Concerning Cats 



Goldsmith also wrote of the kitten : — 



" Around in sympathetic mirth 

 Its tricks the kitten tries : 

 The cricket chirrups in the hearth, 

 The crackling fagot flies." 



Does this not suggest a charming glimpse of the 

 poet's English home ? 



Keats was evidently not acquainted with the best 

 and sleekest pet cat, and his " Sonnet to a Cat " does 

 not indicate that he fully appreciated their higher 

 qualities. 



Mr. Whittier, our good Quaker poet, while not 

 attempting an elaborate sonnet or stilted elegiac, 

 shows a most appreciative spirit in the lines he wrote 

 for a little girl who asked him one day, with tears in 

 her eyes, to write an epitaph for her lost Bathsheba. 



" Bathsheba : To whom none ever said scat, 

 No worthier cat 

 Ever sat on a mat 

 Or caught a rat : 

 Requies-cat.'''' 



Clinton ScoUard, however, has given us an epitaph 

 that many sympathizing admirers would gladly inscribe 

 on the tombstones of their lost pets, if it were only 

 the popular fashion to put tombstones over their 

 graves. This is Mr. ScoUard's tribute, the best ever 

 written : — 



i66 



