the ferry, singing as they went, in their mellow
cowboy cadence, an old Scotch folk-lore song which
they thought quite appropriate to the occasion
and soothing to the mother:
There was an old cat, and a black cat, too,
That had so many children, she didn't know what to do.
To save them from fighting and scratching and bawling,
She pinned them all up by the ears when out calling.
[16]
'HE GREAT SMALL CAT
Little they suspected that the echo of the
thrilling tenderness in their voices as they chanted
this low refrain, growing fainter and fainter as
they disappeared down the hill, was stirring an
impulse in her thumping heart, which when ma-
ture, would work out into so wise and cunning a
scheme as to render their deliberate, well-planned
human precautions as naught.
Down deep beneath the apparently indifferent
nature of every animal quivers an intense human
love of home that glows with a steady flame as
long as life lasts. It is God's own gift to the
animals and in the heart of this little exile it was
a passion that had grown into an intense deter-
mination for that one bit of earth from which
she had been torn, and the only place in all the
world that seemed good to her. This divine long-
ing for her old quarters was a vibrant thrill,
thumping, thumping continually, like a trip-ham-
mer in her homesick breast, and already daring
the best and bravest in her nature to dangers ap-
palling to a much bigger and bolder beastie.
There was no outcry and no appeal for help in
the desolate hours she must have spent in meditat-
ing on the venturesome risk of this dumb chal-
lenge, but deep down in that undiscovered coun-
try of the cat's outraged loyalty, there must have
been something powerfully impelling to have given
her the daring to undertake so desperate and ven-
turesome a deed.
In the velvet dusk of a night, not long after-
ward, a solitary figure, lean, black, and small,
might have been seen, trotting at a steady
[17] "
THE GEEAT SMALL CAT
pace with a purposeful air that surely meant
business, carefully picking her way among the
weeds and undergrowth and making straight
for the cottonwoods and willows that grew along
the bank of the river. The determined form was
steady of nerve, carrying her head high, and in
her mouth a limp, nerveless black bundle of fur.
When she reached the brink of the swift-flowing,
trackless water, there was a quivering pause, as
if she were perhaps weighing the chances of life
and death; but only for an instant, for immedi-
ately there was a plunk and she sank right down
into the whirl of the dreadful blackness and then
silence.
Holding her burden high in her mouth, safe
and dry, she soon dragged her wet and heavy body
up the bank on the opposite shore, and obeying
the sure instinct of her useful little nose set her
face right for the old place in the kitchen cabin
which was the cherished spot of her determined
desire. She placed this smallest and least pretty
of her brood in the old nest that had been so
rudely despoiled, but without waiting to comfort
or even to warm the wee mite, turned her face
resolutely toward the return journey. There was
no time to stop, as ten times more she must fight
the good fight and battle with the cold and danger
of the awful and tedious transit.
The gray dawn was just breaking by the time
the intrepid little mother, utterly exhausted, lay
beside her six babies in her old homey bed, a mute
reproach to the caprice or hasty anger that had
made this cruel test necessary. The six sources
[18]
THE GEEAT SMALL CAT
of all her trouble were tugging hungrily at her
breasts, looking as innocent and harmless as
downy puffs, having already been licked and
groomed into tidiness by their forgiving mother.
The housekeeper's gasp of astonishment
changed into a cry of disbelief when she came into
the cabin and found the family so snugly settled
in their old quarters. Surely "the boys" had de-
ceived her in regard to having taken the cat across
the river, or how could this marvel be! The
round, fixed and troubled eyes of the cat looked
questioningly and bravely up into her enemy's
startled face while her fate hung in the balance,
with a courage that feared but did not flinch,
and there could be no mistaking their half-defiant
plea this time. It would, indeed, have been a
heart of steel not to have been moved by the
pity of it, as the frail bit of motherhood looked
from the coldly inquiring eyes bending above her,
to the collection at her breasts, with a tenderness
and pride that would have shamed a human
mother. Evidently the milk of human kindness
had not all dried up in the rough woman's
motherly breast in rubbing all these years against
the sharp edges of Western ranch life and she
was at last touched in a vulnerable spot, for the
flush of anger faded from her irate face, and the
hand so threateningly raised fell in a half -gentle
pat on the small mother so bravely awaiting her
decision.
Afterward when the full significance of what
she had seen there had filtered to her understand-
ing and she knew the story of the cat's valiant
[19]
THE GEEAT SMALL CAT
struggle with death and the marvelous feat of
her perilous journey just to "be home" and with
those she had "loved and lost a while, " herself
among the rest, her face softened and the first
real smile she had shown for years beamed on
her face, chasing the old hardened lines to the
jumping- off point. Even the hearts of these big
bluff cowmen quailed in contemplating the Spar-
tan nerve this helpless young mother had shown
in making that piteous journey, back and forth
in the lonely silence of the black night, mindful
of each and every one of those precious babies.
This was just a plain, common everyday cat, but
one with an extraordinary calm determination
and a stout heart overflowing with two sacred
and human attributes, mother-love and home-love.
She had paid the price, fearlessly and pluckily,
to ease these human aches in her breast, a price
the agony of which perhaps we have no way of
measuring, but one from which we know she would
have shrunk in horror under ordinary circum-
stances.
This small animal of no pretensions whatever,
maneuvered and fought her successful battle
alone, daring even to challenge a bitter enemy, and
gained not only the home that she had insisted
upon keeping, but in the end, by a strange caprice
of fortune, the far greater and unexpected compen-
sation of finding a warm soft spot in a heart sup-
posed to be invulnerable.
It was not necessary, when the men came in
to breakfast, for each to deny any conspiracy in
the cat's home-coming. Wet, weary and cold,
[20]
THE GREAT SMALL CAT
the cat told her own story. That their astonish-
ment was genuine, no one could doubt, for they
were struck dumb as they stared blankly at the
" monster, " though their beaming faces could not
hide the cheery welcome they gave her in spite of
being unable to utter it. They were evidently
1 i plumb locoed " for even the boldest and most
reckless of them, knowing what the mother must
have been through, could not look unmoved on
this miracle of miracles not one kitling missing
of the many, and each one meaning a trip across
the dark, swirling current. Emitting sonorous
and somewhat profane ejaculations, but decidedly
to the point, they "sort 'a" laughed and shrugged
their shoulders, evidently unable to find any lan-
guage polite enough to express their sentiments
on the subject and perhaps it dimly occurred to
them that it might be better not to express them
anyway. But these rough diamonds were always
sure to come out strongest under hardest con-
ditions, so one of them, in quick kindliness, to
relieve the rather awkward strain of the situation,
"made good" by exclaiming with shame-faced
tenderness: "The trouble with cats is, y'u can't
never tell what they know and what they don't,
nor what darned foolish audasus ideas they got
tucked away in their measly carcasses."
There was no use arguing with the warlike
"missus," although they surely felt there was
argument "a plenty" otf their side and chafed
at the mandates of their more polite diplomacy,
but swallowed their wrath in silent indignation,
as being the better part of valor, too happy in
[21]
THE GREAT SMALL CAT
the strange turn of affairs to parley over it. As
Larry said, " There ain't no depending on fe-
males," and surprises await you at every turn.
However, a woman is never so humble as when
proven biased in judgment or instinct, and what-
ever their former differences may have been, the
hour of surrender on this woman's part showed
that deep down inside she was made of the proper
stuff, and that it was not hardness of heart but
the hardness of her life that had given her this
rough exterior. This strange tenderness that pity
had been able to awaken in the woman's heart
had been dormant all these lonely years and was
probably not intended for a cat at all, but for
something dearer and sweeter; still, in lieu of
its natural vent, it was decreed it should be lav-
ished on this nice little comfortable substitute.
Thus one tiny flash of love-light transformed com-
pletely her disagreeable bearing and declared for
an everlasting friendship between the large wo-
man of the large ranch and the small cat. Ap-
parently there was some secret understanding
between them, for it was a turning point and the
beginning of a new era in the life of each. Here-
after the earth and the fulness thereof seemed to
be the cat's. However the victory she had won
sat very modestly on the unpresuming diplomat
who humbly took up her duties just where she
had left them off, and in spare moments tried to
show her gladness in being safe at home and in
good fellowship, by opening and shutting her
small claws ecstatically and purring like a small
drum.
[22]
THE GREAT SMALL CAT
There was no public display on the woman's
part of this wonderful burst of tenderness in her
heart, for she would have been ashamed to show
how good it felt to be human, but the lesson had
"took" and evidently "took hard," for it bore
fruit in a wonderful moderation in her tyrannous
rule and even a redemption of her looks. The
old woebegone lines in her face, which her own
hardness had traced there, fast disappeared, and
she was transformed into a living woman, one
who felt good and warm inside and showed it
in her attitude toward all. After all, love is the
only miracle, and hearts are the same the world
over, and perhaps it was God's timely economy
that only a poor little waif of a homesick cat
should have lived and suffered just to be the
angel to make the whole world new for this bitter
woman-heart. In graciously showing this en-
tirely unexpected softness, and a new-born pro-
tecting interest in the cat, the woman brought to
herself the love of many, and basking in its radi-
ance was like being raised from the dead, opening
up as it did a better understanding with all in a
sort of friendly comradeship. Her manner to-
ward the "little black mascot," as the cat was
now called, was at all times sociable and intimate,
although to have let her or the family forget for
one moment that discipline was her prerogative,
would have been to betray the pose of her service
of years among them.
On the morning of the cat 's return she merely
squared matters with her own conscience by tak-
ing her medicine in so far as to confess her miser-
[23]
THE GEEAT SMALL CAT
able blunder by throwing out her hands in a sort
of helpless gesture and bravely assuming the role
of Destiny by issuing a final mandate: " She's
had enough, and she's going to stay right here."
Then she shut her lips ominously tight together
as if ignoring the possibility of any further dis-
cussion on the subject, which hint was gladly
heeded by these alert young men who were surely
"onto their job." Larry said, there was even
no "back talk" and no "crowing, merely a little
snicker, ' ' but even that not too noticeable, as they
gazed at each other in helpless, bashful awkward-
ness, waiting for someone to be bold and brave
enough to "get busy" so that they could all "get
out o' sight." At last, one care-free, happy young
lad, with a little meaning twinkle in his blue eyes,
absolutely unable to restrain his hilarious ap-
proval any longer, impulsively laid his hand on
the widow's very generously upholstered shoulder
in passing, and said confidentially in a hoarse
whisper :
"Thems the kind of sentiments, and y'u're sure
some lady! And she's a great small cat and will
sing y'u to sleep o' nights."
A joyful grin spread over the whole bunch
as they rather sheepishly made their way to the
door and bolted outside, heaving great sighs of
relief as they struck the freedom of the outer air.
"And the best of it all," explained Larry, smil-
ing broadly; "h'it's all true, cross my heart if it
tain't, and the lady took her medicine good and
proper and landed kerchunk on her feet all right. ' '
And throwing me a brief half -nod of youthful
friendliness he was off.
[24]
THURSDAY
THURSDAY
AGIKL, a hammock, a book and a day in June :
a happy combination for memories, idleness
and half-sadness, with no end of interesting pos-
sibilities that might come to one who loves and
responds to the allurement.
It was one of those hot early June days in a
California valley when all nature seems held in
quiet suspense. The wonderful and unusual still-
ness brooding over this little sunny spot in the
world, at last arrested the girl's attention as she
lazily swung in the hammock under a group of
giant oaks, and she let her book fall to the ground
in unconscious neglect. Suddenly her ear caught
a feeble wail borne on the quiet air, a sound that
held her breathless, with a little sobbing catch in
her throat. It was too indistinct to have attracted
attention save for nature's sympathetic hush, and
scarcely seemed separated from the throbbing
silence all about her; yet, responsive and expect-
ant she held her breath to listen to the secret it
might unfold. The faint cry was insistent and
at last revealed itself to her unmistakably as the
[27]
THUESDAY
tiny mew of a tiny kitten. When convinced of
this she was roused to alertness in an instant
for she had a special predilection for baby cats,
the smaller the better. The pathetic little cry for
help seemed to grow weaker and fainter as she
blindly followed the sound, which finally led her
to the loft of the stable. Even then, although she
realized that she was "warm on the scent, " she
could not locate the exact spot this weak little
mew came from. But presently she felt sure that
it must come from the depths of a huge packing
case, half-filled with books, which was stored in
a far corner. The box being almost her own
height, she could by no possibility lean over suf-
ficiently for her eyes to pierce its dusky depths.
Hastily getting a bench for a perch and a lighted
candle to set at a knot hole half-way down the
side of the box, she discovered its dark secret
to be a small bit of coal black glossy fur, with-
out much form or shape, lying flat as a pancake
on one of the cold hard books; the tiniest mite
of a live cat she had ever seen.
As she lifted the little limp, cold bunch to
her warm hand, it ceased to mew and, she thought,
to breathe, but she carried it to the house and
found it alive and able to take a little warm milk
from a spoon. With repeated doses of this nour-
ishment at regular intervals the baby began to
revive and at bedtime was quite a normal kitten,
except that its frame was so unusually small and
meager.
Thinking that the mother-cat would surely re-
turn at night to the place where she had left her
[28]
THURSDAY
one wee infant, the girl returned this "special
edition " to the books in the packing case, making
it as warm and comfy as possible. In the morn-
ing her first waking thoughts flew to her tiny
protegee and on going to the box she found the
poor little thing just as she had left it the night
before no mother, and evidently abandoned.
This time, on carrying it to the house she made
it a permanent abiding place and continued to
feed it with a spoon, as it seemed to grasp with
readiness the idea of getting its food in this
fashion and after a few lessons, took very kindly
to it.
The mystery of how this little orphan came to
be in the case of books, alone and deserted, was
never satisfactorily solved, although on inquiry
the girl was told that a neighbor had found a
black mother-cat dead in her laundry about the
time of the discovery of the little kitten. It was
thought that this must have been the mother of
the little waif and that she had doubtless met
with an untimely death.
At any rate, no mother ever appeared to claim
the baby, so she was adopted and given the name
of Thursday, that being the day of her advent.
She was so wee that until she was able to help
herself to a grown-up cat's food, she was always
fed from a spoon, and soon grew to look upon
this useful article as the source of all motherly
comfort, and to take milk from it as the chief
object in living. In all her after life, the sight
of a spoon seemed to give her a thrill and it was
always very funny to watch her keenness in dis-
[29]
THUKSDAY
covering anyone at the table using this, her foster-
mother, which she, very naturally, regarded as
her own special property. This ridiculously small
defender of her propriety rights would make her
resentment of this trespass on her claim manifest
in various cunning ways. Often she would watch
with impatient, glaring eyes, from her vantage
ground, the floor, each and every spoonful, as
it passed from plate to mouth, hoping in time to
stare this particular offender out of countenance.
