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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 02:34:07 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 02:34:07 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/27190-8.txt b/27190-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c6b3b49 --- /dev/null +++ b/27190-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2168 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pussy and Doggy Tales, by Edith Nesbit + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Pussy and Doggy Tales + +Author: Edith Nesbit + +Illustrator: L. Kemp-Welch + +Release Date: November 7, 2008 [EBook #27190] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUSSY AND DOGGY TALES *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Lybarger and Emmy. + + + + + + +Pussy and Doggy Tales + + + + + Pussy + and Doggy + Tales + + + By + E. Nesbit + + With + Illustrations + by + L. Kemp-Welch + + + London + J. M. Dent & Co. + Aldine House + 29 & 30 Bedford Street + 1899 W.C. + + + + + Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. + At the Ballantyne Press + + + + +Contents + + +Pussy Tales + + PAGE + TOO CLEVER BY HALF 3 + + THE WHITE PERSIAN 16 + + A POWERFUL FRIEND 26 + + A SILLY QUESTION 40 + + THE SELFISH PUSSY 47 + + MEDDLESOME PUSSY 54 + + NINE LIVES 62 + + +Doggy Tales + + PAGE + TINKER 79 + + RATS! 95 + + THE TABLES TURNED 100 + + A NOBLE DOG 108 + + THE DYER'S DOG 114 + + THE VAIN SETTER 123 + + + + + +List of Illustrations + + PAGE + "_I may have no nose, old man, but I smell rats_" _Frontispiece_ + + _Page_ + _Nurse dried the poor, dear, cruelly-used kittens a little_ 11 + + _She was very beautiful_ 17 + + _I who superintended the writing of his letters_ 23 + + _So much better to go to sleep in front of it_ 27 + + _Now the back of a cow is the last place where you + would look for a cat_ 33 + + "_I don't believe a word of it_" 43 + + _I was picked up in the street by a child_ 49 + + _The dog saw me off_ 53 + + _Seeing the tea set out, I got on the table_ 59 + + _Sitting up, and beginning to wash the kitten's face + very hard indeed_ 73 + + _The man's arm dragged through the window-pane, + and Tinker hanging on to his fingers_ 89 + + _It was a magnificent fight_ 106 + + _He pulled her out some ten yards down the stream_ 111 + + _Sat in the sun on the dyer's doorstep_ 117 + + _I took the first prize_ 127 + + + + +Pussy Tales + + + + +Too Clever by Half + + +"TELL us a story, mother," said the youngest kitten but three. + +"You've heard all my stories," said the mother cat, sleepily turning +over in the hay. + +"Then make a new one," said the youngest kitten, so pertly that Mrs. +Buff boxed her ears at once--but she laughed too. Did you ever hear a +cat laugh? People say that cats often have occasion to do it. + +"I do know one story," she said; "but I'm not sure that it's true, +though it was told me by a most respectable brindled gentleman, a great +friend of my dear mother's. He said he was a second cousin twenty-nine +times removed of Mrs. Tabby White, the lady the story is about." + +"Oh, do tell it," said all the kittens, sitting up very straight and +looking at their mother with green anxious eyes. + +"Very well," she said kindly; "only if you interrupt I shall leave off." + +So there was silence in the barn, except for Mrs. Buff's voice and the +soft sound of pleased purring which the kittens made as they listened to +the enchanting tale. + + * * * * * + +"Mrs. Tabby White seems to have been as clever a cat as ever went +rat-catching in a pair of soft-soled shoes. She always knew just where a +mouse would peep out of the wainscot, and she had her soft-sharp paw on +him before he had time to know that he was not alone in the room. She +knew how to catch nice breakfasts for herself and her children, a trick +I will teach you, my dears, when the spring comes; she used to lie quite +quietly among the ivy on the wall, and then take the baby birds out of +the nest when the grown-up birds had gone to the grub-shop. Mrs. Tabby +White was very clever, as I said--so clever that presently she was not +satisfied with being at the very top of the cat profession. + +"'Cat-people have more sense than human people, of course,' she said to +herself; 'but still there are some things one might learn from them. I +must watch and see how they do things.' + +"So next morning when the cook gave Mrs. Tabby White her breakfast, she +noticed that cook poured the milk out of a jug into a saucer. That +afternoon Tabby felt thirsty, but instead of putting her head into the +jug and drinking in the usual way,--you know--she tilted up the jug to +pour the milk out as she had seen the cook do. But cats' paws, though +they are so strong to catch rats and mice and birds, are too weak to +hold big brown jugs. The nasty deceitful jug fell off the dresser and +broke itself. 'Just to spite me, I do believe,' said Mrs. Tabby. And the +milk was all spilled. + +"'Now how on earth could that jug have been broken?' said cook, when she +came in. + +"'It must have been the cat,' said the kitchenmaid; and she was quite +right, but nobody believed her. + +"Then Mrs. Tabby White noticed that human people slept in big +soft-cushioned white beds, instead of sleeping on the kitchen +hearth-rug, or in the barn, like cat people. So she said to her children +one evening-- + +"'My dears, we are going to move into a new house.' + +"And the kittens were delighted, and they all went upstairs very +quietly, and crept into the very best human bed. But unfortunately that +bed had been got ready for a human uncle to sleep in; and when he found +the cats there he turned them out, not gently, and threw boots at them +till they fled, pale with fright to the ends of their pretty tails. And +next morning he told the Mistress of the house that horrid CATS had been +in his bed, and he vowed that he would never pass another night under a +roof where such things were possible. Mrs. Tabby White was very +glad--because no lady can wish for the visits of a person who throws +boots at her. But the Mistress of the house said sadly, 'Oh, Tabby!--you +have lost us a fortune!' And Tabby for all her cleverness didn't +understand what the Mistress meant, but went on purring proudly, and +wondering what clever thing she could do next. And _I_ don't know what +it meant either, so don't you interrupt with silly questions. + +"'I think we ought to wear shoes,' was the next thing Mrs. Tabby White +said; but all the human shoes were too big for her. However, there was a +nice pair of salmon-coloured kid shoes, quite new, belonging to the +human child's big doll--and Mrs. Tabby White put them on her eldest +kitten's little browny feet. + +"'Now, Brindle,' she said (he was named after the gentleman who told me +the story), 'you are grander than any kitten ever was before.' And at +first Brindle felt pleased--then he tried to feel pleased--then he knew +he wasn't pleased at all. Then the shoes began to hurt him horribly, so +he mewed sadly; and Mrs. Tabby White boxed his ears softly--as mother +cats do; _you_ know how I mean! But when she was asleep he took off the +pink shoes and bit them to pieces. And Nurse slapped him for it. Poor +Mrs. Tabby White was very miserable when she saw her son being slapped: +for it is one thing to box your son's ears (softly, as mother cats do; +_you_ know how I mean), and quite another to see another person do +it--heavily, as is the way with nursemaids. + +"But the last and greatest effort Mrs. Tabby White made to imitate human +manners was one Saturday night. + +"She saw the human child have its bath before the nursery fire, with hot +water, pink soap, dry towels, and much fussing, and she said to herself, +'Why should I waste hours every day in washing my children with my +little white paws and my little pink tongue, when this human child can +be made clean in ten minutes with this big bath. If I had more time I +could learn to be cleverer, and I should end by being the most +wonderful Cat in all the world.' So she sat, and watched, and waited. + +"When the human child was in bed and asleep, Nurse went down to her +supper, leaving the bath to be cleared away later, for it was a hot +supper of baked onions and toasted cheese, and if you don't go to that +supper directly it is ready, you may as well not go at all, for it won't +be worth eating--at least so I have heard the kitchenmaid say. + +"Mrs. Tabby White waited till she heard the last of Nurse's steps on the +stairs below, and then she put both her cat-children into the tub, and +washed them with rose-scented soap and a Turkey sponge. At first they +thought it very good fun, but presently the soap got in their eyes and +they were frightened of the sponge, and they cried, mewing piteously, to +be taken out. I don't know how she could have done it, I couldn't +have treated a kitten of _mine_ like that. + +"When she took them out, Mrs. Tabby tried to dry them with the soft +towel, but somehow catskin is not so easy to dry as child-skin, and the +little cats began to shiver, and moan: 'Oh, mother, we were so nice and +warm, and now we are so cold! Why is it? What have we done? Were we +naughty?' + +"'Drat the cats!' said Nurse, when she came up from supper, and found +Mrs. Tabby White trying to warm her kittens against her own comfortable +fur; 'if they haven't tumbled in the bath!' + +"Nurse dried the poor, dear, cruelly-used kittens a little (her hands +were bigger than Mrs. Tabby's, so she could do it better), and put them +in a basket with flannel, and next day Tabby-Kit was quite well, though +rather ragged looking; but Brindle had taken a chill, and for days he +hung between life and death. Poor Mrs. Tabby was like a wild cat with +anxiety, and when at last Brindle was well again (or nearly, for he +always had a slight cough after that), Mrs. Tabby White said to her +children, 'My darlings, I was wrong, I was a silly old cat.' + +"'No,' purred the cat-children, 'darling mother, you were always the +best of cats.' + +"Mrs. Tabby kissed them both, for of course any one would be pleased +that her children should think her the best of cats, but in her heart +she knew well enough how silly she had been. + +"Then she set about washing the kittens, not with pink soap and white +towel this time, but with white paws and pink tongue in the good +old-fashioned way." + + * * * * * + +"Thank you, mother," said all the kittens; "what a nice horrible story." + +"What is the moral?" asked the youngest kitten but three. + +"The moral," said Mrs. Buffy, "is, 'There is such a thing as being too +clever by half.' I'm not sure about the story being true, but I know the +moral is. Why, it's nearly