Concerning Cats 



" This utterance so terrified the cat that she sprang 

 backwards. The blare of a trumpet, the crash and 

 smash of a pile of plates flung to the ground, a pistol 

 shot fired off at her ear, could not have frightened 

 her more thoroughly. All her ornithological ideas 

 were overthrown. 



'"Et de quoi? Du rdti du roi?' continued the 

 parrot. 



" Then might we, the observers, read in the physi- 

 ognomy of Madame Th^ophile, ' This is not a bird, 

 it is a gentleman ; it talks.' 



" ' Quand j'ai bu du vin clairet, 



Tout toume, tout tourne au cabaret,' 



shrieked the parrot in a deafening voice, for it had 

 perceived that its best means of defence was the 

 terror aroused by its speech. The cat cast a glance 

 at me which was full of questioning, but as my 

 response was not satisfactory, she promptly hid her- 

 self under the bed, and from that refuge she could 

 not be induced to stir during the whole of the day. 

 People who are not accustomed to live with animals, 

 and who, like Descartes, regard them as mere 

 machines, will think that I lend unauthorized mean- 

 ings to the acts of the ' volatile ' and the ' quadruped,' 

 but I have only faithfully translated their ideas into 

 human language. The next day Madame Thdophile 

 plucked up courage and made another attempt, which 



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