lUiS BABBIT. 



hole of STiffioient size to squeeze through. This latter operation 

 was just concluded when the rabbit-keeper happened to look 

 into the room. The emancipated rabbit was not alone ; a few 

 feet off was that deadly enemy to rabbit-kind, the cat, evidently 

 not yet quite recovered from her joyful surprise, that here was 

 one of her foes — aU alone, plump, and tender, delivered fairly 

 into her claws. She lay flat on the ground, as does a tiger 

 when he makes comfortably sure of his prey; and, like the 

 tiger, she leisurely waved her tail from side to side. As for the 

 young buck from, the country, he too seemed rather astonished, 

 and sat upright, regarding puss with eyes wide open, and with 

 an air of amusement rather than fear. Presently the cat, 

 thinking it time to proceed to business, made a swift and 

 sudden leap ; but the buck, equally nimble, sprung up at the 

 identical moment, and cleared the cat's back, striking out with 

 his homy hind feet, and striking his enemy so smart a blow as 

 sent her flue flying. The cat, evidently unprepared for anything 

 like fight in an animal shaped like those among which she was 

 accustomed to play the tyrant, seemed taken considerably aback, 

 and for the next few minutes confined her pugnacious demon- 

 strations to snarling, stiffening her bushy tail, and showing her 

 teeth ; while the buck, sitting at the end of the room, rubbed 

 his nose with his fore-paws, and seemed to regard the entire 

 business as ra&er a good joke. Still, on mischief be&t, the cat 

 dropped flat to her belly, and keeping her green eyes on the 

 rabbit, commenced to draw herself along the floor towards her 

 enemy. Her enemy was nothing averse to another round. 

 Before she had nearly reached him, he made another spring, 

 and this time having a fairer chance than before, gave her such 

 a tremendous double kick that she uttered a short, sharp cry, 

 and bolted into an empty barrel that stood in the room. 

 Finding that she evinced no disposition to renew the combat, 

 my friend opened the door, when, in a moment, the cat leaped 

 from the barrel, and scuttled off as though she had a squib at 

 aer tail. 



A correspondent sends me a little narrative of how he 

 " cured " a cat of rabbit-stealing, which certainly is com- 

 mendable for ingenuity rather than humanity. Haunting the 

 garden where his rabbit-hutches stood, was a gaunt, grey torn 

 cat, of mffianly habits, whom nobody owned, and who, doubt- 

 less, had been a bnrglar and a thief from his kittenhood. Hei 

 was known to be wonderfully good at rats, and might, doubt- 

 less, had he chosen to turn his mind to honest pursuits, have 



