106 THE FIRESIDE SPHINX 



while a dear little dog jumps up at her, vainly striv- 

 ing to attract attention. She was evidently partial 

 to pets. 



Among the mosaics taken from Pompeii, and 

 placed in the Museum of Naples, are several ani- 

 mated representations of cats. Two of the finest 

 were found in the House of the Faun, — unlovely 

 pictures both of them, revealing Pussy as an outlaw 

 and marauder. That there were homes in which 

 she was prized and cherished is prettily proven by 

 a mutilated marble preserved at Bordeaux. It is a 

 Gallo-Roman tomb of the fourth century, and on 

 it we discern the broken outlines of a young girl 

 clasping her cat in her arms, as though in death 

 they were not divided. 



From these fleeting glimpses of Pussy, before 

 she plunged into the long darkness of the Middle 

 Ages, it is a pleasure to turn to those later, calmer 

 years, when, having survived the depreciation and 

 persecution of centuries, we see her once again 

 basking in the light and warmth of a rapidly ripen- 

 ing civilization. Even during the stormiest period 

 of her career she was better off in Italy than in 

 fierce Northern lands ; and, with the dawning of 

 fairer days, no happier proof could be afforded of 

 the affection she inspired than her constant pre- 

 sence in Italian art. It is true that she makes an 

 equally early appearance upon Flemish canvases. 