But if her jealous, concentrated round eyes failed
to attract the desired attention, when longer for-
bearance became impossible, she would jump to
the lap of the transgressor, thrusting her little
pink nose into the hand that had so basely ignored
her indignation, and intercept the spoon with a
dainty paw and a comical air of haughty rebuke,
as if saying: "Little Thursday's! Have you
forgotten 1"
This impertinence, which the affront had been
designedly coaxing forth, never failed to bring
her a very substantial reward, and certainly no
reproof. And so the baby was spoiled and en-
couraged in her wilful little ways which were con-
sidered the "cutest ever." There was never a
time in all her life when she would not willingly
leave affairs ordinarily attractive to cats, to come
and sit serenely on some lap, with a bib about her
neck, a sweet smile of peace on her face, to be fed
with a spoon. She never reached the full stature
of an ordinary cat, but grew into a wondrously
beautiful little beastie and developed the most
independent, self-contained, evasive personality
[30]
THURSDAY
imaginable, for a cat. Looking no more than
half -grown she was the very perfection of dainty
symmetry, her coat a solid glossy black, almost
blue in its depths. She was remarkably quick
in her graceful motions, even for a cat, and had
the dearest little round blue eyes, just scintillat-
ing with mischief and flaming with an inordinate
love of fun which radiated to the tip of her in-
quisitive little nose and from there to the quiver-
ing end of her wicked, ecstatic tail. She also
possessed such queer twists in a highly strung and
very nervous temperament, that her erratic moods
were variable and often startling surprises. But
she was always singularly human and stead-
fast in one feminine quality and that was in liking
to do just as she pleased. One of her " queer
twists " was, at various intervals, to have sudden
spasms of hilarious gaiety and to give vent to these
frantic spells in play that were the times of her
life. She never had any company in these grand
romps, but was strangely independent and wildly
happy, the imp of play which had possession,
seeming to have endless sources of its own in the
way of society and amusement. She would race
" sideways " through the house, 'her "baby blue
eyes" black as coal, turn double " upside downs,"
and play a kind of hide-and-seek all by herself,
plainly just play for play's sake until her frolic,
which sometimes rose to a frenzy, had exhausted
her crazy mood.
Among our precious lares and penates, was a
magnificent Irish setter, a handsome fellow with
a coat of wavy golden red hair and eyes of such
[31]
THURSDAY
beseeching softness that he won all mankind.
Until the advent of Thursday he had been sole
proprietor and sovereign owner of the sunny back
porch and playground, not to mention the hearts
he ruled. But with the coming of the little black
lady all his previous rights were changed, she, with
nonchalant impudence, taking cool and unchal-
lenged possession of all, including the king him-
self, who seemed one of her most willing subjects.
She quickly learned and presumed on her power
over him but with heroic patience this handsome
fellow yielded glad obedience and was ever ready
to bend before her small feminine coquetry, his
gallantry seeming boundless. Like a knight of
old, he was always rushing to her rescue and ever
espousing her cause, using his strength generously
at all times in her behalf. If she happened to
cry within her privileged precincts of the house,
screened from his entrance, if he was anywhere
on the grounds within sound of her call, he would
instantly come to her succor, peering through the
screen with such an anxious, troubled expression
in his dear goldy-brown eyes, his head turned first
on one side and then on the other, a way setters
have when trying to fathom mysteries. Having
satisfied himself that she was in no serious trouble
or in need of his gallant protectorship, he would
lift his appealing brown eyes to us with an air
of unutterable reproach for his unnecessary dis-
turbance, and drop to the floor with a huge sigh,
perhaps to try again for a few quiet winks. Life
with him was no longer dull or lacking in color
after Thursday became a member of our house-
[32]
THUESDAY
hold, but was full of rich and varied interests
for every waking hour, which were many more
than formerly, as it was only under the greatest
difficulties that he could get even half of his ac-
customed hours of greedy sleep through the in-
terrupted days. Of old, his choice of pleasant
places of repose had been the shady back porch,
where he would stretch himself at full length,
his velvety ears lying broad and flat, and he still
indulged himself in this chosen spot, although
under difficulties. For Thursday had soon learned
that to snuggle close to his curly coat meant
warmth and comfort, but not for the dog, for
it teased and worried his naps dreadfully to have
her cuddle so close. However as he seemed loathe
to surrender this adopted spot, his by "right of
domain," he was most gentlemanly and patient,
never even saying "bow." When sleepy time
came the kitten would boldly hunt his resting
place and nestle under the softness of his downy
ear for her siesta. Feigning sleep, his nose be-
tween his paws and one eye half-open, the dog
would bide the time when she was fast asleep and
then, most cautiously and carefully, draw himself
away in order to have his ear to himself. Little
Lonesome, feeling the want of her comfortable
covering, would sleepily creep under his ear again
and the setter would again, with touching resig-
nation, watch his chance and get away. This
exchange of courtesies would go on until the dog
evidently realized that he might as well give up
and let the little wilful torment have her way.
Or there might be times when he would get his
[23]
THUESDAY
lazy self up and off, but even this , manoeuvre
might be only temporary relief, if the kitten still
longed for his companionship. Never once was
the dog known to growl or fail in politeness, even
when the kitten trespassed on his hospitality to the
extent of selecting such dainty bits from his dinner
plate as pleased her fancy. At such times he
would stand by, big and stern, wistfully watching
the choice pieces disappear, and patiently wait
until she had finished her selection and was seated
on her haunches near by, washing her little black
face, before he would presume to take that which,
in her gracious indulgence, she had left for him.
In this elaborate ceremony of her toilet, she would
sometimes pause, and with a kind of pensive won-
dering, gaze at her now greedy host. In this atti-
tude, with one tiny paw raised meditatively, and
her mouth half-open showing a bit of pink tongue
between her gleaming teeth, she looked as if actu-
ally smiling in supreme affability on an attendant
chamberlain. At all times, the attitude of affected
condescension assumed by this mite of a kitten
toward her big gentlemanly comrade, was so
absurd as to be very funny.
And so the summer and fall months passed and
the dog and kitten grew in friendship and intimacy
and were an endless source of interest to the
family. Unfortunately for these pets, the country
home was soon to be broken up and closed for the
winter. Thursday's devoted friend and protector,
the setter, was sent to the hunting lodge, and a
home was provided for the kitten with a friend
who lived only a couple of miles away.
[34]
THUESDAY
As SHE NEVER ATTAINED THE FULL
STATUEE OP AN ORDINARY CAT, SHE ALWAYS
LOOKED BUT HALF GROWN
Bur WAS THE VERY PERFECTION OF DAINTY
SYMMETRY, HER COAT A SOLID
BLACK, ALMOST BLUE
IN ITS DEPTHS
THUESDAY
The girl cherished this little darling kitten
which she had rescued, devotedly, and was very
sad at the necessary parting, but never dreamed
for a moment but that she would be the only one
to experience any regret. She thought, of course,
that the heart of her apparently frivolous little
pet would readily accept the new conditions with-
out a homesick thought, as it meant the same
kindness, food and shelter to which she had been
accustomed, and to leave her alone at the country
house was out of the question, as it would be
to risk letting her perish with cold and hunger.
So the kitten was carried to the home of the friend
and left, with a big heartache but, as the girl
thought, only on her part.
The next day through the telephone came the
report that Lady Thursday did not take at all
kindly to her change of residence, but expressed
a decided dissatisfaction with the new order of
things, scorning all food with a painfully injured
air, staring straight ahead in black misery, ignor-
ing everybody and all overtures in the way of
coaxing, petting and comforting. Every means
possible was tried to make her feel settled and
as happy as a kitten ought to be in such a good
home, but all in vain. Late in the afternoon this
bonnie wee bit of homesickness appeared at our
door, looking so pathetically small and weary,
but still determined, that it made the tears come
just to look at her. She was as quiet and demure
as an injured saint but there was an anxious
wistfulness in her big pleading eyes that went
straight to one's heart. She evidently realized
[35]
THUESDAY
that she had transgressed the law in eluding the
vigilance of her keepers, and in running away,
and her trembling little heart was thumping a wild
tattoo. But her mental and physical rapture at
being in her own home once more was glowing
in triumphant satisfaction in every movement.
And that she had been shrewd enough to find her
way back all by herself in a road where there
were no sign-posts a cat might read, but only
scent for guide was also obviously a source of
great self -congratulation to her. This demonstra-
tion of preference on the kitten's part for her
home, and for her, was a surprise to the girl and
touched her heart, for she had not thought her
saucy, independent little favorite capable of such
deep appreciation. It was so evident that this
obstinate little pet objected to this change of abode
that it was with the greatest reluctance that the
girl felt forced to send her back again. There
surely could be no mistaking the small queen's
sentiments in the matter, for her manner was so
haughty and reproachful. It might be a lovely
joke her perfidious family were playing on her,
but they had made a sad mistake, if they were
serious, to think for one moment she would con-
done such treachery or that she would tolerate
the other house as home, even for one day. She
bestowed a royal "not-to-do-it-again" sort of
threat on all, but in spite of her scathing remon-
strance, she was told of the absolute need she
had of another shelter, consoled and again car-
ried to the distant home, rather than be allowed
her stubborn way and left at the deserted country
[36]
THUESDAY
place to take her chances against starvation and
neglect.
This time the little black visitor was shown
special attention by the rather indignant friends
of the girl, and more carefully guarded* If she
showed a tendency to wander, she was made a
prisoner in the hope that she would soon forget
her former home and accept the inevitable, which
from their point of view, was certainly very nice.
Although the kitten was unnaturally patient and
seemed to look upon their soothing efforts with
a desire to be soothed, time showed that she re-
mained, through all, unmoved in purpose, prov-
ing that in her apparently indifferent and trivial
nature there were depths that had not been sus-
pected.
The great master passion of home-love and,
for a small cat, a tremendous wilfulness were de-
veloping in her sturdy little body. She would
not be reconciled to this new home but was slyly
on the alert, constantly devising all sorts of
shrewd ways in which she might cheat her keepers
and gain her end.
One day toward evening, their vigilance being
somewhat relaxed, owing to her seeming submis-
sion, she managed to escape. She had been very
crafty in her "seeming submission " as it had
evidently been only a subterfuge, for she showed
she had not been vanquished by any manner of
means, or even discouraged by the delay. All
the time she had seemed so sad and passive she
must have been only biding her time and oppor-
tunity, scheming all the while desperately in
[37]
THUKSDAY
feminine ingenuity to outwit her jailors. When
finally she was rewarded, and the instant she was
free, she went scampering down the path, through
the timberland, taking by instinct the " short cut"
which was the nearest and straightest way to the
one place on earth to her, each bounding step
keeping time to the homesick beat of her heart.
Oh, poor, plucky, obstinate morsel of a kitten !
If there had only been some kindly hand to have
turned you back; turned you back from that
demon, hungry and savage, lying in wait for you
in the narrow path through which you were sure
to pass! Oh, that there had been some Spirit
of Pity that cherishes the kittens, to have had a
saving compassion on you !
But on sped the flying feet, with eyes blind to
all but the one big home-impulse that was giving
her the courage of ten. All grief, disappointment
and heartaches forgotten as the old friendly place
grew nearer and nearer. Down through the val-
ley and up the fatal hill, racing as fast as she
could go on the ragged path, clearing brambles
and ditches and fallen tree-trunks with flying
leaps, turning neither to the right nor the left,
going straight for home. Panting and throbbing
she finally reached a tiny roadway among the
briars and undergrowth, a narrow trail seldom
used except by small fur and those in a hurry,
like Thursday. Faster and faster she went ex-
ultingly on through this shadowy thicket to the
next descent, and deeper and deeper into the depth
and mystery of the woods, where loomed a silent
murderer, set in rabbit land for the unwary, which
[38]
THURSDAY
had marked this little pitiful victim to clutch in
its fatal curve.
Have courage, little Thursday, and turn back.
Oh, in mercy turn back and save yourself from
the horrible fate of this half -concealed shadow so
near to you now! Or, halt an instant and go
round this deadly trap. Home is so near, only
a little way now. Home ! Home ! almost in sight,
in answer to the burning desire in your heart.
A sudden stop! The twinkling of a black shape
.twirling in the air, and the path is empty!
The deadly grip of the cruel wire has borne
Thursday home in a flash.
[39]
A MINE, A MINER, AND
A CAT
A MINE, A MINER, AND
A CAT
A MINE, A MINER, AND A CAT
THE mining camps of California in the days
of '49 are full of romance and history and
any man who has once tasted their free inde-
pendent adventure can never more escape the
influence. The gambling chance which every
miner took in those fascinating days, is continually
tempting him again to the old life. This charm,
which that most merciless Enchantress of the Cali-
fornia Hills casts on all alike, is unfathomable, and
grips the mighty as well as the weak. The quest
of gold, which rewarded some and eluded others
in those days, still has a grappling temptation to
every man who has once been under its spell.
To the pioneer Californian, it is a summons for-
ever luring him to that old battle ground round
the big shaft where the sky is big and it feels
good just to be alive. You will find that the old-
time miners forever chafe in the dullness and
conventionalities of any humdrum existence along
commercial lines, and for any slight excuse will
exultantly take the wide tramp road that leads
[43]
A MINE, A MINER AND A CAT
to what they call " God's own country. " They
are found ever eager to give body, and soul if
necessary, joyously, in the intoxicating excitement
this fickle sorceress holds out to them in the game
of chance which they think must win in the end.
One of these sturdy relics of the early days
in the golden west, after years of struggle and
vain trials to settle down into the drudgery of
precarious success in trade, grew tired of wait-
ing for the miracle of prosperity to even begin
to happen, and was in despair. In his blue dis-
couragement those dream ghosts of the happy
mining days were ungovernable in their insistent
presence and pulling at his heart strings with
an almost visible and steady line.
Long ago when he first came to the west, in
the mad rush after gold in '49 he had been one
of the "pardners" to locate and work a certain
claim. In the fever and scramble of making a
fortune in a minute, and expecting to pick up
handfuls of gold with little trouble, this company
had become discouraged at the slow profits yielded
by this claim, and had abandoned it upon the
report of much richer discoveries farther on, he
following with the others. During all these years
that he had tried to settle down into steady, legiti-
mate business a haunting certainty had grown in
his mind that they had been too hasty in abandon-
ing this mine. The remembrance of a promising
lead, which had been discovered in one of those
hustling days and which, in their breathless hurry
for big lumps, had not been followed faithfully
enough, and consequently had been overlooked and
[44]
A MINE, A MINER AND A CAT
forgotten, obsessed his present gloomy outlook
until it could no longer be ignored.