tea-time. Come along, children, and get your +tea." + +So they all crept quietly away to catch the necessary mice, and the +youngest was so afraid of being too clever by half, that she would never +have caught a mouse at all, if her mother had not boxed her +ears--softly, as mother cats do; you know how I mean! + + + + +The White Persian + + +I WAS a handsome, discreet, middle-aged, respectable, responsible, +domesticated tabby cat. I was humble. I knew my place, and kept it. My +place was the place nearest the fire in winter, or close to the sunny +window in summer. There was nothing to trouble me--not so much as a fly +in the cream, or an error in the leaving of the cat's meat, until some +thoughtless person gave my master the white Persian cat. + +She was very beautiful in her soft, foolish, namby-pamby, blue-eyed +way. Of course, she did not understand English, and when they called +"Puss, puss," she only ran under the sofa, for she thought they were +teasing her. She was mistress only of two languages--Persian and +cat-talk. + +My master did not think of this. He called her "Puss"; he called her +"Pussy"; he called her "Tittums" and "Pussy then"; and a thousand +endearments that had formerly been lavished on me were vainly showered +on this unresponsive stranger. But when he found she was cold to all of +them, my master sighed. + +"Poor thing!" he said; "she is deaf." + +I sat by the bright fender, and washed my face, and sleeked my pretty +paws, and looked on. My master gave up taking very much notice of the +new cat. But I had a fear that he might learn Persian or cat-talk, and +make friends with her; so I resolved that the best thing for me would be +a complete change in the Persian's behaviour--such a change as should +make it impossible for her ever to be friends with him again; so I said +to her: + +"You wonder that our master looks coldly at you. Perhaps you don't know +that in England a white cat is supposed to mew twenty times longer and +to purr twenty times louder than a cat of any other colour?" + +"Oh, thank you so much for telling me," she said gratefully. "I didn't +know. As it happens, I have a very good voice." + +And the next time she wanted her milk, she mewed in a voice you could +have heard twenty miles away. Poor master was so astonished that he +nearly dropped the saucer. When she had finished the milk, she jumped +upon his knee, and he began to stroke her. She nearly gave herself a +fit in her efforts to purr loud enough to please him. At first he was +pleased, but when the purring got louder and louder, the poor man put +his hands to his ears and said, "Oh dear! oh dear! this is worse than a +whole hive of bees." + +Still he put her down gently, and I congratulated her on having done so +well. She did better. She was an affectionate person, though foolish, +and in her anxiety to do what was expected of a cat of her colour in +England, she practised day and night. + +Her purr was already the loudest I have heard from any cat, but she +fancied she could improve her mewing; and she mewed in the garden, she +mewed in the house, she mewed at meals, she mewed at prayers, she mewed +when she was hungry to show that she wanted food, and she mewed when +she had had it to show her gratitude. + +"Poor thing," said the master to a friend who had come to see him, "she +is so deaf she can't hear the noise she makes." + +Of course, I understood what he said, but she hadn't yet picked up a +word of English; and if the master _had_ begun to learn Persian, I don't +suppose he had got much beyond the alphabet. + +The Persian's mew was rather feebler that day, because she had a cold. + +"I don't think it's so bad," said his friend. "If you really wanted to +get rid of her, she is very handsome; she would take a prize anywhere." + +"She is yours," said the master instantly; and the strange gentleman +took her away in a basket. + +That evening it was I who sat on my master's knee--I who superintended +the writing of his letters on the green-covered writing table--I who +had all the milk that was left over from his tea. + +In a few days he had a letter. I read it when he laid it down; and if +you don't believe cats can read, I can only say that it is just as easy +to read a letter like the master's as it is to write a story like this. +The letter begged my master to take back the fair Persian. + +"Her howls," the letter went on, "become worse and worse. The poor +creature is, as you say, too deaf to be tolerated." + +My master wrote back instantly to say that he would rather be condemned +to keep a dog than have the fair Persian within his doors again. + +Then by return of post came a pitiful letter, begging for help and +mercy, and the friend came again to tea. I trembled lest my foreign +rival should come back to live with me. But she didn't. The next morning +my master took me on his knee, and, stroking me gently, said-- + +"Ah, Tabbykins! no more Persians for us. I have sent her to my deaf +aunt. She will be delighted with her--a most handsome present--and as +they are both deaf, the fair Persian's shrieks will hurt nobody. + +"But I will have no more prize cats," he said, pouring out some cream +for me in his own saucer. "You know how to behave; I will never have any +cat but you." + +I do, and he never has. + + + + +A Powerful Friend + + +MY mother was the best of cats. She washed us kittens all over every +morning, and at odd times during the day she would wash little bits of +us, say an ear, or a paw, or a tail-tip, and she was very anxious about +our education. I am afraid I gave her a great deal of trouble, for I was +rather stout and heavy, and did not take a very active or graceful part +in the exercises which she thought good for us. + +Our gymnasium was the kitchen hearth-rug. There was always a good fire +in the grate, and it seemed to me so much better to go to sleep in +front of it than to run round after my own tail, or even my mother's, +though, of course, that was a great honour. + +As for running after the reel of cotton when the cook dropped it, or +playing with the tassel of the blind-cord, or pretending that there were +mice inside the paper bag which I knew to be empty, I confess that I had +no heart or imagination for these diversions. + +"Of course, you know best, mother," I used to say; "but it does seem to +me a dreadful waste of time. We might be much better employed." + +"How better employed?" asked my mother severely. + +"Why," I answered, "in eating or sleeping." + +At first my mother used to box my ears, and insist on my learning such +little accomplishments as she thought necessary for my station in life. + +"You see," she would say, "all this playing with tails and reels and +balls of worsted is a preparation for the real business of life." + +"What is that?" asked my sister. + +"Mouse-catching," said my mother very earnestly. + +"There are no mice here," I said, stretching myself. + +"No, but you will not always be here; and if you practise the little +tricks I show you now with the ball of worsted and the tips of our +tails, then, when the great hour comes, and a career is open to you, and +you see before you the glorious prize--the MOUSE--you will be quick +enough and clever enough to satisfy the highest needs of your nature." + +"And supposing we don't play with our tails and the balls of worsted?" I +said. + +"Then," said my mother bitterly, "you may as well lie down for the mice +to, run over you." + +Thus at first she used to try to show me how foolish it was to think of +nothing but eating and sleeping; but after a while she turned all her +attention to teaching my brother and sister, and they were apt pupils. +They despised nothing small enough to be moved by their paws, which +could give them an opportunity of practising. They did not mind making +themselves ridiculous--a thing which has been always impossible with me. +I have seen Tabby, my sister, in the garden, playing with dead leaves, +as excited and pleased as though they had been the birds which she +foolishly pretended that they were. + +I thought her very silly then, but I lived to wish that I had taken half +as much trouble with my lessons as she did with hers. My mother was very +pleased with her, especially after she caught the starlings. This was a +piece of cleverness which my sister invented and carried through +entirely out of her own head. She made friends with one of the cows at +the farm near us, and used to go into the cowhouse and jump on the cow's +back. Then when the cow was sent out into the field to get her grassy +breakfast, my sister used to go with her, riding on her back. + +Now birds are always very much on the look-out for cats, and, if they +can help it, never allow one of us to come within half-a-dozen yards of +them without taking to those silly wings of theirs. I never could see +why birds should have wings--so unnecessary. + +But birds are not afraid of cows, for cows are very poor sportsmen, and +never care to kill and eat anything. + +Now the back of a cow is the last place where you would think of looking +for a cat; so when the starlings saw the cow coming, they didn't think +it worth while to use their wings, and when the cow was quite close to +the birds--beautiful, fat, delightful birds--- my sister used to pick +out with her eye the fattest starling, and then leap suddenly from the +cow's back on to her prey. She never missed. + +"I have never known," said my poor mother with tears of pride in her +green eyes--"I have never known a cat do anything so clever." + +"It's all your doing, mother dear," said my sister prettily; "if you +hadn't taught me so well when I was little, I should never have thought +of it." And they kissed each other affectionately. + +I showed my claws and growled. My mother shook her tabby head. + +"O Buff," she said, "if you had only been willing to learn when you were +little, you might have been as clever as your sister, instead of +being the great anxiety you are to me." + +"And why am I an anxiety?" I said, ruffling up my fur and my tail, for I +was very angry. + +"Because you are useless," she said, "and not particularly handsome; and +when a cat is useless and not particularly handsome, they sometimes----" + +"What?" I said, turning pale to the ends of my ears. + +"They sometimes drown it, Buff," she said in a whisper, and turned away +to hide her feelings. + +Judge of my own next day when they came into the kitchen and took me up +and put me into a basket. I knew all about drowning. These tales of +horror are told at twilight time in all cat nurseries, and I knew that +if three large stones were put into the basket with me, I might +consider my fate sealed. + +It was very