12 The Book of Cats. 



So haste away unto the play, whose name has reached the skies, 

 And when the Cati ope's her mouth, oh how she'll catch the flies !" 



It was once upon a time the trick of a country- 

 man to bring a Cat to market in a bag, and sub- 

 stitute it for a sucking pig in another bag, which 

 he sold to the unwary when he got the chance. If 

 the trick was discovered prematurely, it was called 

 letting the cat out of the bag — if not — he that made 

 the bad bargain was said to have bought a pig in 

 a poke. To turn the Cat in the pan, according to 

 Bacon, is when that which a man says to another 

 he says it as if another had said it to him. 



There is a kind of ship, too, called a Cat, a vessel 

 formed on the Norwegian model, of about 600 tons 

 burthen. That was the sort of cat that brought the 

 great Dick Whittington, of ''turn again" memory, 

 his fortune. Do you remember how sorr}- you 

 were to find out the truth .^ Do you recollect what 

 a pang it cost you when first you heard that Robin- 

 son Crusoe was not true } I shall never forget 

 how vexed and disappointed I was at hearing that 

 Dick Turpin never did ride to York on his famous 

 mare ^lack Bess, and that no such person as 

 William Tell ever existed, and that that beautiful 

 story about the apple was only a beautiful story 

 after all. 



