Concerning Cats 



into the dining room and get the rolled napkins, 

 carry them in her mouth to her infant, and endeavor 

 with patient anxiety to show him how to play with 

 them. Throughout nine years of motherhood she 

 went through the same performance with every 

 kitten she had. They never knew what to do with 

 the napkins, or cared to know, and would have none 

 of them. But she never got discouraged. She would 

 climb up on the sideboard, or into the china closet, 

 and even try to get into drawers where the napkins 

 were laid away in their rings. If she could get hold 

 of one, she would carry it with literal groans and 

 evident travail of spirit to her kitten, and by further 

 groans and admonitions seem to say : — 



" Child, see this beautiful plaything I have brought 

 you. This is a part of your education ; it is just as 

 necessary for you to know how to play with this as 

 to poke your paw under the closet door properly. 

 Wake up, now, and play with it." 



Sometimes, when the table was laid over night, we 

 used to hear her anguished groans in the stillness of 

 the night. In the morning every napkin belonging 

 to the family would be found in a different part of 

 the house, and perhaps a ring would be missing. 

 These periods, however, only lasted as long, in each 

 new kitten's training, as the few weeks that she had 

 amused herself with them at their age. Then she 

 would drop the subject, and napkins had no further 

 interest than the man in the moon until another 



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