uncomfortable in the basket. They carried me upside-down +part of the way, and it was draughty and hard; but, so far, there were +no stones. When they took off the lid of the basket, I found myself +under the shade of a huge moving mountain, that seemed about to fall and +crush me. It was an elephant. + +I found that the people where my mother lived had given me to the cook, +who had given me to her cousin, who was engaged to be married to a young +man whose brother-in-law was the elephant's keeper, and so I found +myself in the elephant's house. + +There was no milk for me--no heads and tails of fish--no scraps of +meat--no delicious unforeseen morsels of butter. + +The elephant was very kind to me. He had once had a friend exactly like +me, he explained, but had unfortunately walked upon him, and now I had +come to fill the vacant place in his large heart. + +I resolved at once that he should not walk upon me; but in order to +insure this, I was compelled to enter upon a more active existence than +I had ever known. + +When I asked what I was expected to eat, he said-- + +"Mice, I suppose; or you can have some of my buns if you like. You might +like them at first, but you will soon get tired of them." + +But I couldn't eat buns. I was never, from a kitten, fond of such +things. I got very hungry. Again and again the mice rushed through the +straw, and I, heavily, helplessly, in my unpractised way, rushed after +them. At first the elephant laughed heartily at my inexpertness; but +when he saw how hungry and wretched I was, he said-- + +"They won't give you any milk, and if they find you don't catch the mice +they will take you away from me. Now you are a nice little cat, and I +don't want to part with you. We must try and arrange something." + +Then the great thought of my life came to me. + +"You walked on the other cat," I said. + +"What?" he trumpeted in a voice of thunder. + +"I beg your pardon," I said hastily; "I didn't mean to hurt your +feelings"--and, indeed, I could not have imagined that an elephant would +have been so thin-skinned "but a great idea has come to me. Why +shouldn't you walk on mice--not too hard, but just so that I could eat +them afterwards?" + +"Well," said the elephant, showing his long tusks in a smile, "you are +not very handsome, and you are not very brisk; but you certainly have +brains, my dear." + +He dropped his great foot as he spoke. When he lifted it, there lay a +mouse. I had an excellent supper; and before the week's end I heard the +keeper say, "This cat has certainly done the trick. She has kept the +mice down. We must keep her." + +They have kept me. They even go so far as to allow me to moisten my mice +with milk. + +There is no moral to this story, except that you should do as you are +told, and learn everything you can while you are young. It is true that +I get on very well without having done so, but then you may not have my +good luck. It is not every cat who can get an elephant to catch her mice +for her. + + + + +A Silly Question + + +"HOW do you come to be white, when all your brothers are tabby, my +dear?" Dolly asked her kitten. As she spoke, she took it away from the +ball it was playing with, and held it up and looked in its face as Alice +did with the Red Queen. + +"I'll tell you, if you'll keep it a secret, and not hold me so tight," +the kitten answered. + +Dolly was not surprised to hear the kitten speak, for she had read her +fairy books, as all good children should, and she knew that all +creatures answer if one only speaks to them properly. So she held the +kitten more comfortably and the tale began. + +"You must know, my dear Dolly," the kitten began--and Dolly thought it +dreadfully familiar--"you must know that when we were very small we all +set out to seek our fortunes." + +"Why," interrupted Dolly, "you were all born and brought up in our barn! +I used to see you every day." + +"Quite so," said the kitten; "we sought our fortune every night, and it +turned out to be mice, mostly. Well, one night I was seeking mine, when +I came to a hole in the door that I had never noticed before. I crept +through it, and found myself in a beautiful large room. It smelt +delicious. There was cheese there, and fish, and cream, and mice, and +milk. It was the most lovely room you can think of." + +"There's no such room----" began Dolly. + +"Did I say there was?" asked the kitten. "I only said I found myself +there. Well, I stayed there some time. It was the happiest hour of my +life. But, as I was washing my face after one of the most delicious +herring's heads you ever tasted, I noticed that on nails all round the +room were hung skins--and they were cat skins," it added slowly. "Well +may you tremble!" + +Dolly hadn't trembled. She had only shaken the kitten to make it speak +faster. + +"Well, I stood there rooted to the ground with horror; and then came a +sort of horrible scramble-rush, and a barking and squeaking, and a +terrible monster stood before me. It was something like a dog and +something like a broom, something like being thrown out of the larder by +cook--I can't describe it. It caught me up, and in less than a moment +it had hung my tabby skin on a nail behind the door. + +"I crept out of that lovely fairyland a cat without a skin. And that's +how I came to be white." + +"I don't quite see----" began Dolly. + +"No? Why, what would your mother do if some one took off your dress, and +hung it on a nail where she could not get it?" + +"Buy me another, I suppose." + +"Exactly. But when my mother took me to the cat-skin shop, they were, +unfortunately, quite out of tabby dresses in my size, so I had to have a +white one." + +"I don't believe a word of it," said Dolly. + +"No? Well, I'm sure it's as good a story as you could expect in answer +to such a silly question." + +"But you were always----" + +"Oh, well!" said the kitten, showing its claws, "if you know more about +it than I do, of course there's no more to be said. Perhaps you could +tell me why your hair is brown?" + +"I was born so, I believe," said Dolly gently. + +The kitten put its nose in the air. + +"You've got no imagination," it said. + +"But, Kitty, really and truly, without pretending, you _were_ born +white, you know." + +"If you know all about it, why did you ask me? At any rate, you can't +expect me to remember whether I was born white or not. I was too young +to notice such things." + +"Now you are in fun," said poor Dolly, bewildered. + +The kitten bristled with indignation. + +"What! you really don't believe me? I'll never speak to you again," it +said. And it never has. + + + + + +The Selfish Pussy + + +"YES," said the tortoiseshell cat to the grey one, as she thoughtfully +washed her left ear, "I have lived in a great many families. You see, +it's not every trade that deserves to have a cat about the place. My +first master was a shoemaker, and I lived with him happily enough, until +one morning in winter, when I found the wicked man sewing strips of--let +me whisper--_cat's fur_ on a pair of lady's slippers! + +"I mewed as I saw it, and he, thinking I wanted milk, put down his work +to get me some, for he was fond enough of me. I drank the milk, and then +I ran away. I could not live with such a man. + +"My next home was in a garret, with a half-starved musician who made +violins. A violin is a musical instrument that miauls when you touch it +just as we cats do, and it was amusing to live with a man who could make +things with voices like my own. He was very poor, and often had not +enough to eat, but he always got me my cat's-meat; and when there was no +fire on, he nursed me to keep me warm. But one day I learned, from the +talk of one of his friends (a man as lean as himself) who came to see +him, that the strings of the violins were taken from the bodies of dead +cats. No wonder the voices were like my brothers' voices, since they +were stolen from my brothers' bodies. He might take my own voice some +day. + +"So next day, after the cat's-meat man had called, I walked quietly out, +and never saw that bad violin-maker again. + +"I was picked up in the street by a child, who took me home to her +mother's house. They were rich folk; they had curtains, and cushions, +and couches, and they did very little but nurse me, or sometimes, not +wishing to hurt his feelings, the Italian greyhound. But they liked _me_ +best, of course. They were a noble family; and I should have been living +with them still, but one year, when they went to the seaside, they +forgot to provide for my board and lodging, and I had to go into trade +again. + +"'Milk ahoy! milk ahoy!' I heard that well-known music as I sat lonely +on the doorstep of the deserted mansion in the Square. The milkman +looked lonely too; so I thought it would be only kind to go home with +him. I did. He was a very well-meaning man, but his tastes were low. He +took skim milk in his tea, and gave me the same. Of course, after that, +I could not stay another hour under his roof. + +"I tried two or three other houses, and I could have been happy with a +very nice butcher who kept a corner shop, but he kept a dog also, a dog +that no cat in her senses would live in the same street with; so I came +away--rather hurriedly, I remember--and the dog saw me off. Now I live +with a worker in silver, and I have cream every day; and when he makes a +cream-jug, and I remember what will be put in it some day, I lick my +lips, and think what a happy cat I am to live with such a good man. +Where do you live?" + +"With a poor widow, in an attic. I never have enough to eat." And, +indeed, the grey cat was thin. + +"Why do you stay with her?" + +"Because I love her," said the grey cat. + +"Love!" replied the tortoiseshell cat. + +"Nonsense! I never heard of such a thing." + +"Poor puss!" said the parrot in the window. The grey cat thought it was +speaking to the tortoiseshell, and the tortoiseshell was certain it +meant the grey. Which do _you_ think it meant? + + + + +Meddlesome Pussy + + +I WAS separated from my mother at a very early age, and sent out into +the world alone, long before I had had time to learn to say "please" and +"thank you," and to shut the door after me, and little things like that. +One of the things I had not learned to understand was the difference +between milk in a saucer on the floor, and milk in a jug on the table. +Other cats tell me there is a difference, but I can't see it. The +difference is not in the taste of the milk--that is precisely the same. + +It is not so easy to get the milk out of a jug, and I should have +thought some credit would attach to a cat who performed so clever a +feat. The world, my dear, thinks otherwise. This difference of opinion +has, through life, been a fruitful source of sorrow to me. I cannot tell +you how much I have suffered for it. The first occasion I remember was a +beautiful day in June, when the sun shone, and all the world looked +fair. I was destined to remember that day. + +The fishmonger (talk of statues to heroes! I would raise one to that +noble man!)