Tll . CASSELL'S POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 



When tlir :i.-i-us.Ml IM-I-SI.IIS were brought iii, us soon as the cat whose motions I attentively 



watched saw them, his eyes glared with increased fury, his hair bristled up, he darted into the middle 



nf the apartment, stopped for a moment, then went and laid down under the bed beside the spaniel, 

 . \ i.li'iitlv sympathising with him in his indignation at the murder, and his faithful attachment to his 

 tnktress. These mute but alarming witnesses did not escape the attention of the assassins, whose 

 i- .iinteiiiinces were disconcerted at the sight, and who now, for the first time during the whole course 

 of the business, felt themselves abandoned by their atrocious audacity." 



A cat, brought up in a family, became strongly attached to the eldest child, a little boy, who was 

 vcrv fond of plaving with her. She bore, with the greatest patience, any maltreatment she received 

 from him, and which even good-natured children seldom fail, occasionally, to give animals in their 

 sports with them. 



As she grew up, she daily quitted her play-fellow from whom she had previously been inseparable 

 in order to catch mice ; but, as soon as she had caught one, she brought it alive to him. If he 

 showed any inclination to take it from her, she allowed it to run, and waited to see if he was able to 

 catch it If he were not, she darted at it, seized it, and laid it before him ; the sport continuing as 

 long as the child was inclined to engage in it. 



At length the child was attacked with small-pox, and, dining the first days of his disorder, the cat 

 never quitted his bedside ; but, as his danger increased, it was found necessary to remove the cat, and 

 lock it up. The day after the child died, she somehow escaped from her confinement, and immediately 

 ran to the room where she expected to find her playmate. Disappointed in her expectation, she ran, 

 with symptoms of great uneasiness and loud lamentations, about the house, till she came to the room 

 where the remains of the child lay. Here she lay down apparently disconsolate, till she was again 

 locked up. 



As soon as the child was buried, the cat was set at liberty, but speedily disappeared, and it was not 

 till a fortnight afterwards that she returned to the house quite emaciated. She did not, however, take 

 any nourishment, but ran away, with dismal cries. At length, compelled by hunger, she made her 

 appearance every day at dinner-time, but always left the house as soon as she had eaten the food that 

 was given her. No one knew where she spent the rest of her time, until she was found one day close 

 to the grave of her departed friend ; and during five successive years at the close of which the family 

 removed to a distance she never, except in the greatest severity of winter, passed the night except 

 on the same spot. 



The cat, at the time these circumstances were related, was thirteen years old. She was treated 

 with the utmost kindness by every person in the family, and would allow herself to be played with by 

 the younger children ; but to no one thenceforward did she exhibit any special partiality. 



The poet tells us of 



" Some that are mad if the; behold a cat; " 



and, in certain instances, the antipathy is so strong that they are ready to faint if one be detected 

 in the same room with them. The gallant Highland chieftain, alluded to by Sir Walter Scott, had 

 ' been seen to change into all the colours of his own plaid," on such an occasion. Never can they say, 

 with the first witch in Macbeth, 



"I come, Graymalkin ! " 



for even a kitten is shunned as an object of disgust, if not terror. 



I >Ulikc appears under very different circumstances. It used to be shown by schoolboys the present 

 race may, and ought to be, more humane when they shod cats with walnut-shells; threw them from 

 high places \\ illi blown bladders tied to their necks j set Tabby, however great a favourite, in a bowl to 

 n.i\i'_':ite the neighbouring horse-pond ; or baited her by exciting against her her old enemy Toby, the 

 terrier. Tales, too, have been perpetuated to the disadvantage of the cat, and the encouragement of 

 this prejudice. Kveu now, when old Gooddy, the nurse, would not think of attending to the formula for 

 a charm, "Take the brain of a black cat, the blacker the better," she will determinately drive the 



ii.-out nl 'tin- room, "lest," forsooth, " it should suck the breath of the baby." That it is impossible 

 i , do so, will be obvious on the slightest reflection, since the construction of a cat's mouth must pre- 

 M-nt her from breathing by that part and the nose at the same time. The vulgar notion must have 





