THE OCELOT. 



169 



and Nico and the chicken vanished together. 

 Nor could they be found, though the premises 

 were well searched. The chicken indeed was 

 never seen again, though the tiger appeared 

 after an hour or two, with an air of childlike 

 innocence, not at all hungry, and quite ready to 

 "kiss and make up." 



Blood will tell, according to the old saying ; 

 and in spite of the fact that the days were all 

 play and no work for the young ocelot, that he 

 had always enough to eat, every comfort, and 

 petting and spoiling to his heart's content, and 

 that he had never known anything different in 

 his life, he was never frolicsome like his domes- 

 tic cousin the cat. He appeared always to look 

 upon life as a very serious matter. He let the 

 squirrel frisk about him ; he even seemed to like 

 it, laid himself flat on his stomach and watched 

 the pranks of his playmate with interest. Some- 

 times too he would lie on his back in his mis- 

 tress' lap, and kick with his hind feet, like pussy ; 

 though even then the wild taste showed in his 

 trying to get his teeth down beside her finger- 

 nails. 



If not much given to frolic he seemed to have 

 a kind of humor. He liked to hear girls scream, 

 and servants scold, and to rouse the household 

 generally. One way that he secured a pleasing 

 hubbub was by knocking down the lamp chim- 



