THE CAT TO-DAY 237 



to cats. In Watson's Annals we read of Elizabeth 

 Hurd and her husband who came to Philadelphia 

 with Penn's early colonists. They worked hard 

 side by side to build their first rude home, living 

 meantime, like so many of the poorer emigrants, in 

 a cave by the river's bank. One day while Eliza- 

 beth was carrying water, and mixing the mortar for 

 their chimney, her husband said to her with some 

 asperity : " Thou hadst better think of dinner ! " 

 — an essentially masculine remark, when there was 

 nothing but a little bread and cheese in the larder. 

 Elizabeth walked soberly back to the cave, think- 

 ing very hard, but quite unable to translate her 

 thoughts into provisions. On the way she met her 

 cat, holding in his mouth a fine large rabbit, " which 

 she thankfully received, and dressed as an English 

 hare. When her husband came in to dinner" — 

 plainly expecting to be well fed, — "he was in- 

 formed of the facts, whereupon they both wept 

 with reverential joy, and ate their meal, which was 

 thus seasonably provided for them, in singleness 

 of heart." 



The help afforded in this emergency was never 

 ungratefully forgotten ; for when Elizabeth Hurd 

 died, after many years of prosperity, she bequeathed 

 to her grand-niece, Mrs. Deborah Morris, a silver 

 tureen, on which was engraved a cat bearing a rabbit 

 in its mouth. 