--the fishmonger, I say, brought his usual little present to +_me_. I let the cook take it and prepare it for my eating. I am always +generous enough to permit the family to be served first--and then I have +my dinner quietly at the back door. + +Well, he had brought the salmon, and I followed the cook in, to see +that it wasn't put where those dogs could get it; and then, the +dining-room door being opened, I walked in. The breakfast things were +lying littered about, and on the tea-tray was a jug. + +Of course, I walked across the table, and looked into the jug; there was +milk in it. + +It was a sensible, wide-mouthed jug, and I should have been quite able +to make a comfortable breakfast, if some clumsy, careless servant hadn't +rushed into the room, crying "Shoo! scat!" + +This startled me, of course. I am very sensitive. I started, the jug +went over, and the milk ran on to the cloth, and down on the new carpet. +You will hardly believe it, but that servant, to conceal her own +carelessness, beat me with a feather brush, and threw me out of the back +door; and cook, who was always a heartless person, though stout, gave +me no dinner. Ah! if my fishmonger had only known that I never tasted +his beautiful present, after all! + +But though I admired him so much, I could not talk to him. I never, from +a kitten, could speak any foreign language fluently. So he never knew. + +My next misadventure was on an afternoon when the family expected +company, and the best china was set out. Why "best"? Why should a +saucer, all blue and gold and red, with a crown on the back, be better +than a white one with mauve blobs on it? I never could see. Milk tastes +equally well from both. + +I went into the drawing-room before the guests arrived--just to be sure +that everything was as I could wish--and, seeing the tea set out, I got +on the table, as usual, to see whether there was anything in the +saucers. There was not, but in the best milk-jug there was--CREAM! + +The neck of the best milk-jug was narrow. I could not get my head in, so +I turned it over with my paw. It fell with a crash, and I paused a +moment--these little shocks always upset me. All was still--I began to +lap. Oh! that cream! I shall never forget it! + +Then came a rush, and the fatal cry of "Shoo! scat!"--always presaging +disaster. I saw the door open, and, by an instinct I cannot explain, I +leaped from the table. In my hurry, my foot caught in the handle of the +silver tray. We fell together--neither the tray nor I was hurt--but the +best china!!! + +I picked myself up, and looked about me. The family had come in. I read +in their faces that their servant's unlucky interruption-of my meal had +destroyed what was dearer to them than life--than _my_ life, at any +rate. I fled. I went out homeless and hopeless into the golden +afternoon. + +I live now with a Saint--a maiden lady, who takes condensed milk in her +own tea, and buys me two-pennyworth of cream night and morning. + +And cat's meat, too! + +And the glorious fishmonger still leaves his offerings at my door. + + + + +Nine Lives + + +"MOTHER," said the yellow kitten, "is it true that we cats have nine +lives?" + +"Quite, my dear," the brindled cat replied. She was a very handsome cat, +and in very comfortable circumstances. She sat on a warm Turkey carpet, +and wore a blue satin ribbon round her neck. "I am in the ninth life +myself," she said. + +"Have you lived all your lives here?" + +"Oh dear, no!" + +"Were you here," the white kitten asked, in a sleepy voice, "when the +Turkey carpet was born? Rover says it is only a few months old." + +"No," said the mother, "I was not. Indeed, it was partly the softness of +that carpet that made me come and live here." + +"Where did you live before?" the black kitten said. + +A dreamy look came into the brindled cat's eyes. + +"In many strange places," she answered slowly; adding more briskly, "and +if you will be good kittens, I will tell you all about them. Goldie! +come down from that stool, and sit down like a good kitten. Sweep! leave +off sharpening your claws on the furniture; _that_ always ends in +trouble and punishment. Snowball! you're asleep again! Oh, well; if +you'd rather sleep than hear a story----" + +Snowball shook herself awake, and the others sat down close to their +mother with their tails arranged neatly beside them, and waited for the +story. + +"I was born," said the brindled cat, "in a barn." + +"What is a barn?" asked the black kitten. + +"A barn is like a house, but there is only one room, and no carpets, +only straw." + +"I should like that," said the yellow kitten, who often played among the +straw in the big box which brought groceries from the Stores. + +"I liked it well enough when I was your age," said the mother +indulgently, "but a barn is not at all a genteel place to be born in. My +mother had had a little unpleasantness with the family she lived with, +and, of course, she was too proud to stay on after that. And so she +left them, and went to live in the barn. It wasn't at all the sort of +life she had been accustomed to." + +"What was the unpleasantness?" Sweep asked. + +"Well, it was about some cream which the woman of the house wanted for +her tea. She should have said so. Of course, my mother would not have +taken it if she had had any idea that any one else wanted it. She was +always most unselfish." + +"What is tea?" + +"A kind of brown milk--very nasty indeed, and very bad for you. Well, I +lived with my brothers and sisters very happily for some months, for I +was too young to know how vulgar it was to live in a barn and play with +straw." + +"What is vulgar, mother?" + +"Dear, dear; how you do ask questions," said the brindled cat, beginning +to look worried. "Vulgar is being like everybody else." + +"But does everybody else live in a barn?" + +"No; nobody does who is respectable. Vulgar really means--not like +respectable cats." + +"Oh!" said the black kitten and the yellow, trying to look as if they +understood. But the white one did not say anything, because it had gone +to sleep again. + +"Well," the mother went on, "after a while they took me to live in the +farm-house. And I should have liked it well enough, only they had a low +habit of locking up the dairy and the pantry. Well, it would be tiresome +to go into the whole story; however, I soon finished my life at the +farm-house and went to live in the stable. It was very pleasant there. +Horses are excellent company. That was my third life. My fourth was at +the miller's. He came one day to buy some corn; he saw me, and admired +me--as, indeed, every one has always done. He and the farmer were +disputing about the price of the corn, and at last the miller said-- + +"'Look here; you shall have your price if you'll throw me that cat into +the bargain.'" + +The kittens all shuddered. "What is a bargain? Is it like a pond? And +were you thrown in?" + +"I was thrown in, I believe. But a bargain is not like a pond; though I +heard the two men talk of 'wetting' the bargain. But I suppose they did +not do it, for I arrived at the mill quite dry. That was a very pleasant +life--full of mice!" + +"Who was full of mice?" asked the white kitten, waking up for a moment. + +"I was," said the mother sharply; "and I should have stayed in the mill +for ever, but the miller had another cat sent him by his sister. + +"However, he gave me away to a man who worked a barge up and down the +river. I suppose he thought he should like to see me again sometimes as +the barge passed by. + +"Life in a barge is very exciting. There are such lots of rats, some of +them as big as you kittens. I got quite clever at catching them, though +sometimes they made a very good fight for it. I used to have plenty of +milk, and I slept with the bargee in his warm little bunk, and of nights +I sat and toasted myself in front of his fire in the small, cosy cabin. +He was very fond of me, and used to talk to me a great deal. It is so +lonely on a barge that you are glad of a little conversation. He was +very kind to me, and I was very grieved when he married a lady who +didn't like cats, and who chased me out of the barge with a barge-pole." + +"What is a barge-pole?" the yellow kitten asked lazily. + +"The only leg a barge has. I ran away into the woods, and there I lived +on birds and rabbits." + +"What are rabbits?" + +"Something like cats with long ears; very wholesome and nutritious. And +I should have liked my sixth life very much, but for the keeper. No, +don't interrupt to ask what a keeper is. He is a man who, when he meets +a cat or a rabbit, points a gun at it, and says 'Bang!' so loud that you +die of fright." + +"How horrible!" said all the kittens. + +"I was looking out for my seventh life, and also for the gamekeeper, and +was sitting by the river with both eyes and both ears open, when a +little girl came by--a nice little girl in a checked pinafore. + +"She stopped when she saw me, and called--'Pussy! pussy!' So I went very +slowly to her, and rubbed myself against her legs. Then she picked me up +and carried me home in the checked pinafore. My seventh life was spent +in a clean little cottage with this little girl and her mother. She was +very fond of me, and I was as fond of her as a cat can be of a human +being. Of course, we are never so _unreasonably_ fond of them as they +are of us." + +"Why not?" asked the yellow kitten, who was young and affectionate. + +"Because they're only human beings, and we are Cats," returned the +mother, turning her large, calm green eyes on Goldie, who said, "Oh!" +and no more. + +"Well, what happened then?" asked the black kitten, catching its +mother's eye. + +"Well, one day the little girl put me into a basket, and carried me out. +I was always a fine figure of a cat, and I must have been a good weight +to carry. Several times she opened the basket to kiss and stroke me. The +last time she did it we were in a room where a sick girl lay on a bed. + +"'I did not know what to bring you for your birthday,' said my little +girl, 'so I've brought you my dear pussy.' + +"The sick girl's eyes sparkled with delight. She took me in her arms and +stroked me. And though I do not like sick people, I felt flattered and +pleased. But I only stayed a very little time with her." + +"Why?" asked all the kittens at once. + +"Because----but no; that story's too sad