Concerning Cats 



to be fed, and then how we watched her returning 

 steps, stealing cautiously along the path and waiting 

 behind stack or door the better to observe her — for 

 pussy knew perfectly well that we were eager to see 

 her darlings, and enjoyed misleading and piquing us, 

 we imagined, by taking devious ways. How well I 

 recall that summer afternoon when, soft-footed and 

 alone, I followed her to the floor of the bam. Just 

 as she was about to spring to the mow she espied 

 me, and, turning back, cunningly settled herself as 

 if for a quiet nap in the sunny open door. Deter- 

 mined not to lose sight of her, I threw myself upon 

 the fragrant hay ; but in the stillness, the faint sigh- 

 ing of the wind, the far-off ripple of the river, the 

 hazy outline of the hills, the wheeling swallows over- 

 head, were blended at length in an indistinct dream, 

 and I slept, oblivious of all. When I woke, pussy 

 had disappeared, the sun was setting, the cows were 

 coming from the pastures, and I could only return 

 to the house discomfited. That particular family 

 of kittens we never saw till a fortnight later, when 

 the proud mother brought them in one by one, and 

 laid them at my grandmother's feet. 



" What became of Beauty is as mysterious as the 

 fate of the Dauphin. To our grief, she disappeared 

 one November day, and we never saw her more. 

 Sometimes we fancied she had been carried off by 

 an admiring traveller: at others we tortured our- 

 selves with the beUef that the traditional wildcat of 



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