The Book of Cats. 149 



all her efforts to drive him from his prey failed. 

 The lady hurried on to a fisherman's cottage, 

 which was near at hand, and told of the little 

 tragedy with the eloquence of real feeling. 



" But the fisher-folk were not so disconcerted, 

 and, laughing, said — 



" ' It is always so ; that hawk always comes down 

 if anybody goes near the kitten. He has taken to 

 the kitten, and he stays near at hand to watch 

 whenever it goes to sleep.' 



" The case was so remarkable that the lady en- 

 quired further into its history, and learned that the 

 kitten's mother had died, and that the fisherman's 

 family had missed the little nurseling. After some 

 time, they observed a kestrel hawk loitering about 

 the cottage : they used to throw him scraps of 

 meat, and they noticed that he always carried 

 off a portion of every meal, dragging even heavy 

 bones away out of sight. His movements were 

 watched, and they saw that he carried the stores 

 to the roof of a cottage. A ladder was placed, 

 some one ascended, and there, nestling in a hole in 

 the thatch, lay the lost kitten, thriving prosperously 

 under the tender care of its strange foster-father. 

 The foundling was brought down, and restored to 

 civilized life, but the bandit-protector was not 