for you children; I will tell +it you when you're older." + +"But that only makes eight lives," said Sweep, who had been counting on +his claws, "and you said you had nine. Which was the ninth?" + +"Why, _this_, you silly child," said the brindled pussy, sitting up, and +beginning to wash the kitten's face very hard indeed. "And as it's my +last life, I must be very careful of it. That's why I'm so particular +about what I eat and drink, and why I make a point of sleeping so many +hours a-day. But it's your _first_ life, Snowball, and I can't have you +wasting it all in sleep. Go and catch a mouse at once." + +"Yes, mamma," said Snowball, and went to sleep again immediately. + +"Ah!" said Mrs. Brindle, "I'll wash you next. That'll make you wake up, +my dear." + +"Snowball's always sleepy," said the yellow kitten, stretching itself. +"But, mamma dear, she doesn't care for history, and yours was a very +long tale." + +"You can't have too much of a good thing," said the mother, looking down +at her long brindled tail. "If it's a good tail, the longer it is the +better." + + + + +Doggy Tales + + + + +Tinker + + +MY name is Stumps, and my mistress is rather a nice little girl; but she +has her faults, like most people. I myself, as it happens, am +wonderfully free from faults. Among my mistress's faults is what I may +call a lack of dignity, joined to a desire to make other people +undignified too. + +You will hardly believe that, before I had belonged to her a month, she +had made me learn to dance and to jump. I am a very respectable +dachshund, of cobby build, and jumping is the very last exercise I +should have taken to of my own accord. But when Miss Daisy said, "Now +jump, Stumps; there's a darling!" and held out her little arms, I could +not well refuse. For, after all, the child is my mistress. + +I never could understand why the cat was not taught to dance. It seemed +to me very hard that, when I was having those long, miserable lessons, +the cat should be allowed to sit down doing nothing but smile at my +misfortunes. Trap always said we ought to feel honoured by being taught, +and the reason why Pussy wasn't asked to learn was because she was so +dreadfully stupid, and had no brains for anything but the pleasures of +the chase and the cares of a family; but I didn't think that could be +the reason, because the doll was _taught_ to dance, though she never +_learned_, and I am sure _she_ was stupid enough. + +Another thing which Miss Daisy taught me to do was to beg; and the +action fills me with shame and pain every time I perform it, and as the +years go on I hate it more and more. + +For a stout, middle-aged dog, the action is absurd and degrading. Yet, +such is the force of habit, that I go through the performance now quite +naturally whenever I want anything. Trap does it too, and says what does +it matter? but then he has no judgment, and, besides, he's thin. + +But one of the most thoughtless things my little mistress ever did was +one day last summer when she was out without me. I chose to stay at home +because it was very hot, and I knew that the roads would be dusty; and +she was only going down to the village shop, where no one ever thinks +of offering a dog anything to drink. If she had been going to the farm, +I should have gone with her, because the lady there shows proper +attention to visitors, and always sets down a nice dish of milk for us +dogs. Besides, I was a little unwell just then; the family had had duck +for dinner, and I always feel a little faint after duck. All our family +do. So I stayed at home. Well, Miss Daisy had gone out with only Trap +and her hoop. I wish I had been there, for Trap is far too easy-going, +and a hoop never gives any advice worth listening to. Trap told me all +about it as well as he could. Trap can't tell a story very well, poor +fellow! + +It seems that, as Miss Daisy went across the village green, she saw a +crowd of children running after a dog with--I hardly like to mention +such a thing--a tin saucepan tied to his tail! The dog bolted into the +empty dog-kennel by the blacksmith's shop, and stayed there, growling. + +"Go away, bad children," said Miss Daisy; "how dare you treat a poor +dear doggie so?" + +The children wouldn't go away at first. "Very well," said Miss Daisy; "I +shall tell Trap what I think of you all." + +Then she whispered to Trap, and he began to growl so fiercely that the +children dared not come nearer. Any one can growl. Presently the +children got tired of listening to him, and went away. Then Miss Daisy +coaxed the unpleasant, tin-tailed creature out of the kennel, and untied +the string, and took off the pan. Then, if you'll believe a dog of my +character (and of course you must), she carried that low dog home in her +arms, and washed him, and set him down to eat out of the same plate as +Trap and myself! Trap was friends with him directly--some people have +no spirit--but I hope I know my duty to myself too well for that. I +snarled at the base intruder till he was quite ashamed of himself. I +knew from the first that he'd be taught jumping and begging, and things +like that. I hate those things myself, but that's no reason why every +low dog should be taught them. Miss Daisy called him Tinker, because he +once carried a tin pan about with him, and she tried very hard to make +me friendly to him; but I can choose my own friends, I hope. + +Every one made a great fuss about one thing he did, but actually it was +nothing but biting; and if biting isn't natural to a dog, I should like +to know what is; and why people should be praised and petted, and have +new collars, and everybody else's share of the bones, only for doing +what is quite natural to them, I have never been able to comprehend. +Besides, barking is as good as biting, any day, and I'm sure I barked +enough, though it wasn't my business. + +Miss Daisy had gone away to stay with her cousins in London, and she had +taken Trap with her. Why she should have taken him instead of me is a +matter on which I can offer no opinion. If my opinion had been asked, I +should have said that I thought it more suitable for her to have a heavy +middle-aged dog of good manners than a harum-scarum young stripling like +Trap. Trap told me afterwards that he thought the reason he was taken +was because Miss Daisy would have had more to pay for the dog-ticket of +such a heavy dog as I am; but I can't believe that dogs are charged for +by the weight, like butter. As I was saying, Miss Daisy took Trap with +her, and also her father and mother; and Tinker and I were left to take +care of the servants. We had a very agreeable time, though I confess +that I missed Miss Daisy more than I would have believed possible. But +there was more to eat in the kitchen than usual, and the servants often +left things on the table when they went out to take in the milk or to +chat with the gardeners; and if people leave things on tables, they have +only themselves to thank for whatever happens. + +There was a young man who wore a fur cap, and who used to call with +fish; and I was more surprised than I care to own when I met him walking +out with cook one Sunday afternoon, for I thought she had a soul above +fish; yet when the servants began to ask this young man to tea in the +kitchen, I thought, of course, it must be all right, but Tinker would do +nothing but growl the whole time the young man was there; so that at +last cook had to lock us up in the butler's pantry till the young man +was gone. _I_ had not growled, but I was locked in too. The world is +full of injustice and ingratitude. + +Now one night, when the servants went to bed, Tinker and I lay down in +our baskets under the hall table as usual; but Tinker was dreadfully +restless, which must have been only an accident, because he said himself +he didn't know what was the matter with him; and he would not go to +sleep, but kept walking up and down as if he were going to hide a bone +and couldn't find a good place for it. + +"Do lie down, for goodness' sake, Tinker," I said, "and go to sleep. Any +one can see you have not been brought up in a house where regular hours +are kept." + +"I can't go to sleep; I don't know what's the matter with me," he said +gloomily. + +Well, I tried to go to sleep myself, and I think I must almost have +dropped off, when I heard a scrape-scraping from the butler's pantry. I +wasn't going to bark. It wasn't my business. I have often heard Miss +Daisy's relations say that I was no house-dog. Still, I think Tinker +ought to have barked then, but he didn't: only just pricked his ears and +his tail; and he waited, and the scraping went on. + +Then Tinker said to me--"Don't you make a noise, for your life; I am +going to see what it is;" and he trotted softly into the butler's +pantry. It was rather dark, but you know we dogs can see as well as cats +in the dark, although they do make such a fuss about it, and declare +that they are the only creatures who can. + +There was a man outside the window, and I tapped Tinker with my tail to +show him that he ought to bark, but he never moved. The man had been +scraping and scraping till he had got out one of the window-panes. It +was a very little window-pane, only just big enough for his hand to go +through; and the man took out the window-pane and put his hand through, +making a long arm to get at the fastening of the window; and just as he +was going to undo the hasp, Tinker made a spring on to the window-ledge, +and he caught the man's hand in his mouth, and the man gave a push, and +Tinker fell off the window-ledge, but he took the man's hand with him; +and there was the man's arm dragged through the window-pane, and Tinker +hanging on to his fingers. + +The man broke some more panes and tried to get his other hand through, +and if he had he would have done for Tinker, but he could not manage it; +and now I thought "This is the time to bark," and I barked. I barked my +best, I barked nobly, though I am not a house-dog, and I don't think +it's my business. + +In less than a minute down came the gardener and the under-gardener: and +Tinker was still holding on, and they took the man, and he was marched +off to prison, and it turned out to be the man in the fur cap. But +though they made fuss enough about Tinker's share in the business, you +may be sure it didn't make me think much more of him. + +I should never have had anything to say to him but for one thing. Early +one morning we three dogs--it's all over long ago, and I hope I can be +generous and let bygones be bygones; he is one of _us_ now--went out for +a run in the paddock by the wood, and while Trap and I were trotting up +and down chatting about the