3<M 



load of her labours. For above a month Cubina 

 and I had perpetual quarrels about the cats being 

 shut into the gallery at nights, where they threw 

 down plates, glasses, and crockery of all kinds, 

 and made such a clatter that to get a wink of sleep 

 was quite out of the question. Cubina, before he 

 went to rest, hunted under all the beds and sofas, 

 and laid about him with a long whip for half an 

 hour together; but in half an hour after his 

 departure the cats were at work again. He was 

 then told, that although he had turned them out, 

 he must certainly have left some window open t 

 he promised to pay particular attention to this 

 point, but that night the uproar was worse than 

 ever ; yet he protested that he had carefully 

 turned out all the cats, locked all the doors, and 

 shut all the windows. He was told, that if he had 

 really turned out all the cats, the cats must have 

 got in again, and therefore that he must have left 

 some one window open at least. " No," he said, 

 " he had not left one ; but a pane in one of the 

 windows had been broken two months before, and 

 it was there that the cats got in whenever they 

 pleased." Yet he had continued to turn the cats 

 out of the door with the greatest care, although he 

 was perfectly conscious that they could always 

 walk in again at the window in five minutes after. 

 But the most curious of Cubina's modes of pro- 

 ceeding is, when it is necessary for him to attack 

 the pigeon-house. He steals up the ladder as slily 



