THE CAT TO-DAY 279 



but she appeared both hurt and mortified by my 

 incomprehensible indifference to such delicious 

 morsels." 



Several similar instances have come within my 

 knowledge. One is that of an English cat who was 

 fed daily at the family dinner hour, receiving from 

 his master's hand choice bits of fish and fowl. On 

 a certain winter evening he was unaccountably ab- 

 sent from his post ; but when the dinner was half 

 served, he came rushing up the stairs, carrying two 

 mice in his mouth. One he dropped upon his own 

 platter, and then, before he could be stopped, he 

 leaped upon the table, and deposited the second on 

 his master's plate, — a graceful and pretty, however 

 unwelcome attention, and one which plainly showed 

 a well-bred desire to requite the hospitality he had 

 received. 



The same generous instinct animated a Boston 

 cat of my acquaintance, to whom the fishmonger 

 was wont, in his daily visit, to give some scraps of 

 fish. One morning Amber brought a little dead 

 mouse, and laid it at his friend's feet with a courte- 

 ous gesture which said, " Permit me to make some 

 return for your constant kindness." It is not pos- 

 sible to deny to an animal, capable of such charm- 

 ing liberality, that finer sentiment which bids us all 

 acknowledge and repay a benefaction. 



A more touching story is told of a poor old cat, 