One especially desperate day, when affairs had
been unusually irksome, he sat down in dejection
and thought deep and hard on this inward and
tantalizing urge to the old mountains. Immedi-
ately following this quiet hour with himself he
gave up the effort of trying to succeed in his pres-
ent uncongenial work, and throwing discretion to
the winds, yielded in glorious abandon to the call
in his blood, ringing too loud to longer oppose.
Fortunately there were no ties of family or re-
sponsibilities other than business to shake off,
so shouldering his pick and shovel, treasured
through all these years, he joyously started with
his chin up and his back straight, for the splendid
freedom of the old familiar hills. His destination
the long abandoned claim hidden away in the
far-off wilds, where there was a chance, sure,
and no one had yet, as far as he could learn, dis-
covered the "lead."
He determined to go there again, to work it
alone this time, and to be deliberate and to stay
with it until the hills did deliver up to him their
royal secret. To this miner-man it meant life,
real life, health and above all, freedom, with a
big chance of a fortune. If it were a fool's folly,
he would gamely take a "flyer" and abide by the
result at any cost.
So this strong-handed, broad-shouldered man,
big in heart and big in soul and a lover of the
silent places, in answering the call of his old miner
days, set his hopeful face toward the great moun-
[45]
A MINE, A MINER AND A CAT
tains and the days to come, in reckless venture,
with only faith, a pair of strong arms and a pick
and spade to help him solve the problem. It is a
well-known fact that these men going into the
wildness and loneliness of these rugged heights,
cherish a cat as indispensable to their camp life ;
as important an addition to their "grub stakes "
as beans and coffee. And so intimate do these
two become under their isolated, and often des-
perate conditions, that an almost human friend-
ship and affection springs up between them.
At the last trading post nearest the mine the
man planned to " outfit " and to secure a four-
footed partner. The cat he thought would be so
easy that he never gave it a second thought, but
on his arrival at the little town busied himself
packing and getting everything in light trans-
portation order for the "return horse" on the
morrow. These arrangements off his mind, he
got very busy in looking about for the last re-
quisite, a cat. His intentions in regard to ac-
quiring one were perfectly honorable. He would
beg one if possible, buy one if necessary, but
he must have a cat at any price, not only for its
company and usefulness, but in accordance with
all past traditions of mines and miners. There
were cats and cats a plenty in this little mining
town, clinging to the rough side of the granite
hill, but, as it seemed, none to spare. Not one
to give away and not one to sell, and he might
as well have tried to barter with the air, as no
price or accommodation could induce any one of
them to part with one of their precious little beasts,
[46]
A MINE, A MINER AND A CAT
and he was in despair. After strenuous hours
of vain persuasion, which had eliminated the ques-
tion of choice or price in regard to the cat, he
had gone to the public house for supper, exhausted
and out of patience, but none the less determined
on having the desired " partner. " The early star-
light found him sitting on the dark veranda, soli-
tary and alone, pondering the cat question, not as
to spots or breeding or even a cat, but as to which,
and how. He must have a cat and these people
being the last resort would have to furnish it
at whatever cost. With his chair tilted back,
his hands deep in his pockets and his face turned
heavenward he seemed to be looking at the stars
for inspiration, and from the short, quick puffs
and lively glow of his pipe, it was evident he was
thinking hard. After he had finished his smoke
in silent cogitation with the sky, he seemed to
have settled the difficult problem to his satisfac-
tion, for when he rose to "turn in" there was
the gleam of a slow smile on his rugged face.
Knocking out his pipe and brushing the ashes
from his breast, with a huge yawn, he stretched
his arms up over his six feet of length, hardening
his muscles for the morrow, and sauntered in-
doors for the few short hours of rest in a bed,
which luxury he allowed himself as a grand finale
to civilization.
In what seemed to him but a moment later,
it was the next morning, and throwing aside the
blankets he was up and out in the chill gray dawn
without disturbing any of the household. As the
eastern sky lightened the purple mists, he trudged
[47]
A MINE, A MINER AND A CAT
cheerily along under the frosty twinkle of the
receding stars, his back to the dusty little hamlet
and a triumphant smile of contented satisfaction
beaming on his happy face, turned toward the
gleaming snow peaks of to-morrow. No one would
have suspected this big happy tramp of having
an infamous secret on his conscience or have sur-
mised that he harbored a wee felony snuggled
closely inside of his outer flannel shirt. As he
had been in somewhat of a hurry in committing
this crime, he had not been over-scrupulous in
selecting any particular kind of a cat. Still, as
he was at last in possession of a live kitten, a
something he felt he could not have faced the
solitude and silence of his lonely camp life with-
out, in sweet content he would never be critical.
This victory in the small matter of a small cat,
attested well for his future, showing that he had
resources and skillful ways of his own in circum-
venting an adverse fate, and that he was made
of the stuff that wins in the end.
Just as the white mountain peaks, far above
the timber line, caught the first pink glory of
the coming sun, the man with the light of hope
in his dark eyes, reached the foothills. He crossed
the first low divide, and in the sheltered ravine
beyond stopped beside a tiny trickle of snow water,
flashing gently down among the boulders, and
made camp for breaking his fast. Here for the
first time he took from his bosom the scraggy
little treasure for which he had risked his honest
reputation, and which had safely slept, curled in
its snug quarters, all the way.
[48]
A MINE, A MINER AND A CAT
The very first act of the astonished small ten-
derfoot on this rather rude awakening and in-
troduction, was to make a wild dash for liberty,
which came near being a total eclipse of their
acquaintance. It was only after a very lively
chase, in which the man had to hide his terrible
anxiety and to use the utmost patient cunning,
that the frightened little animal was captured
by his more than frightened mate. In the quiet
moments that followed, when they were sizing
each other up by the comfort of their little friend-
ship fire, their intimacy began. In admonition
his baby highness was given a serious and pro-
found lecture on the futility of having such in-
dependent ideas as he seemed to possess. The
poor little motherless captive looked meek and
helpless enough beside the big man, and in this
big unknown world, his great baby eyes glancing
and searching about in vague apprehension; but
although he was terribly puzzled over the situa-
tion, he was finally brought to reason and to the
straight and narrow path of obedience.
With a firm and tender touch, electric with
love and sympathy, the man stroked his prize,
answering the questioning, luminous yellow eyes
so steadily fixed on his own dark ones, with a
gaze of such mysterious power and assurance that
the kitten sat charmed, with curling paws, the
wonder-stare melting into one of understanding
and implicit trust, that was to be lifelong. So
comforting was the man's trick of hand and voice,
that this trying moment ended forever all con-
troversy as to doctrine or discipline between them.
[49]
A MINE, A MINER AND A CAT
From that momentous time on, as long as they
lived together, they fought out the grim battle
in moments of importance, as of one mind. Al-
ready the touch of his master hand and the sound
of his commanding voice had taken tight hold of
the baby heart and held it like magic, and as
the kitten grew in wisdom and caution he learned
to trust this big man more and more, as one who
understood and sympathized.
In resuming their tramp, the rougher country
began and the trail was a puzzle. The man could
not find even a ghost of a track, as he worked his
way through the thick masses of underbrush, for
it had been years since anybody had traveled this
way. But mile after mile, crossing canons, over
small mountains, up and down, in and out, the
hardy pioneer picked his difficult way across the
trackless country, going straight, guided by a
miner >s mysterious sixth sense, which is an in-
stinct enabling him to see things and read things
to which others are blind.
Toward the last of the daylight, on the second
day, these tired tramps, the man footsore but
with unwearied spirits came upon the small clear-
ing of the old mining camp of the halcyon days
of '49. Once it had swarmed with eager, buoyant
men, but now it lay deserted and wrapped in
solitude. In great exhilaration they took posses-
sion of the one and only remaining dilapidated
shack, standing, dark and doorless, silhouetted
against the fading light. Nobody had been in
this forsaken place or probably thought of it for
years and years. In its prime it had been a rather
[50]
A MINE, A MINEE AND A CAT
pretentious cabin of the regulation kind built of
logs but was now only a suggestion of its former
grandeur. Hordes of small furry tribes were
"holding down the claim " and using its shelter
to rear generations of their kind. The fireplace,
with its great outside chimney, built of mud and
rocks, was standing intact, the smut of the old log
fires still clinging inside where myriads of bats
had hung their nests against its sooty walls.
The new arrivals took possession of this old-
timer under a torrent of abusive, squeaky pro-
test that sounded very much like " cussing, " this
intrusion into their domain being highly resented
by .the present tenants. But the strangers had
come 'with a purpose, and to stay, so took pos-
session of the hut as with a flourish of trumpets,
making preparations for the night, scattering the
scolding families to temporary hiding, and an-
ticipating no end of fun in banishing them forever
to their own territory. In time the miner settled
down into a daily routine of business and pleasure,
with only the cat and the solemn and magnificent
trees for company. He was wholly happy in get-
ting the cabin into living order, delightfully sys-
tematic in regulating the primitive housekeeping
arrangements, and shamefully contented with the
homely result, but always on the lookout for
golden possibilities. He was not conscious of a
dull or lonesome moment in the heavenly large-
ness of the pure mountain air, but every day was
one of stirring fascination to him in the thought
of what might come with the next turn of the
shovel.
[51]
A MINE, A MINEE AND A CAT
The great peace and majesty of the California
mountains, glowing in their summer fulness, was
marvelous to the city man, who had been aching
for these exuberant heights so long. The crisp
keen air was like wine in his veins and made his
blood tingle. As he bared his arms with cheerful
determination his whole being thrilled and he
struck and dug into the flinty rock with a strength
born of a faith, that however he might blunder,
the gods would be kind and he would come to his
own in the end.
Each wonderful day was followed by another
as wonderful, the weeks speeding as lightly as
homing birds. If there were troubles that some-
times seemed dark and dreadful, and difficulties
hard to overcome, the two were happy, the cat
being the very heart of the camp life and living
on the most intimate terms of love and equality
with his devoted master in the leveling process
of their primitive life. The kitten had grown
into the utmost splendid stature of his race, go-
ing from strength to strength, being all muscle
and nerve, unusually broad of chest, looking as
if bred to the mountain fastness and able to en-
dure all sorts of pioneer hardships. His baby
coat was now thick and silky fur and was grow-
ing more glossy and beautiful every day, so that
the man in his pride gazed upon him with an eye
of rapture in the possession, and felt sure that
in his successful raid into the enemy's camp, he
had unwittingly stumbled on something beyond
the common kind. Handsome, shining and saucy,
he was wonderfully wise and cunning for a cat,
[52]
THE CAT
THE KITTEN HAD GROWN INTO THE
MOST SPLENDID BIGNESS OF His RACE,
HANDSOME, SHINING AND SAUCY,
ALL MUSCLE AND NERVE, UNUSUALLY BROAD
OF CHEST AND LOOKING AS IF BRED TO
THE MOUNTAIN FASTNESS AND
ABLE TO ENDURE
ALL SORTS OF PIONEER HARDSHIPS
A MINE, A MINER AND A CAT
having no equal in the chase. The vain little
creatures of the forest, grown bold and reckless
and almost fearless during the years that they
had been unmolested, did not have half a chance,
and learned that they must exert their utmost
to escape this cruel forager.
It was in the evening, when pick and shovel
were standing sentinel in the corner and the chim-
ney sending its curly blue beacons of comfort
toward the sky, that this wonderful "pardner"
of the miner shone in all the glory of his do-
mestic virtues, giving the rough cabin the grace
and semblance of home. This evening hour be-
stowed happiness on both the man and the cat,
and marked the very height of their goodfellow-
ship. The man, his day's work over, steeped in
the tang of the pine logs roaring in the huge
fireplace, was at rest and at peace with all the
world, puffing voluminous clouds from his pipe.
His drowsy friend, too, was filled to the heart
with the warmth from the ruddy logs and, in
blinking satisfaction, would occasionally relieve
his overflowing gratitude by low throaty mur-
murs of blissful content. These tranquil hours
by the fire certainly atoned for many hardships,
and feeling such a glow of nameless satisfaction
in the snug, solitary enjoyment of them, the thank-
ful man was more than compensated for all the
sacrifices he had made. Being a willing, self-
imposed exile, he felt that his blessings were more
than he really deserved.
In the narrow canon at the base of these moun-
tains, closing it in on both sides, was where the
[53]
A MINE, A MINER AND A CAT
miner was following the old lead in which he
had so much faith. In the rocky bottom grew
scraggy fir and pine trees and in the crevice at
the very bottom, a little stream hurried along,
a trifling affair at this time of the year, but in
the winter assuming the proportions of a raging
torrent, as it was fed from the great volume of
water that fell from the heights above. Here
the miner washed his "pay dirt" at the "clean
up," and it was also the cat's happy hunting
ground, for it was the home of the wood mice,
chipmunks, squirrels and other "small deer" nut-
ting among the pines and going their ways boldly
and busily, thoroughly intent on the business of
living and making a living.
The cat roamed these wilds freely, foraging
unchallenged, exploring with eyes and nose every
tree, hollow and boulder, for he, too, was a prac-
tical, busy cat, making a living, as he had to
work out his own salvation in this respect. He
certainly had the right of way in this world of
forage, and the thrifty little bodies that in the
days of abundance would prepare for a day of
need, had to be very wily as to where they laid
their stores, for the cat would nose and ferret
out their most secret hiding places.
One morning the miner, taking his dirt to
the ravine, found the cat vigorously digging in
the loose earth at the opening of a gigantic fissure
in the rocky peaks, a fissure that led in gradual
ascent, its sides sheer and steep, to the peaks
above. So intent was the cat on his quarry that
he did not notice his master's greeting, but kept
[54]
A MINE, A MINER AND A CAT
the dry earth briskly flying to the right and left.
The man supposed, as a matter of course, that
he was on a scent and had cornered some game
in its den, and in careless sympathy thought to
help him out and struck his shovel deep into the
loose earth. As he turned the heavy load he
gasped, for he found it freighted with sparkling
metal. He rubbed his eyes in wonder, dazed with
astonishment, looking first at the cat now sitting
demurely by with a satisfied air, as if he had
done his part and then at the twinkling scales
of gold blinking up at him as he shifted it through
his shaking fingers. This sudden realization of
the hopes of all the long hard years and the past
months of active search, staggered his faculties.
In a bewildered way he fingered the gravel in
his hand, and wondered if it could be that he
had "struck it rich" this time; if so, it was surely
this prince of cats, either by chance or luck, that
had proven the cleverer prospector of the two.
He followed the deep narrow gulch on and on,
up and up, not for an instant suspecting the mar-
velous wealth it would reveal. He was lured on
by frequently finding deep and rich pockets of
yellow ore, mixed with water- worn loose rocks and
dirt, which evidently had been collecting in this
rough trough for a million years, washed down
from the steep sides and many peaks above and
around.