weather, that Tinker dog bolted into the +wood, and in less than a minute came out with a rabbit. + +I saw at once that he could never get it eaten before Miss Daisy came +out, and I knew that, if he were found with it, his sufferings would be +awful. So I helped him to eat it. I know my duty to a fellow-creature, I +trust. It was a very young rabbit, and tender. Not too much fur. Fur +gets in your throat, and spoils your teeth, besides. We had just +finished it when my mistress came out. Trap would not eat a bit, even to +help Tinker out of his scrape, but _I_ have a kind heart. + +Well, after that I thought I might as well consent to be friends with +Tinker, in spite of his low breeding. You see, I had helped him out of a +dreadful scrape, and one always feels kindly to people one has helped. +He has caught several more rabbits since then, and I have always stood +by him on those occasions, and I always mean to. I am not one to turn my +back on a friend, I believe. + +So now he has a collar like ours, and I hardly feel degraded at all when +I sit opposite to him at the doll's tea-parties. + + + + +Rats! + + +"HE has no nose," said my master; "he is a handsome dog, but he has no +nose." + +This annoyed me very much, for I have a nose--a very long, sharp, black +nose. I wear tan boots and gloves, and my coat is a beautiful shiny +black. + +I am a Manchester terrier, and I fulfil the old instructions for such +dogs. I am + + _Neckèd like a drakè,_ + _Headed like a snakè,_ + _Tailed like a ratte,_ + _And footed like a catte._ + +And then they said I had no nose. + +But Kerry explained to me that my master did not mean to find fault with +the shape of my nose, but that what he wanted to be understood was that +I had no nose for smelling rats. Kerry has, and he is ridiculously vain +of this accomplishment. + +"And you have no nose, you know, old boy," said Kerry; "why, you would +let the rats run all over you and never know it." + +I turned up my nose--my beautiful, pointed, handsome nose--and walked +away without a word. + +A few weeks afterwards my master brought home with him some white rats. +Kerry was out at the time, but my master showed me the rats through the +bars of their cage. He also showed me a boot and a stick. Although I +have no nose, I was clever enough to put two and two together. Did I +mention that there were two rats? + +We were not allowed to go in the study, either of us, and my master put +the rats there in their cage on the table. + +That night, when everybody had gone to bed, I said to Kerry, "I may have +no nose, old man, but I smell rats." + +Kerry sniffed contemptuously. + +"You!" said he, curling himself round in his basket; "I don't believe +you could smell an elephant if there were one in the dresser drawer." + +I kept my temper. "I am not feeling very well, Kerry," I said gently, +"or I would go and see myself. But I am sure there _are_ rats; I smell +them plainly; they seem to be in the study." + +"Go to sleep," he said; "you're dreaming, old man." + +"Why don't you go and see?" I said. "If I didn't feel so very faint, I +would go myself." + +Kerry got out of his basket reluctantly. "I suppose I ought to go, if +you are quite certain," he said; and he went. + +In less than a minute he returned to the kitchen, trembling all over +with excitement. + +"Chappie!" he said; "Chappie!" + +"Well?" + +"There _are_ rats," he whispered hoarsely; "there are rats in the +study." + +"Did you go in?" I asked. + +"No, you know we're forbidden to go in, but I smelt them quite plainly. +I can't smell them at all here," he said regretfully. "What a nose you +have got, after all, Chappie!" + +"What are you going to do, Kerry?" I asked. + +"Why, nothing," he said; "we mustn't go in the study." + +"Oh," I said, "rules weren't made for great occasions like this; it's +your business to kill rats wherever they are." + +And that misguided wire-haired person went up. He got them out of the +cage, and killed them. + +The next morning, when the master came down, he thrashed Kerry within an +inch of his life. He knows I don't touch rats; and, besides, I was so +unwell that nobody could have suspected me. And I explained to Kerry +that, good as my nose is, I couldn't possibly tell by the smell that the +rats were white, and, therefore, sacred. It was not worth while to +mention that I had seen them before. + +Kerry looks up to me now as a dog with a nose, and I am much happier +than formerly. But Kerry is not nearly so keen on rats now. I thought +somehow he wouldn't be. + + + + +The Tables Turned + + +WE knew it was a dog, directly the basket was set down in the hall. We +heard it moving about inside. We sniffed all round. We asked it why it +didn't come out (the basket was tightly tied up with string). "Are you +having a good time in there?" said Roy. "Can't you show your face?" said +I. "He's ashamed of it," said Roy, waving his long bushy tail. Then he +growled a little, and the dog inside growled too; and then, as Roy had +an appointment with the butcher at his own back door, I went out to see +him home. + +"I am so sorry I am going away for Christmas with my master," he said +when we parted; "but you must introduce that new dog to me when I come +home. We mustn't stand any of his impudence, eh?" + +I was sorry Roy was going away, for Roy is my great friend. He always +fights the battles for both of us. I daresay I might have got into the +way of fighting my own battles, but I never like to interfere with +anybody's pleasure, and Roy's chief pleasure is fighting. As for me, I +think the delights of that recreation are over-estimated. + +When my master came home, he opened the basket, and a dog of Irish +family tumbled out, growling and snarling, and hid himself under the +sofa. They wasted more biscuits on him than I have ever seen wasted on +any deserving dog; and at last they got him out, and he consented to eat +some supper. They gave him a much better basket than mine, and we went +to bed. + +Next morning, the Irish terrier got out of his basket, stretched +himself, yawned, and insisted on thrashing me before breakfast. + +"But I am a dog of peace," I said; "I don't fight." + +"But I do, you see," he answered, "that's just the difference." + +I tried to defend myself, but he got hold of one of my feet, and held it +up. I sat up, and howled with pain and indignation. + +"Have you had enough?" he said, and, without waiting for my answer, +proceeded to give me more. + +"But I don't fight," I said; "I don't approve of fighting." + +"Then I'll teach you to have better manners than to say so," said he, +and he taught me for nearly five minutes. + +"Now then," he said, "are you licked?" + +"Yes," I answered; for indeed I was. + +"Are you sorry you ever tried to fight with me?" + +"Yes," still seemed to be the only thing to say. + +"And do you approve of fighting?" + +He seemed to wish me to say "yes," and so I said it. + +"Very well, then," he said; "now we'll be friends, if you like. Come +along; you have given me an appetite for breakfast." + +"Any society worth cultivating about here?" he asked, after the meal, in +his overbearing way. + +"I have a very great friend who lives next door," I said; "but I don't +know whether I should care to introduce you to him." + +He showed his teeth, and asked what I meant. + +"You see, you might not like him; and, if you didn't like him----but +he's a most agreeable dog." + +"A good fighter?" asked Rustler. + +I scratched my ear with my hind foot, and pretended to think. + +"Oh, I see he's not," said Rustler contemptuously; "well, you shall +introduce him to me directly he comes back." + +Rustler's overbearing and disagreeable manners so upset me that I was +quite thin when, at the end of the week, Roy came home. I told him my +troubles at once. + +"Bring your Rustler along," he said grandly, "and introduce him to +_me_." + +So I did. Rustler came along with his ears up, and his miserable tail +in the air. Roy lay by his kennel looking the image of serenity and +peacefulness. To judge by his expression, he might not have had a tooth +in his head. + +Rustler stood with his feet as far apart as he could get them, and put +his head on one side. + +"I have heard so much about you, Mr. What's-your-name," he said, "that I +have come to make a closer acquaintance." + +"Delighted, I'm sure," said Roy, who has splendid manners. + +"If you will get on your legs," said Rustler rudely, "I will tell you +what I think of you." + +Roy got on his legs, still looking very humble, and the next minute he +had Rustler by the front foot, and was making him sit down and scream +just as Rustler had made me. It was a magnificent fight. + +"Have you had enough?" said Roy, and then gave him more without waiting +for an answer. + +"I don't want to fight any more," said Rustler at last; "I am sorry I +spoke." + +"Then I'll teach you to have more pluck than to own it," said Roy. + +When he had taught him for some time, he said, "Are you licked?" + +"Yes," said Rustler, glaring at me out his uninjured eye. + +"Are you sorry you tried to fight with me?" + +"Yes." + +"Will you promise to leave my little friend here alone?" + +"Yes." + +Then Roy let him go. We shook tails all round, and Rustler and I went +home. + +"Poor Rustler," I said, "I know exactly how you feel." + +"You little humbug," he said, with half a laugh--for he is not an +ill-natured fellow when you come to know him--"you managed it very +cleverly, and I'm not one to bear malice; but, I say, your friend is +A1." + +We are now the most united trio, and Roy and Rustler have licked all the +other dogs in the neighbourhood. + + + + +A Noble Dog + + +ROVER would go into the water fast enough for a bathe or a swim, but he +would not bring anything out. The children used to throw in sticks, and +Rover and I used to bound in together; but I would bring the stick back, +while he swam round and round, enjoying himself. + +I am not vain, but I could not help feeling how much superior I was to +such a dog as Rover. He is a prize Newfoundland, and I am only a humble +retriever of obscure family. + +So one day I said to him-- + +"Why don't you fetch the sticks out when the children throw them in?" + +"I don't care about sticks," he said. + +"But it's so grand and clever to be able to fetch them out." + +"Is it?" he answered. + +"I know it is, for the children tell me so." + +"Do they?" he said. + +"I wonder you are not ashamed," I went on, a little nettled by his +meekness, "never to do anything useful. I should be, if I were you." + +"Ah," he said, "but you see you are not. Good night." + +We used to spend a great deal of time by the river. The children loved +to play there, and we dogs were