CHAPTER III 



CONCERNING OTHER PEOPLE'S CATS 



EVERY observing reader of Mrs. Harriet Pres- 

 cott Spofford's stories knows that she is fond 

 of cats and understands them. Her heroines 

 usually have, among other feminine belongings and 

 accessories, one or more cats. " Four great Persian 

 cats haunted her every footstep," she says of Honor, 

 in the " Composite Wife." " A sleepy, snowy creature 

 like some half -animated ostrich plume; a satanic 

 thing with fiery eyes that to Mr. Chipperley's percep- 

 tion were informed with the very bottomless flames ; 

 another like a golden fleece, caressing, half human ; 

 and a little mouse-colored imp whose bounds and 

 springs and feathery tail-lashings not only did infinite 

 damage among the Venetian and Dresden knick- 

 knackerie, but among Mr. Chipperley's nerves." 



In her beautiful, old-fashioned home at Newbury- 

 port, Mass., she has two beloved cats. But I will not 

 attempt to improve on her own account of them : — 



" As for my own cats, — their name has been legion, 

 although a few remain preeminent. There was Miss 

 Spot who came to us already named, preferring our 

 domicile to the neighboring one she had. Her only 



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