When night came down, shutting the canon
in absolute darkness, it roused the man from his
golden dream with a start, and he straightened
his bent, aching body and mopped his hot fore-
[55]
A MINE, A MINER AND A CAT
head. His first thought was for the cat, totally
forgotten through all these absorbing hours, and
an instant of self-reproach for fear he had not
followed, but had gone back to the cabin at the
usual time. At his startled call the neglected
cat came rubbing his comforting presence about
his feet, showing that he had been faithful all
through the long day in which he had not been
noticed. This God-sent lucky chum, that had
brought him the great good fortune, had unmis-
takably an air of triumph gleaming from the
depths of his great black pupils, and his beautiful
sleek body assumed an attitude scandalously near
a swagger, as if waiting for this opportunity to
presume on his partnership in this affair, to ad-
vise his master that they had better be getting
home. The miner instantly recognized the justice
of his impertinence and caught him up in his
arms, and they camped right there where they
were through the short, starry night, hugged
close.
At the first faint glimmering of day, the miner
and the cat found their way back to the cabin.
The man had pulled himself together by this time
and had his nerve steadied back into its wonted
control and his brain normal, in good working
order. After his night 's rest, in which the calm
had returned to his overwrought imagination, he
was able to meditate reasonably on the good for-
tune which began now to assume definite shape.
To convince himself past all doubting, he drew
from his pockets the yellow proof. There was
no doubt about its being the real thing and he
[56]
A MINE, A MINER AND A CAT
lifted his hat in gratitude to the cat, for this little
prospector had certainly opened up for him the
best lead in the whole country. The magnitude
of what this developed was more than he ever
dreamed could be. It seemed to him that all the
gold that God ever gave to the world was in that
one gulch, and there it lay unappropriated from
end to end. It was like an Aladdin's fairy lamp,
a gift of the gods. Millions were there and all
there was to do was to pick up the yellow lumps.
How this golden placer could have lain there,
hidden in the sand and gravel of this fissure so
long undiscovered, was a mystery that baffled
even the miner's most profound attempts to con-
jecture. He had simply to accept his good for-
tune with a glad heart, as one of the favored
caresses of the Enchantress of the Hills. His
luck in being the "hundredth man" was, he
claimed, all owing to his wonderful mascot, that
in a time of desperation he had just gone out
and annexed. His mate shared sympathetically
in the sense of well-being in these great days of
success, and must have realized, from the almost
reverent homage that was accorded him, that he
had played some very important part in winning
the game.
And the partners linger and linger, rejoicing
in the big loneliness of this little paradise all
their own, ever happy and without a care, their
cheery hearts growing bigger and bigger in un-
broken friendship. The miner knows that just
"over yonder," beyond the purple twilight, is
the busy world and that he can "clean up" and
[57]
A MINE, A MINER AND A CAT
go back to things and the life of people of af-
fairs at any moment. Yet he stays on, loving
this life under the sky, of joy and independence,
hardship and adventure, with its splendid achieve-
ment, too much to make any change in the happy
order of things.
[58]
AiDA AND SAADI
AIDA AND SAADI
THE contented purr of "Home Sweet Home"
on the hearth, by a resident kitten, was the
one touch of coziness lacking in our newly ac-
quired country bungalow.
Seeing an exhibition of thoroughbreds adver-
tised, with many for sale, a trip was made for the
sole purpose of filling this pleasant need in our
comfortable chimney corner, and so making our
little menage complete. On arriving at the
crowded display rooms, where each cat's family
ancestors were found carefully recorded, the prob-
lem of selecting the correct kitten, among so be-
wildering a collection of purple pedigrees, was a
rather serious one. They all looked so fuzzy,
chubby and attractive that we wanted them all,
and it was impossible to decide on just one. After
long and careful consideration, two babies were
finally selected for their special beauty and dainti-
ness, as the ones most likely to blend harmoni-
ously with the crackle of our cheerful fire, and
the singing of the evening tea urn in our bungalow.
[61]
AfDA AND SAADI
The homeward journey, with the tiny prin-
cesses carried carefully and almost awesomely,
was one of suppressed, but anticipated triumph,
in being the fortunate possessors of something
worth while in cats and something that would
doubtless become real blessings under the careful
training and wise discipline we were already
planning.
On reaching home and joyously throwing back
the cover of the padded traveling basket, we found
the expected excitement painfully lacking; there
was no eager bounding of the released little cap-
tives as would be most natural in ordinary kit-
tens, and which we had expected twofold in these
extraordinary ones, not even a friendly mew
just an awkward silence, with two of the most
pathetic, tired looking bunches of royalty star-
ing up from the basket, with frightened eyes.
We gently lifted the scared, chrysanthemum-
like blossoms of fur from the basket and silently
but proudly placed them on the floor in order to
display their blue-blooded points, that all might
be properly awed. But even then, in spite of
their beauty, which all acknowledged, they failed
to make any sort of pleasant impression, but lay
just as they had been placed, crouching almost
flat in shrinking terror of their new surround-
ings. As they cowered there in cringing, pathetic
helplessness, they looked like almost anything but
kittens to be proud of, and the audience smiled
incredulously, while I as their sponsor in mo-
mentary chagrin and contrition, wondered if, per-
haps, in pride, I had not been too ambitious in
[62]
AIDA AND SAADI
making a selection of such royal daintiness. For,
might it not be that the solemnity of such a long
line of lineage would result in their being a ter-
rible disappointment as mere kittens, and what we
had planned on having was nice, fat, cheery, comfy
playfellows. The poor small mites of big pedi-
gree were certainly woefully depressing under the
present strain, and at this rather inopportune
moment it was cheerfully suggested that I might
possibly have done better in my investment, and
perhaps realized a greater profit, with the home-
made "just cat" variety. But I ignored these
sarcastic insinuations and would not be disheart-
ened, for my treasures were of the renowned Per-
sian species and I was still hopeful that the purity
of the blood which circulated in their veins would
yet prove its worth. Even to the skeptical, they
showed that they were unmistakably the real
article by an elegance of finish throughout, and
that they were of the purest breeding, for their
coats were unusually long, with soft, full, fluffy
scruffs and little tufts of hair growing out of
their thin pink ears and between their darling
chubby toes.
At first it did seem as if, with their advent,
a rather serious and unnecessary responsibility
had been thrust upon an inexperienced household,
for the risk in rearing these tender thoroughbreds
was perhaps too great to assume without the aid
of a natural parent. Fortunately for us, the mel-
ancholy period of their abrupt and rather shocking
orphanage soon passed, and under our loving care
the memory of mother gradually faded away.
[63]
A1DA AND SAADI
They grew and throve like plain ordinary kittens
and soon began to frolic and take on the gladness
of life, in spite of the deprivation of a real
mother's cuddling and nursing.
As our acquaintance grew into one of weeks,
we discovered that there would be no lack of enter-
tainment, for the royal babies took life in doses of
il doing things" most of the time. Surely no one
could accuse them of being bereft of temperament,
as we had feared, for they possessed an intense
and heartbreaking inclination for excitement in
various varieties all the time, quite enough to
reassure even the most doubting that we were in
no danger of not getting our money's worth in
lively kittens. In fact the innocent infants'
progress along the lines of cute and daring ad-
venture caused daily and almost hourly shocks,
as they seemed uncanny in resourcefulness and
absolutely fearless in devising all sorts of startling
surprises in the way of miscellaneous mischief,
counting that day as naught and unprofitable
which brought forth nothing new in the way of
satanic curiosity and inspiration for getting into
trouble.
The whole household fell under the spell of
their charm and were their faithful adorers, the
kittens being the deities before which were offered
up daily homage, and all lent a helping hand in
their "spoiling" as well as in their education.
In no time, it seemed, they became quite accom-
plished in the understanding of certain words
taught them in painful seriousness and were soon
trained to ask for many little services with such
[64]
AIDA AND SAADI
charming and almost human ways as to have
conquered the most obdurate heart, had there been
any. They were wondrous wise and certainly
marvellously clever for kittens, and we could not
help being very proud and a little boastful of
their achievements along kitten lines, as well as
of their strikingly elegant appearance. There was
nothing commonplace about them. Even their
wild and hilarious playfulness was high tragedy,
having such concentration of energy in it that,
as they grew older, it developed into a big bump
of bad, bold destructiveness. Also, time proved
that they possessed a decidedly feminine and in-
satiable love of investigation and a tragic thirst
for information, especially in natural history.
This swelling protuberance of inquisitiveness
as regards the earth and its various productions
of feathered creatures was taking them nearly
every day on long excursions into the near-by
woods, often keeping them absent for hours at a
time causing us growing anxiety as to their safety.
As this trip to the woods became an almost daily
after-breakfast custom my curiosity was roused
to such an extent that I determined that I, too,
would stroll forth the next morning to contemplate
nature, and if possible, incidentally discover the
fascination that was keeping the infants so much
from home. The suggestion that they might be
even looking at the little birds with evil intent,
made me indignant; it was unbelievable those
ingenuous eyes could be so guileful, yet some-
how I shivered with a vague premonition. Ee-
sentfully I argued that they were too young for
[65]
AIDA AND SAADI
such cruelty; moreover they were of such royal
blood, princesses of their kind, that one could
hardly imagine their doing anything so scan-
dalously plebeian.
However, the next morning, with secret and
rather ominous forebodings, I sauntered away in
the bright May sunshine, through our old-
fashioned garden and up toward the woods, two
small downy puffs bounding along by my side as
lightly as if blown by the wind, their round little
eyes like shining suns in their tiny fluffy heads.
They scampered aimlessly, far and near, their
heels a-tingle with mischief, poking their noses
into all sorts of out-of-the-way places and having
a lot of terrifying experiences, getting frightened
at everything that could possibly be made into
anything scary. They were so seriously deter-
mined on investigating all alluring possibilities
that not a moving thing escaped their vigilance,
from the bees in the bushes to an aeroplane that
flew overhead ; nor would they have failed, if pos-
sible, to help it along with their paws or turn it
over and make it go the other way. Occasionally
they would stop and scent a flower or perhaps
glance warily about, Indian fashion, pretending
to see nothing, but raising their eyes with a sweet
pretence of innocence to the trees, especially, I
noticed, if there happened to be a twitter among
the branches. In fact, they appeared to think
there was something truly wonderful about those
trees the plain ordinary green ones with the
usual number of fine feathery limbs in which the
birds love to rest their wings. Further than that,
[66]
A1DA AND SAADI
however, their conduct was absolutely blameless,
and as we all scurried home I was comfortably
convinced that the matutinal walks of these dainty
elegances were simply due to an overpowering
longing for the green things of earth and the
fresh air, possibly from the tree branches, but
just the love of being out of doors, with a special
desire to enjoy the wonderland beauties of our
own woody range, in which we ourselves took great
pride.
While still in their tenderest baby days, the
kittens developed such an ardent talent for cling-
ing together in all their activities that they seemed
like two branches swayed by the same breezes.
It was more than the usual natural bond of kinship,
even between twins ; more like something prenatal,
as if one thought instigated all their doings. They
ate together, walked together, snoozed together,
and were never separated; to see one was always
to see both, and everything that happened took
place in pairs. They breathed one common at-
mosphere of trust and faith in each other. Their
little feminine hearts may have been often false
to us, but to one another they were always faith-
fully loyal, enduring with unswerving devotion
in this oneness everything good or bad that was
theirs to share. In living mischief and in the joy
of their great discoveries, they were always as of
one mind. Ever frolicking together in the sun-
shine of happy days and generously sharing the
sorrows of this vale of tears on hard ones. As
one galvanized body, they went through kitten-
hood in good and bad ways, suffering and enjoy-
[67]
AffiA AND SAADI
ing in the everlasting bond of an alliance offensive
and defensive.
Their good qualities were so many, and their
allegiance to the entire household apparently so
faithful, that it came as a sickening disappoint-
ment when a little murdered bird, the result of
their prowess, was brought and laid at my feet.
After this there was no further mystery or doubt
as to their inward viciousness, and that it was
pure murder-lust just for the delight in the killing
was shown by their never once offering to eat
their victims. Sometimes they would bring them
home and simply "lay them away," and some-
times leave them, all bloody, under the trees.
Feeling that I was the one most responsible for
the morals of these little heathens, and the one
most blamed for their wickedness, an ardent mis-
sionary fever began to burn in my indignant blood,
and I secretly determined that there should be
one hand, strong enough in love, to at least dis-
cipline this scandalous feature in their otherwise
gentle breeding. If our little aristocratic babies
could not live in friendship with our feath-
ered beauties of the woods, they should be forced
by some kind of vigorous training to leave them in
peace; for we loved the little birds, and their
sweet songs in our woods, too much to be recon-
ciled to any such disloyal warfare upon them.
It was with a sinking sensation that I sadly
and quietly followed the marauders one morning
as they stole off for their usual * ' after-breakfast "
diversion of seeing things in the woods. I was
firmly resolved to find out how and where the fledg-
[68]
AIDA AND SAADI
lings were captured and cut off so untimely in their
innocent careers and took good care that the kit-
tens did not see me or know that I was waiting
grimly in hiding until I could catch them red-
handed, and there could be no mistake.
At last my time came, when the degenerates
were both crouched near a tree, with wide open,
flaming eyes cruelly set on a little chirping song-
ster. Then as they crept forward with eager desire
and all the cunning stealth of plain, common,
feline ancestry, and were just ready to spring on
their unconscious game, I burst upon them in such
a frenzy that it frightened them into a state of
absolute dismay. But before they could feint,
the pair of abject and convicted criminals were
hustled back to the house in terrible disgrace,
and, hardening my heart, such discipline and ar-
gument was administered as was deemed
expedient.
Naturally better things had been expected from
such beautiful, saint-like looking cherubs, who did
not have to make a living by their wits, and this
depraved, red-flame blood lust in their being was
a double surprise and disappointment.
Under surveillance, these injured innocents
became very artful and sly and would resort to
all sorts of deception in order to avert suspicion.
If caught loitering about their favorite hunting
ground, the hypocrites would dally about in gaping
pink yawns of boredom, in the most indifferent
manner, or play Jack and the Bean-stalk by dart-
ing madly up the trunk of a tree and chasing their
own tails down, just to show that joyous exercise
[69]
AIDA AND SAADI
was the chief, and in fact the only reason for their
fondness for the woods. There was no doubt
but that they understood perfectly their trans-
gression, and if they were discovered in the
delirium of the hunt, we faithfully did our dark
and dreadful duty. But they took their discipline
so meekly that it was simply heartbreaking to
see their tiny, shrinking little bodies after such
rudeness, hiding in out-of-the-way places, with
terrible fear in their big scared eyes, that were
wont to look up at us in such love and expectancy.
