ducing kittens with regularity and dispatch. 

 "Fluffy," I said, "are you ferocious?" She 

 opened her pink mouth, but made no sound, 

 and then (being on a gravel path) turned over 

 on her back and asked for a caress. "Fluffy," 

 I continued, "where is your oblique disdain?" 

 She drew my hand down gently and clawlessly 

 with her front paws. "Fluffy," I concluded, 

 "why do you think of us as encumbering para- 

 sites and curse us in your mysterious heart?" 

 She rose, arched her back, and rubbed her- 

 self, smiling and purring, against my leg. 

 The answer was complete, a delicate and reti- 

 cent expression of sincere affection. 

 % This is not to deny the assertion that a cat 

 is sometimes fierce and cruel. The bird 

 maintains it and the mouse confirms it. But 

 it must be remembered that the charge usually 

 brought against her is one of special ferocity 

 distinguishing her, let us say, from the dog. 

 What is to be said, then, in mitigation of the 

 conduct of a terrier with a rat, of a greyhound 

 with a hare, or of a foxhound (or, for the 

 37 H matter 



