198 THE IDYL OF AN EMPTY LOT. 



She never did anything on the lot except 

 sleep, and she seemed totally blind to the attrac- 

 tions of nature. I never saw her notice any- 

 thing. As soon as she awoke she went back 

 through the humble portal to her flat. 



This piece of woods was not merely a pleas- 

 ure-ground. It was a hunting-field as well, and 

 the denizens of its quiet shades were not at all 

 averse to a little excitement of the chase, nor to 

 a taste now and then of wild game of their own 

 catching. What was there I know not, but I 

 judge from the spasmodic character of the hunt 

 that it was grasshopj^ers. 



The silver tabby and the white-and-black, who 

 were daily visitors to the place, never quarreled 

 with each other, and their intercourse, when they 

 happened to meet on the common highway, was 

 conducted in the courteous and dignified manner 

 of the race. 



Cats are popularly supposed to dislike wet, 

 but I have seen two of them in a steady rain 

 conduct an interview with all the gravity and 

 deliberation for which these affairs are cele- 

 brated. The slow approach, with frequent 

 pauses to sit down and meditate, or "view the 

 landscape o'er," the earnest and musical — if 

 melancholy — exchange of salutations, the almost 

 imperceptible drawing nearer, with the slightly 

 waving tail the only sign of excitement, and at 