The touching resignation of these tiny criminals
under our correction made us feel almost ashamed
of our power, especially as they seemed so su-
perior to it. Moreover it did not seem to make
any lasting impression, nothing resulting from
such painful experience to both, in the way of re-
form, that could be detected by the naked eye. But,
as we explained to them over and over again, if
we had only been able to correct this one little evil
in their hearts and make them half as penitent
and guileless as their beautiful, remorseful eyes
looked, our pains would have been rewarded by
their becoming the very best of citizens.
Bearing so calmly and patiently our severity,
as if suffering an injustice, they fortunately, bore
no malice in their baby hearts and neither punish-
ment nor disgrace could suppress for long their
indomitable spirits. Although they acted for the
time being as if their hearts were broken, smashed
beyond repair, as soon as it was deemed advisable
for consolation to be administered, they were
coaxed back to life and soon were as fearlessly
[70]
A1DA AND SAADI
and beautifully happy as ever, trifles of this kind
passing as a little summer cloud in their otherwise
blue sky. From their humble resignation they
evidently took this peculiar morality on the part
of big mortals as being just one of the mysteries
included in their cup of experiences in this queer
world they were trying to fathom, but in which
they had expected only sunshine.
There were times when they escaped vigilance
and, in spite of the retribution which we surely
had impressed upon them would follow as inev-
itably as a shadow, they would abandon themselves
recklessly to their one dissipation and we were
helpless before their defiance.
These disgraceful pets of ours were known to
come back from such gory adventure, un-
shamedly, with the blood of their victims still wet
on their lips, telling the horrible tale without
apology. After such a stirring incident they
usually seated themselves very close together on
the porch steps, singularly calm, their two hearts
beating as one, their little pink noses at the same
angle high in the air, in that habitual attitude of
" united we stand or united we fall" which was
always and ever their bond of fellowship, and
simply await unflinchingly for developments. If
an accusing finger was raised at these demure
hypocrites, their meek expressions were simply
angelic, as if they were just waiting for halos.
Under threatening and closer scrutiny, they would
sanctimoniously lift their round, reproachful eyes
and insolently lick their impudent chops as if
scornfully saying :
[71]
A1DA AND SAADI
' ' Oh, lady, you surely do not suspect us of hav-
ing seen your birds this morning!"
Their innocent and demure air was positively
exasperating and we were in despair over the
prowling slaughter which made our hearts ache.
In the stress of many other affairs, however, we
feared that we would be obliged to give up our
strenuous watchfulness and let these murderous
little beasts pursue their deadly war on the feath-
ered tribe as they willed, when one joyful day we
discovered in the column of "What others have
found out," a permanent remedy.
A quiet resolve was taken and another trip
to town, and now these dainty little aristocrats
go about in quest of experience with gleaming
collars about their throats, upon which dangle
little tinkling bells, so that they never escape the
music which gives warning of their approach.
From their look of appeal and almost of terror
when these warnings sounded the first alarm, I
imagine that it has lessened their confidence in the
kindness of mankind and taken a great deal of
joy out of .the world for them.
Ordinarily they submit to the fatalism, looking
bored to death, but there are occasional lapses
when their fighting blood struggles and they are
excited almost to madness by the everlasting
jingling. Then, again they will sometimes lift
their appealing eyes in hopeless despair to our
unyielding authority, opening their mouths as if
to make a feeble protest in tremolo, but in their
guilty helplessness, failing to utter a sound. But
as no miracle of love happens in the way of re-
[72]
AlDA AND 8AADI
"On, LADY! You DO NOT SUSPECT
Us OF HAVING SEEN ANY or YOUR BIRDS THIS
MORNING!"
A1DA AND SAADI
lease, they have become of necessity philosophers,
and though doubtless they would give the world
to be rid of these tink-tingles of law and order
that follow every movement, they are martyrs
and have learned, even in their brief experience
of life, to make the best of the inevitable. The
longer their residence in this world, the greater
their education will be concerning the mystery of
a higher power which arranges things so as to
baffle a helpless kitten 's best laid pleasant plans,
even kittens with marvellous bushy tails with a
double kink in them.
Nothing so completely subdued these incorrig-
ibles and hurt their pride, as a horrible catas-
trophe they once inadvertently brought upon
themselves, which came near being a tragedy.
It was the first time in their play paradise that
they ever met with absolute rebuff and it com-
pletely subdued them for the time being. One hot
summer day, on coming in from one of their
tramps abroad, very warm and very thirsty, they
caught sight, both at the same instant, of a basin
of gleaming, tempting, creamy white paint, which
a careless workman had left standing there for
a moment. Mistaking it for milk which doubtless
our thoughtful kindness had prepared for their
thirsty coming, they uttered a little flute-like duet
of thanks and made a rush to their fate, side by
side, as the animals went into the ark, not stop-
ping for even a smell, so unsuspecting and great
was their confidence. Down deep went their little
aristocratic noses into the sticky mass, so deep
they could hardly extract them!
[73]
AIDA AND SAADI
We were very sorry for these foolish, self-
confident little victims and they were very sorry
for themselves. A strange, unwonted calm fell on
our bungalow, and it was really one of the saddest
times for all, humans as well as kittens. Until
the paint wore off their faces and whiskers, it
was an interval of quiet, in which there was no
make-believe humility, but in which the culprits
were really bowed to the earth in shame and with
indigestion.
Truly, it is a hard world for even innocent
little sinners!
[74]
MAROONED
MAROONED
IT WAS midsummer and the city sweltering
in an overpowering heat wave, but in the coun-
try there were cool retreats and a fulness of
verdure that were calling with enticing insistence
to all the suffering city-bound folk to come to their
bounty and rest. To one weary country-bred
woman, the alluring summons sounded clear with a
healing message to her tired nerves and jaded
brain. It was the seductive call of the big blue
sky and the pure air of her own old-fashioned
country home, and her whole soul responded with
an intense longing. But she was one of the city's
plodders, chained by the inevitable to the tread-
mill, and she could only picture in her hopelessness
what such happiness might be, by straining her
misty eyes in memory to years gone by.
She stood by the one window of her own room
in that big lonesome boarding house, apparently
gazing idly out on the bit of sun-baked street her
limited view commanded, but she had closed her
eyes and was totally unmindful of the last hot
[77]
MAEOONED
slanting rays. Her whole being was enthralled
by that "back home' 7 call that was stirring her
heart. She was so utterly tired of the heat of
walls and pavements and the city's seething rush
and endless clang, that her eyes and brain seemed
bursting and her very soul cried out for that rest-
ful spot in the country she still called home. She
knew how sweet and still the misty woods were
"back there " in the soft twilight of this hour, and
how the air was damp and fragrant with the scent
of the tangled undergrowth. In homesick longing
she recalled the blessedness of the evening glow
of the setting sun trembling upon the hills of
this girlhood's home in its parting benedic-
tion, leaving a sabbath-day stillness on all the
land. She could still hear the musical tinkling
of the bells on the lowing cattle, as they ambled
home from the pasture, in the lengthening
shadows, filling the air with the rich warm breath
of the hot clover they had been feeding on. These
homey, country memories were like a fresh de-
lightful breeze blowing on her burning heart and
opened up entrancing visions which stretched far
back to happy days when there had been plenty,
and no need of battling with the struggling crowd
of the city.
Under the thrilling delight of these crowding
memories, she was for a few blessed moments
transported to this home of her desire, and the
sweetness of it nearly broke her heart. With a
sigh, however, she remembered the present and
the throbbing glare of her surroundings, realizing
how worse than foolish and how hopeless was her
[78]
MAEOONED
discontent with things "that are." Impatiently
she lifted the heavy hair from her hot forehead
and winked back the stinging tears, and was just
about to turn resolutely from the window to take
up the practical things of life, with a brave make-
believe, when she caught sight of two big, round,
gleaming eyes looking up at her from the dejected
little garden beneath her window. There was
nothing very striking or attractive about these
eyes except their resolute intensity, and that they
belonged to a very small cunning kitten, sitting
with all four paws tucked under his body and his
tail wrapped neatly about him, patiently gazing
up at the window with concentrated wistfulness,
hoping for recognition. As he caught the lady's
tardy glance, he gave a cordial and friendly mew
without moving a muscle of his body and, as there
was no response, another mew. This time the
lady, longing for the companionship of anything
alive, could not resist a grateful and hearty re-
turn of his friendliness, and throwing the window
wide open, she invited him to enter. Instantly,
with a clever spring and a curious twist of his
legs, he landed on the window ledge, clear of the
garden below, and was caught, with a soft little
cry and cuddled tight with the warm downy fur
against her cheek, in a frenzy of overwhelming
delight.
Every one knows that a city boarding house
is no place for pets, and in this particular one
there was a law, as of the Medes and Persians,
rigid and inflexible, that there should be no dogs
or cats. So it was with a guilty, beating heart
[79]
MAROONED
that she revelled in even these few stolen moments
with this dear little comforter that carried her
back to the days of her youth and the days when
there were always cats and cats aplenty. When
she released her little visitor from her arms, he
sniffed about the room, reconnoitering every nook
and corner, as is the fashion of cats, and after a
thorough and careful inspection of everything,
settled down with a mew of approval into his
favorite position of rest, all four paws under him,
having evidently decided to stay. But the lady
knew, and feared, and confiding to him the restric-
tions of the place, gently placed him on the window
ledge, telling him to scamper for his life into
hiding. He dashed away at breakneck speed and
the lady thought he was gone forever. But to her
surprise and delight, on returning to her room
after business hours next day, there was Mr. Kitty
sitting on the ledge outside her window, in his
favorite position of "warming his toes," as if by
previous arrangement. Of course he was invited
in, snuggled and fed. Fortunately the lady's win-
dow was in the back of the house, in a rather
secluded corner, so she could carry on these
clandestine meetings without discovery.
It grew to be the regular thing, that the kitten
should be there each night, sitting just outside
the window like the Peri at the Gate, patiently
waiting for his lady's return. In this way he laid
such persistent siege to her heart that she finally
had to surrender, permitting him an established
place in her home and in her affections, but under
certain restrictions. Although there was the im-
[80]
MAEOONED
passable barrier of expressed thought between
them, he could look into her eyes and wistfully
divine her desire. In this way he quickly learned
that it was only in the evening that he could be
admitted into the brightness of her society, and
even then, only with the greatest caution. After
he had once grasped this mental warning he for-
ever after honored it with the most careful con-
sideration.
An evening came when the tall, thin-faced cap-
tain, with the winds of many a sea on his cheeks,
was in port, and the indulgement of his long-estab-
lished habit of calling on the lady in the boarding
house. The anticipation of these regular visits had
lain in the sturdy captain's heart until it had blos-
somed into a cheering romance and he boldly
dreamed, during his lonely night vigils, of a pos-
sible fireside that might sometime be kindled and
waiting to welcome him on his return from his
voyages. This little "comfort beacon" he was
building in his mind made his stays in this port
of great consequence to him. But the heart of the
lady was a port of happiness the captain had not
yet been able to invade as it was not a sailor's
life that the lady thought she would like to share.
Some day, somehow, she hoped to return to that
happy land in the country she remembered, where
she would pitch her modest tent and live forever
after, happier even than the proverbial fairies.
But the big, courageous captain was gentle and
generous in loving, and willing to wait.
On the captain's first call after reaching port
this time he found the kitten duly installed as a
[81]
MAEOONED
permanent member of the evening circle, and on
account of the lady's evident partiality for her
favorite, he being always anxious to please her,
tried to make friends with him. To the lady's sur-
prise, the cat persistently eluded the captain's
demonstrative wooing. Perhaps it was instinct
that told him of a certain jealous impatience in the
captain's heart that he should be there taking so
much of the lady's attention; or perhaps it was
because the captain offended his dignity by teas-
ing him, in a friendly way, by pulling his tail ; or
perhaps it was just because he called him
" pussy," which to any civilized cat must be rather
galling.
Anyway, they did not seem to get along to-
gether at all nicely and on the captain's evenings
the cat developed a decided and hitherto unknown
kink in his temper. He would wait for and submit
like a gentleman to the captain's rough stroke
of greeting, but that was the limit of his politeness,
and any familiarity beyond this would bring a
wicked gleam to his sea-green eyes and an ominous
thud of his tail.
The lady felt their mutual irritation and think-
ing to interest the captain in her pet and to smooth
their rather stormy friendship, told him of the
kitten's great fondness for water, a very unusual
trait in cats, as they generally dread getting even
'their feet wet. She told how this cat really
dissipated in water, loving to play with the strag-
gling lengths of the garden hose and in the puddles
it made, often getting himself thoroughly
drenched, and sometimes even played at swimming
[82]
MAEOONED
across a shallow pool until he came to some high
place where he could perch and dry his bedraggled
self. Having such a bond as their mutual fond-
ness for water, they ought by right to be the best
of friends, she said.
When the time came for the captain to sail
again, to the lady's great surprise, he begged her
to let him have the kitten for a passenger, telling
her that they needed a mascot on board ship. He
assured her that her "best beloved " had just the
special qualities to make a dandy sailor, and loving
the water as he evidently did, would doubtless
take kindly to the life.
The captain hesitatingly pondered in his heart
if the time were ripe to ask for another passenger,
the one in all the world whom he thought would
make life's voyage sweet and complete, but he in-
stinctively felt that the lady would not have it
that way, and in wisdom asked only for the cat.
Secretly she wondered why the captain had asked
for the company of the cat, as they plainly were
not greatly attached to each other, and selfishly
she wanted to keep this dear little friendly kitten
all to herself. Yet there was always the secret
of his unlawful transgression on forbidden terri-
tory and the fear of discovery; and more than
all, the heartbreaking fact that time, over which
there was no control, would bring him the mis-
fortune of becoming just a big, homeless, skulking
city cat. These considerations, and a desire to
provide a good home for her pet far away, recon-
ciled her to the separation, although it gave her
a big heart-ache to think how she would miss him.
[83]
MAEOONED
So it was arranged that the captain should
have his mascot. On the day of sailing the lady
herself took him to the ship, as she wanted to be
quite sure that he was carried aboard gently and
safely and that he was induced to stay there with
as little fright as possible. She was also glad to
give the captain this little flattering attention of
a last good-bye and bon voyage, which hint, if the
poor captain had not been too downcast at the
parting, might have made him feel that perhaps he
had been a little too timid in asking for only one
passenger. When at last she cautioned him,
with a pitiful little break in her voice, to have
patience and use only gentleness with this trusting,
helpless little shipmate she was so basely betray-
ing, it came near bringing about a climax. As
the devoted captain held her small hands clasped
tightly in his strong ones, a burning flood of love
flushed his cheeks under their coat of tan and
his snappy blue eyes blurred, as he solemnly
swore, in a voice not quite under control, that he
would be ever faithful to her admonition, to her,
to the cat and to anything she held dear. Had
there been time, in his almost overpowering
emotion, the candid mariner might then and there
have ventured his fate. However, the tension of
the instant passed, and in the confusion of the last
few moments there was not again time or oppor-
tunity for tender words, especially as the lady's
whole attention seemed taken up with the cat and
in solicitous anxiety as to whether he would be
contented and develop a liking for skippers and a
skipper's life. So in the final moment of clashing
[84]
MAROONED
bells, splashing hawsers and the settling down
of the engine to real business, the last flickering
farewell was only a quick grasp of hands, which
somehow seemed to carry with it a new hope, and
the call of "all ashore, " left the captain's heart
still fluttering with only the next time to look for-
ward to.