always expected to go with them. + +One day, as I was lying asleep on the warm grass by the river bank, I +heard a splash. I jumped in, but there was no stick, only one of the +children floating down on the stream, and screaming whenever her head +came from under the water. + +I thought it was a new kind of game, not very interesting, so I swam out +again; and just as I was shaking the water out of my ears, I heard +another great flop, and there was Rover in the water, holding on to the +child's dress. He pulled her out some ten yards down the stream; and oh! +if you could have seen the fuss that the master and mistress and the +rest of the children made of that black and white spotted person! + +"Why, Rover," I said afterwards, when we had got home and were +talking it over, "whatever made you think that the child wanted to be +pulled out of the water?" + +"It's my business to pull people out of the water," he said. + +"But," I urged, "I always thought you were too stupid to understand +things." + +"Did you?" he said, turning his mild eyes on me. + +"Why didn't you explain to me that you----" + +"My dear dog," he said, "I never think it worth while to fetch sticks +out of the water, and I never think it worth while to explain things to +stupid people." + + + + +The Dyer's Dog + + +SHE was beautiful, with a strange unearthly beauty. She had a little +black nose. Her eyes were small, but bright and full of charm. Her ears +were long and soft, and her tail curled like one of the ostrich plumes +in the window of the dyer with whom she lived. + +I have met many little dogs with noses as charming, and eyes as bright, +and tails as curly; but never one who, like my Bessie, was a rich, deep +pink all over. + +I lived with a baker then. I was sitting on his doorstep when she first +delighted my eyes. I ran across the road to give her good morning. She +seemed pleased to see me. We had a little chat about the weather and the +other dogs in the street, and about buns, and rats, and the vices of the +domestic cat. + +Her manners and her conversation were as bright and charming as her +eyes. Before we parted, we had made an appointment for the next +afternoon, and as I said good-bye, I ventured to ask-- + +"How is it, lady, that you are of such a surpassingly beautiful colour?" + +"It is natural to our family," she said, tossing her pretty ears. "My +mother was the Royal Crimson Dog at the Court of the King of India." + +I bowed with deep respect and withdrew, for I heard them calling me at +home. + +The next day I looked for my beautiful pink-coloured lady, but I looked +in vain. Instead, a dog of a bright sky-blue, with a yellow ribbon round +its neck, sat in the sun on the dyer's doorstep. Yet, could I be +mistaken? That nose, those ears, that feathery tail, those bright and +beaming eyes! + +I went across. She received me with some embarrassment, which +disappeared as I talked gaily of milk and guinea pigs, and the habits of +the cats'-meat man. Before we parted I said-- + +"You have changed your dress." + +"Yes," she said, "it's so common and vulgar to wear always one colour." + +"But I thought"--I hesitated--"that your mother was the Royal Crimson +Dog at the Court of----" + +"So she was," replied the lady promptly, "but my father was the +well-known sky-blue terrier at the Crystal Palace Dog Show. I resemble +both my parents." + +I retired, fascinated by her high breeding and graceful explanations. +Through my dreams that night wandered a long procession of blue and +crimson dogs. + +The next day, when I hurried to keep the appointment she had been good +enough to make with me, I found her a deep purple. Again I concealed my +surprise, while we talked of subjects of common interest, of dog-collars +and chains and kennels, of biscuits, bones, and the outrage of the +muzzling order; and at last I said-- + +"You have changed your dress again. Your mother was the Royal----" + +"Oh, don't," she said, "it's so tiresome to keep repeating things. My +father was red and my mother was blue, and I myself, as you see, am +purple. Don't you know that crimson and blue make purple? Any child with +a shilling box of paints could have told you that." + +I thanked her, and came away. Purple seemed to me the most beautiful +colour in the world. + +But the next day she was green--as green as grass. After the customary +exchange of civilities, I remarked firmly-- + +"Blue and crimson may make purple, but----" + +"But green is my favourite colour," she said briskly. "I suppose a dog +is not to be bound down by the prejudices of its parents?" + +I went away very sadly, and, as I went, I noticed that there were some +curtains in the dyer's window of exactly the same tint as my friend's +dress. The next day she was gone. + +I sought her in vain. The day after, a French poodle appeared on the +dyer's doorstep, dressed in stripes of orange and scarlet. I went boldly +across to him. + +"Good morning, old man; how do you come to be that colour?" I said. + +"They dye me so," he answered gloomily. "It's a dreadful lot for a dog +that respects himself." + +I never saw Bessie but once again. She seemed then to be living with a +tinsmith, and her colour was a gingery white. + +I hope I am too much of a gentleman to taunt any lady in misfortune, but +I couldn't help saying-- + +"Why don't you wear any of your beautiful coloured dresses now?" + +She answered me curtly, for she saw that she had ceased to charm. + +"I gave up wearing my pretty dresses," she said, "because silly people +asked me so many questions about them." + +As usual, I accepted her explanations in silence; but, when I see the +poodle opposite, in his varying glories of blue, and green, and orange, +and purple, I can't help thinking that perhaps my fair Bessie did not +always speak the truth. + + + +The Vain Setter + + +OURS is one of the most ancient and noble families in the land, and I +contend that family pride is an exalted sentiment. I still hold to this +belief, in spite of all the sufferings that it has brought upon me. + +My father, whose ancestor came over with the Conqueror, has taken prizes +at many a county show; and my mother, the handsomest of her sex, took +one prize, and would have taken more, but for the unfortunate accident +of having her tail cut off in a door. + +I early determined to be worthy of my high breeding and undoubted +descent. A setter should have long, silky ears. I made my brother pull +mine gently for an hour at a time. In order to lengthen them, I combed +their fringes with my paws. + +My father's brow is lofty and narrow. The unfortunate accident which +removed my mother from public life, suggested to me a way of cultivating +our most famous family characteristic. I used to place my head between +the doorpost and the door, while my brother leaned gently against the +latter, so as to press my skull to the requisite shape. My legs, I knew, +ought to be straight. I never indulged in any of those field-sports, to +which my brother early turned a light-hearted attention; for I knew +that undue exercise tends to curve the legs. + +My tail was my special care. Regardless of comfort, I twisted myself +into the shape of a capital O, and, holding the end of my tail gently, +but firmly, in my teeth, I stretched myself and it. + +So much pains devoted to such a noble object could not be thrown away. I +became the handsomest setter in the three counties. + +My brother, in the meantime, grew expert in the coarse sporting +exercises to which he devoted his energies. He had no pride. He tramped +the mud of the fields; he tore his ears in bramble bushes; and I have +seen him so far lose all sense of our family's dignity as to grovel at +the feet of his master, and raise one of his paws, to indicate that +birds were near--common birds; I believe they are called partridges. + +"You might as well," I said to him bitterly--"you might as well have +been born a pointer." + +"Why not?" he said. "I know a pointer," he went on, laughing in his +merry, careless way--"I know a pointer who lives at the Pines Farm. A +capital fellow he is." + +"My dear boy," I said, "just come and squeeze my head in the door a +little, will you? and let me tell you that for one of our family to +associate with a pointer is social ruin--common, coarse, smooth-coated +persons, related, I should suppose, to the vulgar plum-pudding dog." + +My brother only laughed; but he was a good-natured fellow, and pinched +my head in the door until my forehead could stand the strain no longer. + +I was sent to the Crystal Palace Dog Show; and, as I looked round on the +hundreds of dogs of all families and nationalities, I breathed a sigh +of contentment, and blessed the fate that had made me, in this England +of ours, a well-born English setter. My brother was not at the Show, of +course; but I think even he would have admired me if he could have seen +how far superior I was to all about me. Of course, I took the first +prize. My mission was fulfilled: my family pride was satisfied. The +judges unanimously pronounced me to be the most perfect and beautiful +sporting dog in the whole Show. My master, wild with delight, patted my +silky forehead, and then turned aside to talk with a stout gentleman in +gaiters. + +I thought of what my life would be--one long, joyous round of shows, +applause, pats on the head from a grateful master, delicious food and +first prizes. + +But my master's base nature--his ancestors came over with George and +the Hanoverians--struck all my hopes to the ground. I woke from my +dream of triumph to find myself sold to the stout man in gaiters. + +I never saw my brother again. I was never able to tell my fond and +doting mother that I, like her, had taken a prize. I was never able to +chat with my father over a bone, comparing with him experiences of the +show bench. The stout, gaitered man took me away into a far country. + +The next morning he took me out into the fields, and looked at me from +time to time, as if he expected me to do something. Unwilling to +disappoint him, I sat down and began my usual exercise for lengthening +my tail. He at once struck me violently. We went a little farther, and I +noticed that he looked more and more displeased; but I could not imagine +what it could be that so distressed him. Presently one of those common +partridge birds had the impertinence to fly out close to me. I caught it +at once, and looked round for applause. There only came another shower +of blows. + +"What's the good of your taking prizes," he said, "if you're such an +idiot in the field?