274 THE FIRESIDE SPHINX 



never recovered her mental balance, — always ap- 

 pearing to be in a state of pitiable apprehension. 



Animals so delicately organized are necessarily 

 sensitive to atmospheric conditions. An approach- 

 ing storm starts them restlessly wandering from 

 room to room. They have been known to exhibit 

 signs of acute disquietude before cyclones and 

 earthquakes. In 1783 two wise cats of Messina 

 behaved so strangely, and showed such evidences 

 of terror, that their master, infected by their fear, 

 fled from his house in time to escape the first great 

 shock, and the tumbling of his walls in ruins. 



It is pleasant to relate these services to man on 

 the part of little beasts who do not often pose as 

 our benefactors, and who have been, in their day, 

 accused of much ill-doing. Even now, when sus- 

 picions of witchcraft are allayed, and mothers no 

 longer believe that cats suck the blood of their 

 sleeping infants, the ancient and unconquerable 

 prejudice is kept alive by sad stories of contagion, 

 — of pussies who carry diphtheria and scarlet fever 

 from house to house, with a malignity worthy of 

 the Jew of Malta. 



" As for myself, I walk abroad a-nights, 

 And kill sick people groaning under walls ; 

 Sometimes I go about and poison wells." 



Every year or so an enterprising newspaper re- 

 porter stirs up a sleepy bacteriologist, and per- 