It was a very sullen kitten that the lady had
left on the lower deck after the last desperate
squeeze she had given him. As she turned to take
her last look back, there he sat on his haunches,
as motionless as an Egyptian mummy, amid his
new surroundings, but game, maintaining a lofty
dignity to the last in spite of perplexity, dismay
and wrath.
As the great ship swung clear of the pier and
turned her clean-cut prow toward the mists of the
ocean, the lady wiped the blinding tears from her
eyes and waved her handkerchief bravely as a
last admonition to the cat, and in adieu to the
captain, who was now in command, alert and busy,
all sentiment forgotten.
All on board a sailing vessel, from the captain
down, love pets of every kind, but during the first
hours of the ship '& getting under way, when all is
confusion and bustle and everybody busy with the
ship's important affairs, there is no time for
trifles. Naturally the new passenger was for-
gotten for the time being and left to his own de-
vices and for the ocean to do its own work with
him, in its own way, until things had settled down
into the daily routine. When this time arrived,
the cat was past all overtures of any kind and
[85]
MAEOONED
occupied exclusively with his own resentment, the
anger of his betrayal having by this time entered
too deeply into his being for him to accept any
kind of peace-offering. He was insensible to all
caresses and disdained all offers of friendly ac-
quaintance, and from the rank rebellion brooding
in his gloomy, unforgiving eyes, it was plainly
evident that he was not enjoying his ocean trip.
Although he had soon found his sea legs, he had
also found en route a very wicked temper in think-
ing over the injustice of the situation, shanghaied
and deserted in this heartless manner.
The men, now that they had the time, tried in
every way to make up to him but coaxing of all
kinds proved of no avail, the awful bitterness of
his injury making him immune to any sort of cajol-
ery, and he treated them all with a calm and per-
sistent air of scorn. They tried to tempt him with
every kind of cat dainty, but in an attitude of sullen
hostility he would have nothing to do with them,
venting his ill-temper on all alike and confining
his dependence in the eating line to the cook, who
merely threw him scraps. His angry resentment
was too deep and too hopeless for any comforting ;
he merely wanted to be let alone, if he was doomed
to stay in this dungeon, and to live his own sullen,
desolate life, in resenting everything.
His former freedom among gardens and roofs
made the limitation of even this big craft, a
miserable home for one of his outdoor habits,
and although he had all the ship's mice for
diversion, there was time and time for thoughts
deep and resentful. As he was unconfmed
[86]
MAEOONED
and had full range of the ship, on an early tour of
investigation he discovered a porthole, always
open to the sun in possible weather, which seemed
to attract him, as a light will draw a traveler,
lost in the dark. This he decided on as his favorite
resting place during the day and the sailors, know-
ing that he had become fully accustomed to the
monotonous swaying of the boat, and in consider-
ation of his strong prejudices, let him take
possession undisturbed. Here he would sit and
"let his mind work" in brooding abstraction,
gazing by the hour in wide open revolt at the
gray blankness of the sea, too dreary and hopeless
to sleep. Perhaps it reminded him of other times
and of another window where he had been wont to
sit in happy anticipation of the coming of his
lady. However it was, this window had a strange
fascination for him and day after day, when he
was not roaming drearily about the ship, he would
sit here, a sad still-life study. With wide, unwink-
ing, gloomy eyes, hour by hour he would follow the
broad expanse of the desolate waves to the empty
horizon, eating his homesick heart out in grim
endurance of his fate.
One awful day he was caught unawares and his
career came near ending tragically. The ship,
without the slightest warning, made a sudden lurch
and he was unceremoniously tumbled out of his
resting place with a splash, into the waves that
were racing along the smooth black sides of the
ship. An alarm was immediately given and in five
seconds everyone on board knew what had hap-
pened. The captain received the information with
[87]
MAROONED
a few sailor expletives, nautical and to the point,
and growled something about "not being worth
it," but ordered "all hands to the rescue," and
the middies responded valiantly. One, more ven-
turesome than the rest, without pausing to count
the odds, stripped and leaped boldly into the dan-
gerous depths. The rest of the crew hung breath-
less over the rail, watching their comrade make his
desperate struggle with the buffeting waves, which
sucked at every ounce of his youthful will and
strength. There was an instant of sickening sus-
pense when he sunk straight down clear out of
sight. But quickly his head shot up again above
the swirl of water and as he shook the brine from
his nostrils and eyes and struck out powerfully
with his arms, there was seen between his teeth
the motionless cat held fast by the neck. The small
boat was lowered and the hero was picked up and
helped aboard.
The cat did not show a symptom of life, as they
laid him on the warm sunny deck and applied
"first aid," and it looked for a time as if the
shock to his nerves and the long salt bath had done
their worst. But the determined mettle of this
hard-shell spirit was not so easy to extinguish
and as life surged back into nerve and muscle, and
he struggled back to consciousness, they found
he was there with all of his nine lives wide awake
and still in good working commission. One would
have thought that after such an appalling doom
had all but closed in on him, he would have ap-
preciated his good luck and the true value of
having such heroic comrades, and would have
[88]
MAROONED
shown some thankfulness for the risk one of them
had run to save his life. On the contrary, although
he had learned to keep away from the porthole,
a deeper gloom than ever settled upon him, and,
taking this unfortunate accident as an added in-
sult, he treated them all with more than his usual
scorn.
The cat's peculiar characteristics of temper
made him not only marked, but famous. The very
independence and aloofness of his dull life made
him tantalizingly popular with the young fellows,
and in their leisure hours they were continually
seeking him out to pass the time. They thought
it great fun to tease him to furious anger and
then laugh at his quivering rage, but after they
had had enough of this kind of entertainment they
would never let him go back to seclusion without
trying their very best to coax him to good temper.
They never succeeded in this commendable pur-
pose, however, even with the most heroic efforts,
and would have hotly resented any insinuation
that their pastime might possibly be a cruelty.
The captain, too, was guilty of loving to display
the cat's tabasco-like temper, being quite proud of
the strong personality shown in one so ugly and
vicious and still one so delightfully entertaining.
During their ship's stay in an English port,
the captain entertained on board a brother officer,
whose ship happened to be in at this time, and
teasing the cat until he exhibited his fierce char-
acteristics was one of their chief after-dinner di-
versions. The brother officer was very much en-
tertained by the captain's hospitable amusement
[89]
MAROONED
and took a greedy fancy to the insolence and hardy
independent ways of his extraordinary pet. He
liked the animal so much that he coveted the
mettlesome prize as one that would make things
lively in dreary hours, and begged the captain to
loan him for just one voyage ; but the captain was
indignant at such a proposal and refused to con-
sider it for a moment. It would be breaking a
sworn and solemn covenant with his lady, and
besides, the cat was the pride of the whole crew,
notwithstanding their raillery, and he, and in fact
all on board ship could not get along these days
without this important member of their mess, who
was getting more disagreeable and interesting
every day. Shameful as such baseness was, the
brother officer watched his chance, and as his ship
was to sail first, he had the advantage. The cap-
tain was wholly unsuspicious of his friend 's secret
intention and the first intimation he had of his
treachery was when he went on deck to wave him
farewell. As the brother officer's ship sailed ma-
jestically by the captain saw him, evil and smiling,
on the bridge, and as he returned the captain's
salute, he lifted the stolen cat in triumph in his
arms. The captain stood rigid, the dark blood
creeping into his tanned cheeks and leaping to his
brain, while his keen eyes narrowed and scintil-
lated with the glitter of cold steel as he watched
the ship sail slowly past.
To this masterful seafarer, there was no sense
of humor in the childish joke his facetious friend
had played on him. At the moment he was too
angry for his whirling brain to think out any
[90]
MAEOONED
plan to avenge this malicious injury, but he had
always found himself commander in every situa-
tion and his nature was not the kind to forget.
He swore with clenched teeth that he would get
even with this traitorous fellow officer even if it
cost him his life. The man was beyond reach of his
wrath and strong arm at present, as he was sailing
for distant shores, and with him the unfortunate
cat. But the captain would bide his time, his anger
growing with each hour, and there would surely
come a day of reckoning in which it would be
better for the officer had he never even dreamed
this "practical joke."
This strange cat, unfriendly and militant, that
had never shown affection for anyone since that
horrible day when he had been so cruelly deceived
by the lady on whom he had lavished his whole
heart, seemed despite his every effort, to make con-
quests where he least desired and to be bound to
lead a sailor's life to the bitter end, in spite of him-
self. This last outrage of fate roused him to des-
peration and took all semblance of civilization
from his manner. It was war and no quarter from
henceforth, with all the world against him. Big,
strong, and full of salty battle, he certainly had not
been stolen for a pet, and it would have made
the lady weep could she have known the fate and
seen the warlike wreck of her once gentle friend,
although she would never have recognized in this
belligerent, savage old salt, the kitten she had
cuddled and loved.
These new sailor tormentors soon discovered
that one of the cat's diverting peculiarities was a
[91]
MAEOONED
strong and expressed dislike to whistling. He
hated the shrill notes with a hate that made him
tremble and which seemed to rouse the very devil
in him. Even the lowest notes would wake him
from a sound sleep, and with angry, low, throaty
growls, which sounded remarkably like swearing,
he would make a sudden rush at the offender with
eyes that flamed green, and gleaming teeth set
as if he had a tigerish desire to spring at the man's
throat and settle for all past insults, then and
there. Once in the desolation of his soul, he did
bite fiercely at his tormentor's shoe; and it would
certainly have fared ill for any of them had he
dared make a determined attack.
But the sailors, finding sufficient entertainment
in the impotent, savage temper they were able to
rouse, bore no malice in their hearts nor any
animosity toward the cat for his violent dislike
of them. So when they had teased him to the
limit they would make all sorts of amends in
friendly overtures, which were met with snorting
scorn, and then indifferently allow him to go back
to hiding, in peace. It seemed nobody's special
mission to prevent this cruelty and the cultivation
of all that was brutal and ugly in the poor out-
raged animal's nature or to see whether this con-
tinual tormenting were a real agony or if his
habitual, infinite wretchedness were being made
greater than necessary. It was simply a thought-
less love of diversion in which the helpless pay
tribute to power. So in misery the endless days
dragged into weeks and it seemed to the cat, so
sick of sea life and sea smells, as if the world would
[92]
MAROONED
never end. Although he was beginning to show
the wear of his long, dull, sullen revolt, neither dis-
appointment nor ugly temper had broken his fierce
sense of injury or his indomitable spirit. Helpless
as his position was, he never cowered before his
adversary, but ever maintained an air of cool con-
tempt and defiance, counting always on a chance.
Every day on board ship holds unknown possi-
bilities and always there is hope for those who
watch and wait, and the cat's weary rage was
waiting slowly, silently, steadily, but just wait-
ing.
In the early spring, the ship ran into a rough
channel and fell on continued evil winds which at
last developed into a terrible gale. Wild, stinging
wisps of salty wind came roaring right out of the
north, flapping and bellying the sails and lashing
the ship about like a plaything in a fury of wind
and water, until, with rudder gone, totally dis-
abled and helpless, it was being sent with each
pounding breaker nearer and nearer the danger-
ous, rocky shore. The only ones to witness the
screeching horror of this black night were two
helpless old lumbermen, who had been roused from
their sleep by the ship's signals of distress, and
had run down from their camp to the pounding
beach. But they were powerless to answer the
crew's beseeching cries or to help them in any
way, as they were alone in these wilds and had
no means at hand of rescue. Through the black-
ness of the storm they could only imagine the dis-
tress, as they heard the roar of the heavy black
demons, fighting the stubborn craft steadily with
[93]
MAEOONED
wind and water as if it were an evil thing which
they were bent on destroying. At last, with ter-
rible strength, as if impatient of this impotent
play, the water rose in a tremendous wave, boom-
ing like thunder, took the battered fighter in its
arms, lifting her high from the heavy sea, and
flung her pounding on a jagged rock that held and
crunched her with its cruel teeth like a hungry
beast, scattering the splinters far and wide. The
men, fighting to the end for their lives, were jerked
and flung about like chips, their screams and
prayers drowned in the roar and pounding of the
storm, until the greedy sea once again broke over
the rock and swallowed their screams and mangled
bodies in a swirl.
By daylight the storm was over and the sea as
calm as if there had been no tragedy, the
surf beating steadily on the rocky shore its
solemn requiem for its deadly passion of the
dreadful night. The angry tempest had done its
very worst and now the sun, so cruel in its bright-
ness, danced joyously over the shining water, show-
ing in the silver gray sheen of the sea the broken
hulk of the wreck still clinging to the bald rock
with but one sign of life. This was the rather
pathetic figure of the sailor cat, sitting with his
head high in the air, on one of the highest timbers,
well out of the water, sunning himself, his nos-
trils dilating and swelling as they filled with
familiar land smells. His overwrought nerves
seemed wondrously calm under the harrowing cir-
cumstances, and in fact, on close scrutiny, there
seemed to be a decided air of grim triumph in his
[94]
MAEOONED
lonely figure seen silhouetted against the vast ex-
panse of blue sky and dancing waves. He had
discarded entirely his sullen manner and one
could almost see the hungry gleam of joy in his
wide-open, level eyes, as they looked and lingered
on the welcome sight of the heautiful world of
grass and green growing things so near. This
sweet and subtle fragrance blowing in his nostrils,
sent its solace straight to his embittered heart
and gave him the comfort and confidence that he
would soon be one of the little furry creatures
scampering in the woodsy haven. The steady
throb and creak of the horrible vessel was no
more, and he had at last been left free, once more
to work out his own destiny, and his heart, in
spite of his unmoved exterior, was thumping in
triumph, and his whole body tingled with ex-
citement. How delightfully safe, and steady, and
firm, the cool retreats of this forest world looked
to his sea-sick eyes! And over all brooded an
enchanting silence, with no sound of everlasting
machinery, just an occasional sweetly tremulous
note from the blue above, and a chirp from the
depth and mystery of the pungent land fragrance
below, that could be heard above the heavy beat-
ing of the surf.
His heart bounded in response to the possibil-
ities of this Promised Land of his long desire.
