122 The Book of Cats. 



servant followed him cautiously, with the inten- 

 tion of catching, and administering to him a little 

 wholesome correction. To her amazement, she saw 

 the Cat go to a corner of the yard where she knew 

 a rat-hole existed, and lay the beef down by the 

 side of it. Leaving the beef there, he hid himself a 

 short distance off, and watched until a rat made its 

 appearance. Tom's tail then began to wag, and 

 just as the rat was moving away with the bait, he 

 sprang upon, and killed it. 



It one day occurred to M. de la Croix that he 

 ought to try an experiment upon a Cat with an air 

 pump. The necessity for her torture was not, how- 

 ever, so apparent to the intended victim of science 

 as to the scientific experimenter. Therefore, when 

 she found the air growing scarce, and discovered 

 how it was being exhausted, she stopped up the 

 valve with her paw. Then M. de la Croix let the 

 air run back, and Pussy took away her paw, but as 

 soon as he began to pump, she again stopped up 

 the hole. This baffled the man of science, and 

 there is no knowing what valuable discovery might 

 have been made, had not his feline friend been so 

 very unaccommodating. 



Dr. Careri, in his Voyage round the PVorld in 1 695, 

 says, that a person, in order to punish a mischievous 



