Concerning Some Historic Cats 



stinct, plainly governed her conduct. That dignity 

 conferred on her the right to eat at table like a per- 

 son, and not in a corner on the floor, from a saucer, 

 like an animal. Eponine had a chair by my side at 

 breakfast and dinner, but in consideration of her size 

 she was privileged to place her fore paws on the 

 table. Her place was laid, without a knife and fork, 

 indeed, but with a glass, and she went regularly 

 through dinner, from soup to dessert, awaiting her 

 turn to be helped, and behaving with a qvdet pro- 

 priety which most children might imitate with advan- 

 tage. At the first stroke of the bell she would 

 appear, and when I came into the dining room she 

 would be at her post, upright in her chair, her fore 

 paws on the edge of the tablecloth, and she would 

 present her smooth forehead to be kissed, like a 

 well-bred little girl who was affectionately polite to 

 relatives and old people. When we had friends to 

 dine with us, Eponine always knew that company 

 was expected. She would look at her place, and if 

 a knife, fork, and spoon lay near her plate she 

 would immediately turn away and seat herself on the 

 piano-stool, her invariable refuge. Let those who 

 deny the possession of reason to animals explain, if 

 they can, this little fact, apparently so simple, but 

 which contains, a world of induction. From the pres- 

 ence near her plate of those implements which only 

 man can use, the observant and judicious cat con- 

 cluded that she ought on this occasion to give way 



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