But there was a wide space of flashing, angry,
turbulent ocean between him and this secure,
friendly world of plenty and enticing sweet-smell-
ing shrubs: a hard problem and a fearsome risk
for an ordinary cat and a difficult one for even
[95]
MAEOONED
this desperate creature with his fearless nature
and the proclivities of a duck. But in cringing
fear of some further stroke of relentless fate,
that might come along and rescue him enslaving
him for another dismal voyage of excruciating ex-
perience, he determined not to be overtaken by
any such horrible doom, but to make that stretch
of water at any cost and to make it without delay.
He picked his way gingerly to where the
water washed the timbers, quivering with antic-
ipation, gathering all the strength of his big bones
and tough muscles for a leap to the shore rocks,
and then hesitated ! It was a deadly plunge and
his heart was doing double quick in fear, but the
compelling power of the near-by free range of
greenness, with its sweet breath of liberty, fired him
anew with the strength of despair. With a hoarse
cry, that seemed to come from the bottom of his
throat, and every muscle stiffened, in fierce reck-
lessness he at last launched himself into the
washing waves and all his whole-bodied, lusty
youth was put into the life and death struggle.
It is vouchsafed that some great mysterious power
shall watch over and guard helpless animals,
brave with desire, and it carried this stout heart,
that would have died but for it, straight to the
shore and back to the living fertile earth he loved,
to live his own free life once more in the shadow
of its satisfaction.
The cat had arrived in port at last and had
thrown off the fetters of his tragic fate forever,
going into the mystery of the wild, where no curi-
osity can follow.
[96]
MAIDA
MAIDA
IT WAS when Maida, a rarely beautiful Maltese,
was about a year old that she became the
mother of a collection of variegated little mon-
grel babies, with spotted fur of all sorts, except
one, which was pure white. Maida was all mother,
and very proud of this disreputably mixed pro-
geny, but evidently especially pleased with the
white one. Her preference for the milk-white
blonde was plain, for she always picked this one
out for extra care and scrubbing during the short
time they were allowed to snuggle together in the
nursery she had selected, which was a soap box
tucked away in the back corner of the stable loft.
But this is a cruel world for little unwelcome
kittens and so it was destined that this shameful
offspring should mysteriously disappear, and the
natural instincts of Maida 's big mother-heart be
frustrated.
On the afternoon of the babies' third birth-
day, after only a short absence, the devoted mother
came hurrying back in anxious care to the home
box, to find nothing there but the thick straw
[99]
MAIDA
bed. There were no little bunches of soft fur to
feed and cuddle not even one left to save her suf-
fering swelling breasts. No one told her why or
where; simply the cruel fact remained that she
was desolate, her home empty, and her babies
gone. Her grief over this heartless depredation,
so inhumanly human, was painful to witness.
Frantically she called in long-drawn, wailing ca-
dence for her babies, from morning till night, in
an agonized search. Up stairs and down, in and
out, her mournful meows echoed, until everyone
knew of her trouble, and even the most unsympa-
thetic were indignant over the cruelty of it.
All of a sudden Maida ceased her mourning
and settled down into quiet, regular habits again.
Everyone drew a sigh of relief at her serenity
and peace, but her mistress, more curious than
the rest, determined to know the cause of her
resignation and followed her to the loft. What
she found there sent the cold shivers down her
spine, for, snuggled to the poor mother's babyless
breasts, were four small, ugly, pinky-white ratlets,
with long tails and eyes like a Chinaman's. The
consoled mother looked up at her mistress with
beating heart and eyes straining with such plead-
ing human anxiety that there was no mistaking
that they held a challenge. But she need not have
feared for no one with any kind of feeling could
have the heart to let anyone interfere a second
time with Maida 's arrangement of a family how-
ever grotesque her ideas were in this respect.
Where these shocking substitutes for her own
unpopular babies came from, where they were
[100]
MAIDA
born and what had become of the rightful parent,
no one but Maida will ever know, as they were the
only descendants of this rather curious breed of
rodents that were ever seen in all the country
round. But Maida, the kidnapper, looked proudly
upon them, doubtless as her one white offspring
returned fourfold, and neither excused nor ex-
plained. If their advent was dark with a cruel
deed, no one knew and no one felt that they had
the right this time to deprive the aching breasts
and perhaps a conscience-stricken heart of this
compensation.
As the numerous rodents grew and began to
take notice, they became quite troublesome to the
anxious foster-mother, for they were wild little
things, uncommonly healthy and uncommonly
restless and rather fierce as well. Time proved
however that they were the very best specimens
of their kind, their baby coats bright and shining,
their slim wee eyes clear, and their little noses
alert with the most furious inquisitiveness. It
was not long before the boldest of them could
climb to the edge of the box on an investigating
tour into the attractions of that little surrounding
world of theirs, but Maida was ever on the alert,
and in a twinkling would seize him and drop him
in the box with a bump. Poor little ratlet would
look scared to death and rather shaky, but Maida
would gently lick him with her tongue, purring
in the dulcet tones of a cooing dove, until she had
him soothed.
The ratlets grew day by day into more in-
dependent and astonishing ways, and Maida 's mis-
[101]
MAIDA
tress decided that this rather frisky family had
better be transferred to more commodious quar-
ters. So the rather unique nursery and household
was removed to a large empty room over the
stable, where they could have plenty of room and
still be confined. Mother-Maida, doubtless feel-
ing that she had troubles enough before, did not
appreciate this freedom of a wider range for her
lively children, and would have been glad had her
mistress been less generous. Now it required
double the effort to keep her strange brood from
the tempting space about, and her strenuous strug-
gles to restrain them within the prescribed limits
of the box were sometimes painful, but always
very funny. At times, in a very frenzy at their
confinement the small rodents would bound, all in a
white streak, one after the other, over the edge of
the box and all over the room. Then poor Maida 's
maternal excitement and her efforts to drive, carry
or frighten them back to their home, made pan-
demonium, the ratlets running helter and skelter
in all directions and Maida after them. Catching
one, she would jump back into the box with it,
leave it there and go for another, but before she
could make a capture, the one she had left in the
box would be scampering in gay frolic with the
others.
This rather serious game for Maida of ' ' in and
out" would go on until her nervous system was a
wreck and she was utterly exhausted. Finally
realizing that her efforts to subdue her riotously
indecent family were useless, she would drop
breathless to the floor, stretch herself in a streak
[102]
MAIDA
of sunshine near the box, and survey the incor-
rigible mites with disgust. No longer pursued,
the fun ceased for the youngsters, and they would
come to where she was having a little interval of
peace, and nip and maul, challenging her into
another contest, playing tag up and down her
tail, and indulging in other tantalizing pastimes,
until even her self-sacrificing, long-suffering pa-
tience could no longer endure, and she would in-
dignantly shake every one of them off, spring to
her feet with a contemptuous meow of impatience,
and seek another place for relief. Then the ap-
parently conscience-stricken little rascals would
meekly come, one by one, anxious and conciliatory,
humbly begging her notice, scrambling solicitously
over her, and by and by the four tired-out white
beggars would be sleeping quietly with their sharp
little noses snuggled in the soft fur of her body,
all love and forgiveness.
Although animal children are generally sup-
posed to be much better behaved and to cause
their mothers less anxiety than human children,
this poor foster-mother was kept very busy dis-
ciplining and training her strangely troublesome
family. She truly mothered them, not as adopted
aliens, but as the real thing, and taught them the
proper things kittens ought to do and ought not
to do, with much vigor and many a box on the
ear ; for generally what the rodents wanted to do,
seemed to be just the thing they should not do
in the progress of their strange education.
One day the closet door having been left ajar,
baby ratlets in their search for mischief, climbed
[103]
MAIDA
way up to the ceiling and perched on the topmost
strip that held the hanging hooks. Maida, on find-
ing them so far above her reach, was painfully dis-
tressed, meowing and making the greatest kind
of a commotion in trying to scramble up the
smooth wall to their rescue, as she thought. The
ratlets seemed to be heartlessly indifferent to her
anxiety and had to be driven from their lofty roost
by the mistress. The first one to land on the floor
was grabbed by the enraged cat and given such
a shaking that he wobbled about in dizzy uncon-
sciousness for several minutes. The next one
she caught with a firm paw, as he was scurrying
back to the box, hoping to escape his punishment,
and held him tight to the floor, in spite of his whim-
pering protest, till he was quite still. This one
lay for a long time as if dead, but after a while
he slowly lifted his giddy, swimming head and
crawled patiently and sorrowfully back to his
bed, and never again did any of these naughty
babies attempt to break this strange law of a
strange mother, by climbing in the closet.
Once a window of this room was lowered from
the top, just a tiny way for air. Maida 's mistress,
happening to be in the barn, heard a great meow-
ing and disturbance going on in their room over-
head and rushed up to find her beloved cat rac-
ing about like mad, apparently frantic with grief
and not a ratlet in sight. The lady was very
much puzzled over this total disappearance of
all four of the ratlets and imagined all sorts of
things, even the worst, and started in to investi-
gate. In her search, she happened to glance out
[104]
MAIDA
of the window and there on the roof were the
whole bunch, plainly going mad in their unusual
freedom. The weather was splendid and they
were all out enjoying it, jumping and running
on the separating wall in mad frolic, apparently
just for the sake of falling back in somersaults
on the roof, scuffling and doing all sorts of nimble
acrobatics in reckless stunts, and surely making
the most of their glorious holiday in the sunshine.
The window was no sooner raised from the bot-
tom, giving Maida a chance, than she dashed out
like a flash, plainly determined on revenge. The
instant the naughty runaways caught sight of her,
they could not get back into the room and their
box quickly enough; they raced for their very
lives, stumbling and knocking each other over in
their eagerness to get there, fairly shivering in
their fright. Maida selected one poor pink-eyed,
trembling sprinter for a thorough shaking and let
the others profit by his sorrowful example, saving
herself further exercise.
The ratlets lived to be independent, well-be-
haved grown-ups, with wonderfully polished and
silky coats, owing to their frequent and thorough
grooming by their faithful foster-mother, who
seemingly never grew weary of her maternal
duties or their companionship. They were great
successes as rats, though doubtless Maida had
her own interior disappointment and cat wonder
as to why, with such faithful bringing up, they
were not animals of a more comforting nature.
Now she has real babies of her own, and this
time there is no mistake, for their fur is pure
[105]
MAIDA
Maltese, so her mother instincts have been allowed
legitimate vent. Her alien foster-children have
the freedom of the whole country and, owing to
their strange adoption and the zeal with which
they were brought up in the way good kittens
ought to go, they seem irreproachable in behavior.
[106]
A MEMORY
A MEMORY
ONE frosty morning, by arguing, reproaching
and beguiling in turn, we coaxed from under
cover of a heap of rubbish in the alley, one of
the dirtiest yellow and white gutter kittens ever
seen; one that had been eyeing us timidly and
insolently from the safe protection of his smelly
hiding place for several days. Gaunt, miserably
hungry and shivering with the cold, he did not
respond to our overtures of trying to make him
a mite happy on Christmas day, with the eager-
ness one would naturally expect. When he did
condescend to come, his steps were very deliberate
and he carried himself with a certain sad dignity
as if he had found the cold world hopeless, and
had shut his young heart against all trust. From
his manner it was more to politely oblige us that
he came at all, than because he wished a merry
Christmas or even our acquaintance.
By dropping our air of patronage and assum-
ing a respectful one, we were finally able to cajole
him to the doorstep and at last to the warmth
[109]
A MEMOEY
of the kitchen and a saucer of food. Although
he was not a bit shy, it was plainly his first in-
troduction into the interior of any house. Pie
was a typical alley kitten, and probably a grace-
less one, born in the gutter with no pretensions
to breeding or even good looks. But with all this,
a lover of cats could plainly see that he was not
a common "yeller cat" but had a superior strain
of blood in his veins from somewhere. Young as
he was, it gave him a distinct individuality which
impressed us from the very first. His short life
had in all likelihood been a hard one; probably
he had been abandoned in infancy and obliged to
make his own living by depredation, and knew
only the cruelty and insult of a homeless alley
existence.
There may still be people in the world civil-
ized people who do not care for cats, but we,
liking all cats and fancying the calm dignity of
this one in particular, were at once in hopes he
would forsake his back-door haunts and come and
live with us as our very own. As he looked wise
enough to solve life's problem on almost any lines,
we tried to tempt him to think seriously on all
the comforts our home afforded and the life of
ease and luxury it would bestow. We gave him
feasts and promised him all sorts of other good
things, if he would only abandon his former dis-
sipated ways and stay with us.
He was always such a very serious cat, never
seeming to have a kitten's natural playfulness,
not enough to even chase his own tail once in a
while as most kittens do. We never could coax
[110]
A MEMOEY
him even under the most alluring temptation to
be otherwise than grave and tolerant of our levity
and as we had our little romps with him we called
him in laughing sarcasm, "Jiminy Christmas. 77
We had no idea of giving one so dignified this
trifling name permanently, but he so quickly
learned to respond to it, and as no other was sug-
gested more appropriate in its place, it was grad-
ually established as the regular name by which
he was known.
He surely was a most welcome addition to our
household and we tried to make him feel this and
to know that we were honored by his stay. Al-
though he was growing fat and beautifully sleek
and was most friendly, graciously accepting all
that we gave, but giving very little in return, we
noticed that he did not seem quite content and
at ease, but was restless, as if some previous and
neglected affair were on his mind and calling him
elsewhere. There was nothing that we could
actually complain of, still there was something
comforting and permanent that was lacking in his
presence. He was good at least, part of him
was good; but we had no idea, as we came to
know later, of that other part that was, well-
not so good. At the time all we could see was
that something was plainly fretting him, some-
thing chafing him almost beyond endurance.
After we were better acquainted we found that
close beneath his gentlemanly exterior lay a veri-
table wild and vagabond nature, a vagrant an-
cestral strain that nothing could tame. His queer
combination of inheritances was the cause of con-
[in]
A MEMOEY
stant strife in his nature, and the vagrant germ
was likely to break out at almost any time into
attacks of "spring fever," which would force all
ties of the gentlemanly part to the wall and in-
evitably he would fare forth.
We tried in every way to coax him into con-
tentment and domestic ways, but the very fact
that he was under surveillance and obliged to do
things, even for our loving satisfaction, was ir-
ritating to him and made the "wild strain " chafe
under the bondage. He seemed to try to please
us as hard as we tried to please him, and ap-
peared grateful and affectionate, but he could not
hide that smoldering, hungry yearning in his eyes
nor the fact that he was tugging continually at
the chains of his restraint, waiting, listening and
planning some sort of polite escape, respectability
growing more and more irksome every day.
