Catg ant) tbe Meatber in 



a hundred yards of Trafalgar Square invited me to 

 an ocular demonstration of the cat's alleged weather- 

 wisdom. " Billy," it appears, had all that morning 

 shown an irrepressible desire to get up the " cold " 

 chimney. When made to desist, she had taken the 

 first opportunity to repeat her strange conduct. 



The demonstration was given and certainly proved 

 one thing, namely, that " Billy's " eagerness to ascend 

 the sooty interior of that " cold " chimney was still 

 manifest. Shall I ever forget the proud, triumphant 

 look of her mistress at this evidence of feline fore- 

 showing ! Every glance, every movement, expressed 

 as plainly as words could utter : " There ! did I not 

 tell you so ? " Surely, no one could be sceptical 

 enough to doubt that a change of weather was coming. 



Alas ! just when some of us were becoming con- 

 vinced that here we had a cat of extraordinary powers 

 of prognostication, down from the chimney there 

 fluttered, with many an alarmed cheep ! cheep ! a 

 poor, wretched, grimy sparrow. . . . 



No longer now is " Billy " looked upon as a feline 

 phenomenon. That sparrow was her undoing. Word 

 of the disillusionment soon spread. Even the cat's- 

 meat -man with the meow-like call now passes the door 

 without stopping. Only yesterday, " Billy " followed 

 him the entire length of the street which was an 

 unusual thing for a London cat to do but her plaintive 

 cries utterly failed to soften his heart. It is not easy, 

 indeed, for any pussy to soften the heart of a cat's 

 meat-man. As he turned the corner of the street 

 where stands the church with the towering spire and 

 the unillummated clock a-nights he whipped up his 



