46 The Book of Cats. 



his wife sitting by, and feeding her child out of a 

 basin, round which a Cat is prowling, Mind, his 

 new pupil, stared very hard at the sketch of this 

 last figure, and Frendenberger asked with a smile 

 whether he thought he could draw a better. 

 Mind offered to show what he could do, and did 

 draw a Cat, which Frendenberger liked so much 

 that he asked his pupil to elaborate the sketch, 

 and the master copied the scholar's work, for 

 it is Mind's Cat that is engraved in Frenden- 

 berger's plate. Prints of ]\Iind's Cats are now 

 common. 



Mind did not look upon Cats merely as subjects 

 for art ; his liking for them was very great. Once 

 when hydrophobia was raging in Berne, and eight 

 hundred were destroyed in consequence of an 

 order issued by the civic authorities, Mind was in 

 great distress on account of their death. He had, 

 however, successfully hidden his own favourite, and 

 she escaped the slaughter. This Cat was always 

 with him when he worked, and he used to carr}' on 

 a sort of conversation with her by gesture and 

 signs. It is said that Minette sometimes occupied 

 his lap, while two or three kittens perched on his 

 shoulders ; and he was often known to remain for 

 an hour together in almost the same attitude for 



