GARDEN ANIMALS. 51J 



a few minutes, when it was plain it could not run away. Upon this 

 she deliberately took the mouse by the head into her mouth, with 

 the tail sticking out, and champed it up as a man would a radish. It 

 is a curious problem ,why such cruelty and pain should be permitted in 

 the general scheme of creation ; for if a man had been as cruel to a cat 

 as the cat was to the mouse,. the man would have been sentenced by 

 the nearest magistrate to a very severe punishment for being an 

 inhuman monster. 



The cats upon the whole, though they do us some mischief by 

 catching the fish and killing the birds, yet do us more service by killing 

 the rabbits, rats, and mice. The mice destroy the bees which fertilize 

 the flowers ; they also destroy the seed, and eat our bulbs. The field 

 swarmed with mice when I first made my garden, but now the cats 

 have caused a more reasonable balance of nature. 



In a secluded corner there is the grave of a remarkable long-haired 

 white Angora cat, which lived with us thirteen years, and was quite a 

 character amongst cats. Every morning he watched me at breakfast, 

 and, if I did not attend to him as I fed myself, would draw my hand 

 to his mouth. One of his peculiarities was to decoy strange cats into 

 the house, when he would give them a terrible mauling. But his 

 history is too long to recount here. He died of old age, and a 

 slab bearing the name of " Blanchet " covers his remains. 



" ' Well, Puss,' (says man,) ' and what can you 

 To benefit the public do ? ' 

 The Cat replies : ' These teeth, these claws. 

 With vigilance shall serve the cause. 

 The mouse, destroy'd by my pursuit, 

 No longer shall your feasts pollute ; 

 Nor rats, from nightly ambuscade. 

 With wasteful teeth your stores invade.' " — Gay's Fables. 



Some years ago, when snow covered the ground for a considerable 



time in London, the public were puzzled by marks in a straight line 



in the snow. Some foolish persons considered that they were due to 



Satanic agency, upon which a talented friend of mine, now deceased, 



. could not resist the temptation of playing a practical joke. He wrote 



L L 2 



