Ii8 TJie Book of Cats. 



the house, and Minny being no longer fed with the 

 same regularity, Avas often hungry, and would then 

 go and scratch at the drawer where its food had 

 been kept. The draAver being at length opened, 

 some pieces of meat were found within in a mum- 

 mified state. These having been given to the Cat, 

 failed to console her, and she scratched harder than 

 ever at the secret drawer underneath ; and Minny's 

 new masters, in course of time understanding what 

 she m.eant, broke it open, and found twenty small 

 canvas bags of guineas snugly packed up within. 

 My authority does not say how Minny fared after 

 this little discovery. Let us hope she was allowed 

 her old sleeping-place, and got her food with toler- 

 able regularity. But there is no knowing. 



Cats are very fond of creeping into out-of-the- 

 way holes and corners, and, sometimes, pay dearly 

 for so doing. 



Once when repairing the organ in Westminster 

 Abbey, a dried Cat was found in one of the large 

 recumbent wooden pipes, which had been out of 

 tune for some time. In one of the rooms at the 

 Foreign Ofhce, some years ago, there was, for a 

 long time, a very disagreeable smell, which was sup- 

 posed to arise from the drains. At length some 

 heavy volumes being taken down from a shelf, the 