Afterwards, when we came to know his beset-
ting sin more intimately, we gave him credit for
manfully putting up a good fight this first time
against that vagrant embryo that was stirring an
almost irresistible desire in his breast. The mi-
gratory instinct grew more insistent day by day,
doubtless restrained for a time by a sense in his
gentlemanly nature of certain obligations due us
for our hospitality, but at last it was too much for
his politeness even and with a hasty " good-bye "
and a "thank you, ma'am, for your goodness " off
he scampered somewhere out where he could be
free, and into the uncertainty of his former tramp
existence, but with the exquisite joy of liberty
speeding his heels.
[112]
.
m,
A MEMOEY
We felt very sorry and really quite culpable
in not having been able to offer sufficient induce-
ment to hold this tantalizing little vagabond. Al-
though we did not wish him any misfortune, we
did hope that if adversity should overtake him in
the mysterious, hot, irritating madness of his
desire, he would remember our hospitable roof,
and come straight back to us.
He must have had an unusually good time and
turned himself loose recklessly, for it was many
months before we saw him again, and when he
did appear he had grown to full and magnificent
cathood. He came to our door as an undoubted
friend, bubbling over with vitality, every fiber
in his body, even to his tail, buoyant with pride
and action. He was still rather superior in man-
ner and quite sure of himself and his reception,
not that he would intrude himself upon us, but
if agreeable to all he would "bide a wee."
He looked as if the open road and the chase
had afforded him more than a sumptuous living,
for although well weathered by his tramp life,
he was as chipper as ever and his muscles hard
with a healthy well-fed leanness. Evidently, if
we wanted this little savage at all we must accept
him as a proposition and law unto himself. And
we did want him, feeling sure that he was of the
right sort, with merely a dash of mystery and
adventure about him. He was made more than
welcome, and his toes surreptitiously buttered ac-
cording to ancient superstition, a process said to
keep cats from roaming. He graciously settled
into the old ways, accepting our love and forgive-
[113]
A MEMORY
ness as freely as it was given, and this time was
good enough to stay with us for several months.
As week succeeded week and he was still a
contented member of our household, showing no
signs of going his own way, we felt certain the
talisman had worked and grew to be fairly sure
of him. We really believed that the fleshpots of
servitude had opened his eyes to the folly of his
former disreputable ways, and that in pure phys-
ical content he would now settle down into the
easy berth offered him and the tameness of do-
mesticity.
But it seems that this was only the " gentle-
manly part, ' ' for the time being having a holiday,
and that our assurance was a creation of our own
desire and doomed to disappointment. The time
came all too surely when he began to show a
decided weariness of walls and a diminished ap-
petite for things cooked, perking his ears with
a curious, listening look in his dark eyes, as of
constant, waiting expectation, listening to some-
thing calling from afar. The roaming strain in
his blood ever ran true on its glorious course,
and it was not long before his days were empty
and life too unbearably dull under the ease of
our, perhaps too lavish, hospitality. Much to our
chagrin he plainly showed that he was weary to
death of having to account for days, and being
locked up nights.
We recognized the signs and knew that this
was one of his periods of utter revolt, when all
clogging connection with civilization would prove
too galling in comparison with the joys of the
[114]
A MEMOEY
open, and knowing the nature of the sledge ham-
mer that was pounding in his breast, stood by and
watched the struggle with amused interest. We
were certain that we had given him the sense
of the restfulness of a settled home with its com-
forts, and were also sure of having gained his
gentlemanly gratitude and affection. But "you
never can tell," and so we waited and wondered
in curious uncertainty as to the outcome.
Summer passed, and it was not until the leaves
were smitten with frost and falling scarlet and
gold in the autumn woods that Jiminy Christmas '
vagabond blood tantalized him into faring forth.
The free way in which the cheery chipmunks and
the squirrels were scampering among the naked
tree-tops, rattling the dry branches and sending
a rain of nuts on his great playground, set the
wheels of discontent to buzzing so fiercely in his
roving nature that it actually hurt him to stay
within bounds. We felt that if he were able to
resist the merciless torment this time, he would
indeed be a warrior worthy of laurel.
In the end the lure of life in the open won;
or was it the old militant alley and chummy gut-
ters? But whichever it was, the summons proved
too enticing, and so one evening, half-apologet-
ically, as if dragging himself away from an al-
most overpowering temptation to stay, he rubbed
his "Aufwiedershen" about our feet. We watched
him fade like a ghost into the surreptitious
joy of the blue gloaming, carrying his tail
with an air of regret and shame, but resolutely,
and quickening his pace with every step, never
[115]
A MEMORY
to be seen again until all hope had long been
given up.
As the months and finally more than a year
passed and no prodigal returned, we feared that
he had shaken the dust from his paws and the
memory of our home from his mind, forever, and
gone the final way of all such vagabonds. We
were honestly puzzled over this wild independent
streak in his nature, and naturally rather indig-
nant over his lack of appreciation. Still, his next
appearance was anxiously waited for and there
was never a day that we did not look and hope
that out of the mysterious everywhere, somehow,
someway, this ungrateful cat would come back to
the warm spots in our hearts, and the empty spot
on our hearth that were waiting for him.
One lovely morning, in the early spring, on
going out on the back porch for a breath of the
fresh morning world and a general survey of
things blossoming, little did we dream of seeing
our renegade. Yet there he was, sitting modestly
on the very edge of the farthest corner, as if
claiming nothing, nor asserting anything, but
actually there, come back to us from the mysteri-
ous absence of a whole year.
"And is it you!" was the rather scornful wel-
come he received.
Naturally the feeble irony of this greeting
was lost on him and he gave us a smiling " good-
morning, " with a "lovely day today" sort of
expression, and our pleasure at renewing the ac-
quaintance was as great as the surprise he had
given us. We could scarcely believe our eyes,
[116]
A MEMOEY
but by this time we were getting used to this cat's
"dropping in on us" how and when he liked.
He was quite self-possessed, making what we con-
sidered a polite apology but no unusual fuss, ig-
noring this huge blank in his record and pretend-
ing it was but yesterday that he had stepped out
to "look at things. " His superb air of having
no recollection and being so stolidly calm over it,
and having no consciousness of anything to ac-
count for, was exasperatingly characteristic. But
with all this, there seemed to be at first a question-
ing, wistful look in his wide-open eyes as they
met ours. Not that he was at all humble ; it was
rather as if he were trying to fathom the depth
of his depravity in our estimation: a guilty, un-
certain, uneasy, self-conviction, as if feeling his
way back into our goodness and esteem.
Although he had made himself tidy, after the
manner of cats, he looked as if this intervening
year had not been entirely good to him. His dis-
reputable appearance gave proof, that however
gentle we had found him in peace, he must be
terrible in war, for his glossy fur was soiled and
shabby and in a pitiable state of rags and tatters,
showing the scars of many a hard-fought battle,
but honorable battles and honorable scars we were
sure.
Older now, and as one who had experienced
hard, his calm eyes held in their dark depths the
mystery of many a bandit night under the stars.
He was like the "shabby genteel," doing his pain-
ful best to make the most of a decidedly disrepu-
table appearance, ignoring all things that were
[117]
A MEMOEY
even suggestive of a blank page unaccounted for.
He was still plucky and sublimely dignified in
that impregnable reserve which even our kind-
ness had never been able to penetrate, but there
was something gone from his old-time militant
buoyancy, and in its place a kind of desperate
air, as of one who assumes a bravado of happi-
ness he does not feel.
This time he manifested a decided gratitude
for all the good things that came to him. As his
hollow skeleton filled out with good and regular
food, and his relaxed sinews stiffened, we thought
that at last the days of roving and the vagabond-
age of lusty youth were over and that he had come
to a realizing sense of what a comfortable old
age would mean. Surely now he would accept
a trifling bondage for the sake of peace, rather
than yield again to the vague uncertainty of ir-
responsible freedom and the disastrous results
he had plainly experienced. The old love for
the prodigal came back and he was reinstated with
joy. But alas, the straight and narrow path
seemed to have no charms for this incorrigible,
and his case seemed hopeless. Just as his hollow
curves were filling out into decent plumpness and
his thick glossy coat beginning to look like an
aristocrat's the symptoms of the inevitable "part-
ing of our ways" were again apparent. It was
the usual attack, violent and urgent, leading him
to dare and defy all, even death, in following the
beckoning call.
It was mortifying to us that he should even
occasionally prefer the low company of his alley
[118]
A MEMORY
associates, and the shame of being a skulking
gutter shadow, dodging abuse, but that he should
have these periodical spells of the "inevitable
interval/' unconscious of any restraint, wander-
ing and living as a tramp for months away from
us, his ways and life entirely shrouded in mystery,
was too exasperating even for our loving for-
bearance. In our wrath, we determined that if
he went this time from our home, it should be
forever. We had lost all patience with his de-
lightful weakness and had at last made up our
minds that if he could not be contented to remain
this time, we would depose him everlastingly
from our hospitality and erase him from our
hearts, for we felt that we were wasting our af-
fection and anxious sympathy on false pretenses.
In our high estimation of him, we had given
him credit for what was not there, and an appre-
ciation far above what he had proven capable of.
We were baffled and perplexed beyond endurance
by this strange fascination which seduced him
with such passionate persistence, driving him from
our protection into great spaces in his life which
were a sealed book to us. During all these years
of our intermittent friendship, we were never
able to solve this riddle. It was as if he heard
some compelling challenge, like the sounding notes
of the Pied Piper, calling and calling him from
that far-off unknown, and try as he would to op-
pose it, his scandalous legs would eventually force
their independence and get him there in spite of
a hostile and honorable will. There was some-
thing so piteously appealing in the cat's evident
[119]
A MEMOEY
helplessness to combat these siren summons, which
threw him into a white heat of daring, that it
finally disarmed our antagonism. Eesigned to
what we had now found was inevitable we compas-
sionately waited and watched, realizing the fierce-
ness of the strife that was raging in his complex
nature, and knowing that he was powerless to
thwart it.
This time the battle was a short one, for he
had lost the shame of it, and had not the strength
or desire to fight it. With no apology but with
the steady, brooding look of a thousand defiant
devils in his gray eyes, he soon made a hasty es-
cape, the stiff hair lifting eagerly along the ridge
of his back as he set out again on the long weary
road that was forever drawing him from the nar-
row path of peace and rectitude. He had evidently
sunk very low, even in his own estimation, for
our last glimpse of him caught him adroitly dodg-
ing a shower of rocks well-aimed by the eternal
small boy, ever on the lookout for such targets,
as he disappeared over the alley fence.
We gave him up surely this time and mourned
him as dead, knowing that the pluck and endur-
ance of youth was long past. His wandering ir-
regular life had done its worst, weakening his
one-time rugged frame that was wont to withstand
so defiantly, the hardships and privations of a
tramp life.
But he was not dead, and we were bound to
see him once more from out the No-Where, and
to have the satisfaction of knowing that this long
trip was his last and his wandering days over.
[120]
JIMINY CHEISTMAS, THE FREE SPIRIT
BORN FREE, HE KEPT His OWN WANTON
WILL FREE FROM ENSLAVEMENT TO THE END,
LIVING His OWN LIFE IN HONOR AND
HONESTY IN AN OUT-DOORS
ALL His OWN
A MEMOEY
It was during the wee small hours one silent,
frosty night, that I was irresistibly drawn from
my dreams and from my bed, and stepping to the
window looked out on the sparkling space of what
seemed to be the deserted roof, flooded in the un-
clouded light of the full moon. Quietly and with
no sense of abruptness, came stealing on the heavy
stillness of the night, a mournful, throaty wail
of resignation from out the inky shadow made
by the chimney. This desperate cry of the soli-
tary cat sounded almost human, as if, seeing me
standing there, and knowing that the icy doom
had overtaken him, he just wanted to let me know
the desolation of his helplessness. Peering into
the shadow, I saw crouched there in a strangely
pathetic manner, our wandering Ishmael, keep-
ing a lonely night-watch and waiting patiently in
the cold for God knows what. He seemed dazed
and terrified, crouching stiffly and staring about
him with wide-open, frightened eyes. He must
have known that the darkness was close upon
him, for that one beseeching, throaty note, un-
speakably human and forlorn, was all his uncom-
plaining wretchedness uttered.
Answering to my coaxing, he straightened his
fast stiffening limbs with an effort and dragged
his poor weak body to my compassionate caress.
He had changed pitifully during this stay away
and was only a shadow of his former self phys-
ically. His pride and might were all gone, but he
was a stoic still, enduring what he himself seemed
to know was death, in silent, uncomplaining misery
but with a green spark of terror blazing in his
[121]
A MEMOEY
fading eyes. I was glad that he had not crawled
away to some secret place for the last great strug-
gle alone, but had come to us and to our sympathy
in his final need.
I soon had a blazing fire and as he feebly felt
its warmth, he made a pathetic effort to tidy his
poor matted fur, in which he had always taken
such pride, especially in our presence. But even
a few licks of his tongue were too much for his
failing strength, and he dropped limply to the
rug. Once he turned his head wearily to me as
if to express his gratitude and as if to say, "How
glad I am to be here." Then his body relaxed,
the terror faded from his eyes, and that was the
end. He had answered the summons for his last
journey and gone out into the darkness without
even the grace of repentance.
Only a cat! And one of the least commend-
able of all cats, and one that could not be called,
even by his most ardent admirer, a worthy cat.
Yet he possessed a personality, if not a soul,
glowing with the great American burning impulse
of liberty, and he has left a memory, not as a
failure, but as one who made good. Born free,
he kept his own free will to the end, living his
own life in an out-doors all his own, free from
enslavement and exultant in his freedom. He
asked absolutely nothing of the world, but took
what came his way with unassuming composure,
rising above the temptation to yield his individ-
uality in serving those he loved, cherishing some-
where in his plucky brain a pre-natal, God-im-
planted spirit of self-reliance to the end.
[122]
A MEMOEY
Is it against all religion that God might per-
haps let such a pagan bundle of unrepentance
into Somewhere? Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re.
IB there aught of harm believing
That some newer form receiving,
They may find a wider sphere,
Live a larger life than here?
That the meek appealing eyes
Haunted by strange mysteries,
Find a more extended field,
To new destinies unsealed!
[123]
HERE ENDS THE GREAT SMALL CAT, AND
OTHERS, BEING A COLLECTION OF SEVEN
TALES FOR CAT-LOVERS, BY MAY E. SOUTH-
WORTH, THE TYPOGRAPHICAL APPEARANCE
DESIGNED BY JOHN SWART, PUBLISHED BY
PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY AND PRINTED FOR
THEM BY THE TOMOYE PRESS, SAN FRAN-
CISCO, NINETEEN HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
BERKELEY
Return to desk from which borrowed.
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.
NOV
DEC 18 1947
25 1947
REC'D CO
DEC 13 E58
REC'D LD
FEB 41963
LD 21-100m-9,'47(A5702sl6)476
30234
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
