52 MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 



and fooling about with it. I almost think 

 that, with one of these in the hands of an 

 ordinary day-laborer, you might see at night 

 where he had been working. 



Let us have peas. I have been a zealous 

 advocate of the birds. I have rejoiced in 

 their multiplication. I have endured their 

 concerts at four o'clock in the morning 

 without a murmur. Let them come, I said, 

 and eat the worms, in order that we, later, 

 may enjoy the foliage and the fruits of the 

 earth. We have a cat, a magnificent an- 

 imal, of the sex which votes (but not a 

 pole-cat), so large and powerful that, if 

 he were in the army, he would be called 

 Long Tom. He is a cat of fine disposi- 

 tion, the most irreproachable morals I ever 

 saw thrown away in a cat, and a splendid 

 hunter. He spends his nights, not in social 

 dissipation, but in gathering in rats, mice, 

 flying-squirrels, and also birds. When he 

 first brought me a bird, I told him that it 

 was wrong, and tried to convince him, while 

 he was eating it, that he was doing wrong; 



