of next spring's music in Northern fields 

 and orchards. 



The warm breath of the Gulf steals in 

 upon our little world and a change comes. 

 The birds remember that they are due in 

 a few days in an Ohio orchard or on an 

 Illinois prairie, so they pack and go. The 



allurements of a Southern spring, with 

 all its fragrance and charm, do not hold 

 them. Without a goodby they are gone, 

 not to return till once more 



" Frosts and shortening days portend 

 The aged year is near his end." 



James Stephen Compton. 



MUSIC-LOVING FELINES. 



According to observation, music has 

 power, not only to soothe the savage or 

 the troubled breast of civilized man, but 

 its potency extends to the brute world as 

 well. Among those animals which ap- 

 pear to be charmed by musical sounds, it 

 would seem difficult to find any manifest- 

 ing a keener delight than the ordinary 

 domestic cat. 



The London Spectator some months 

 ago referred to an instance where a cat 

 showed marked pleasure in a whistled 

 tune. This recalled to memory the cir- 

 cumstance of a certain cat, a beautiful 

 creature with black and ecru stripes, 

 whose appreciation of the musician's art 

 awakened in him inordinate emotion. 

 Were he within hearing distance of the 

 piano the eliciting of a few chords was 

 sufficient to beguile him into the parlor. 

 When permitted to walk across the keys 

 he always appeared pleased with his per- 

 formance. But he was discriminating 

 and exhibited decided preferment for vo- 

 cal renditions over instrumental. The 



"Miserere" from 'Tl Trovatore" affected 

 him more deeply than anything else, and 

 might appear to confirm the theory held 

 by some that the possession of a soul is 

 not limited to the human creation. 



Settling himself in front of the singer, 

 he would listen with bated breath and 

 eyes widely dilated. Never would he 

 move a muscle, unless after a prolonged 

 interval in the music, when he would 

 softly approach the vocalist to caress her 

 face and neck with his paw or to smooth 

 her cheek with his own. His coaxings 

 always had the sought for effect, when 

 he would once more seat himself with 

 becoming decorum to imbibe the har- 

 mony which seemed to ravish his being. 



This is by no means an isolated in- 

 stance of fondness for musical discourse 

 on the part of cats, though this particu- 

 lar case affords an extravagant illustra- 

 tion of that aesthetic sensitiveness which 

 characterizes probably the whole feline 

 tribe. S. Virginia Levis. 



FIRE-FLIES. 



The Day, disrobing for her rest, 



Delayed to lift the twilight bars; ' 

 And o'er them, from the golden West, 



Wandered this troop of truant stars. 



—Cora A. Matson Dolson, in Lippincott's Magazine 



92 



