The Kind Providence 
121 
insisted that both be kept in our house ; so sister 
appropiated one, and I the other ; and this is how 
I came into possession of Remus.” 
When the doctor began to talk about the things 
that they did at the college, I expected to hear 
quite a different story. I am glad now to know 
that they do some other things for cats in colleges 
besides dissecting them. 
“ By the way,” said Miss Dorothy, “ I read in 
to-day’s paper that in some place where diptheria 
is raging, all the cats have been killed because it is 
supposed that they spread the disease. And in 
another place where the smallpox has broken out, 
the health officer proposes that it is necessary to 
kill off all the stray and homeless cats and dogs 
before the disease can be stamped out. What do 
you think of that ? ” 
“ Nonsense,” said the doctor. “ Everything that 
lives, from a fly to an elephant, is liable to carry 
germs, and one of the most prolific conductors of 
germs is the rat ; so you see that even the perse- 
cuted alley cat has a reason for her existence. 
Indeed, the congested districts of a large city would 
be unhabitable, and we would see the scenes of the 
famous mouse tower enacted over again, were it 
