THE CAT; 



A Captain's Kitten 



A most tragical incident fell out this day at 

 sea. While the ship was under sail, but making, 

 as will appear, no great way, a kitten, one of the 

 four feline inhabitants of the cabin, fell from the 

 window into the water. An alarm was immediately 

 given to the captain, who was then upon deck, 

 and who received it with many bitter oaths. He 

 immediately gave orders to the steersman in favour 

 of the poor thing, as he called it; the sails were 

 instantly slackened, and all hands employed to re- 

 cover the animal. I was, I own, surprised at this ; 

 less, indeed, at the captain's extreme tenderness, 

 than at his conceiving any possibility of success; 

 for if Puss had had nine thousand instead of nine 

 lives, I concluded they had all been lost. The 

 boatswain, however, was more sanguine; for hav- 

 ing, stripped himself of his jacket, breeches, and 

 shirt, he leaped boldly into the water, and, to my 

 great astonishment, in a few minutes returned to 

 the ship, bearing the motionless animal in his 

 mouth. Nor was this, I observed, a matter of such 

 great difficulty as it appeared to my ignorance, and 

 possibly may seem to that of my fresh-water 

 reader. The kitten was now exposed to air and sun 

 on the deck, where its life, of which it retained no 

 symptoms, was despaired of by all. 

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