--might as well have a greyhound." + +"I wish you had," I said under my breath. + +I spent a week in torment, and then it occurred to me that this +low-born, gaitered person would have been better pleased with my +brother. So I tried to recall the tricks with which my brother had +particularly aggravated me; and, the next time I smelt a partridge, I +lay down, as I had seen my brother do, and lifted a foolish foot. I was +rewarded with a pat and encouragement. + +I have now sunk entirely to my brother's level. My master pronounces me +to be a most excellent sporting dog. But I shall never forget the blows +and angry words that were necessary to make me renounce my ideal of what +a setter should be; and deep in my heart I still cherish, with +passionate devotion, my views on duty, and my honourable family pride. + + + Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. + Edinburgh & London + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pussy and Doggy Tales, by Edith Nesbit + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUSSY AND DOGGY TALES *** + +***** This file should be named 27190-8.txt or 27190-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/1/9/27190/ + +Produced by Suzanne Lybarger and Emmy. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Nesbit. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + text-indent: 1.25em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + img {border: 0;} + .tnote {border: dashed 1px; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;} + ins {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + .copyright {text-align: center; font-size: 70%;} + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify;} + + .bbox {border: solid 2px; margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .unindent {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + .right {text-align: right;} + .poem {margin-left: 30%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: left;} + .poem2 {margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: left;} + .cap:first-letter {float: left; clear: left; + margin: -0.2em 0.1em 0; margin-top: 0%; + padding: 0; + line-height: .75em; font-size: 300%; text-align: justify;} + .cap {text-align: justify;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pussy and Doggy Tales, by Edith Nesbit + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Pussy and Doggy Tales + +Author: Edith Nesbit + +Illustrator: L. Kemp-Welch + +Release Date: November 7, 2008 [EBook #27190] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUSSY AND DOGGY TALES *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Lybarger and Emmy. + + + + + +</pre> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p> + +<h1>Pussy and Doggy Tales</h1> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 276px;"> +<img src="images/illus002.png" width="276" height="435" alt=""I may have no nose, old man, but I smell rats."" title=""I may have no nose, old man, but I smell rats."" /> +<span class="caption">"I may have no nose, old man, but I smell rats."</span> +</div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 315px;"> +<img src="images/illus003.jpg" width="315" height="500" alt="Title Page" title="Title Page" /> +</div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>Pussy<br /> +<br /> +and Doggy<br /> +<br /> +Tales<br /></h1> + +<h3>By</h3> + +<h2>E. Nesbit</h2> + + + +<div class='center'>With<br /> + +Illustrations<br /> + +by<br /> + +L. Kemp-Welch<br /> + +<br /><br /><br /> +London<br /> +<b>J. M. Dent & Co.</b><br /> +Aldine House<br /> +29 & 30 Bedford Street<br /> +1899 W.C.<br /></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span></p> + +<div class='copyright'> +Printed by <span class="smcap">Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.</span><br /> +At the Ballantyne Press<br /></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/contents.png" width="400" height="247" alt="Two kittens reading" title="Two kittens reading" /> +</div> +<h2>Contents</h2> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'>Pussy Tales</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> </td><td align='right'><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Too Clever by Half</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The White Persian</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Powerful Friend</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Silly Question</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Selfish Pussy</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_47">47</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Meddlesome Pussy</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Nine Lives</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><br />Doggy Tales</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> </td><td align='right'><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Tinker</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Rats!</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Tables Turned</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_100">100</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Noble Dog</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Dyer's Dog</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_114">114</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Vain Setter</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/illlustrations.png" width="400" height="201" alt="Cat lying down" title="Cat lying down" /> + +</div> + + +<h2>List of Illustrations</h2> + + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Illustrations"> +<tr><td align='left'> </td><td align='right'><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"<i>I may have no nose, old man, but I smell rats</i>"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_iv"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> </td><td align='right'><i><small>Page</small></i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><i>Nurse dried the poor, dear, cruelly-used kittens a little</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_13">11</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><i>She was very beautiful</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_19">17</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><i>I who superintended the writing of his letters</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><i>So much better to go to sleep in front of it</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><i>Now the back of a cow is the last place where you would look for a cat</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_35">33</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"<i>I don't believe a word of it</i>"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_45">43</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><i>I was picked up in the street by a child</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_51">49</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><i>The dog saw me off</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_53">53</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span><i>Seeing the tea set out, I got on the table</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_58">59</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><i>Sitting up, and beginning to wash the kitten's face very hard indeed</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_71">73</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><i>The man's arm dragged through the window-pane, and Tinker hanging on to his fingers</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_91">89</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><i>It was a magnificent fight</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_106">106</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><i>He pulled her out some ten yards down the stream</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_110">111</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><i>Sat in the sun on the dyer's doorstep</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><i>I took the first prize</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_129">127</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> +<h2>Pussy Tales</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"> +<img src="images/illus006.png" width="200" height="168" alt="Cat with bow" title="Cat with bow" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 436px;"> +<img src="images/illus007.png" width="436" height="182" alt="Too Clever by Half" title="Too Clever by Half" /> +</div> + + + +<h2>Too Clever by Half</h2> + + +<div class='cap'>"TELL us a story, mother," said the +youngest kitten but three.</div> + +<p>"You've heard all my stories," said the +mother cat, sleepily turning over in the hay.</p> + +<p>"Then make a new one," said the youngest +kitten, so pertly that Mrs. Buff boxed her +ears at once—but she laughed too. Did +you ever hear a cat laugh? People say that +cats often have occasion to do it.</p> + +<p>"I do know one story," she said; "but I'm +not sure that it's true, though it was told me +by a most respectable brindled gentleman, +a great friend of my dear mother's. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> +said he was a second cousin twenty-nine +times removed of Mrs. Tabby White, the +lady the story is about."</p> + +<p>"Oh, do tell it," said all the kittens, sitting +up very straight and looking at their mother +with green anxious eyes.</p> + +<p>"Very well," she said kindly; "only if +you interrupt I shall leave off."</p> + +<p>So there was silence in the barn, except +for Mrs. Buff's voice and the soft sound of +pleased purring which the kittens made as +they listened to the enchanting tale.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"Mrs. Tabby White seems to have been +as clever a cat as ever went rat-catching in +a pair of soft-soled shoes. She always knew +just where a mouse would peep out of the +wainscot, and she had her soft-sharp paw +on him before he had time to know that +he was not alone in the room. She knew +how to catch nice breakfasts for herself and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +her children, a trick I will teach you, my +dears, when the spring comes; she used to +lie quite quietly among the ivy on the wall, +and then take the baby birds out of the +nest when the grown-up birds had gone to +the grub-shop. Mrs. Tabby White was +very clever, as I said—so clever that presently +she was not satisfied with being at +the very top of the cat profession.</p> + +<p>"'Cat-people have more sense than +human people, of course,' she said to herself; +'but still there are some things one +might learn from them. I must watch and +see how they do things.'</p> + +<p>"So next morning when the cook gave +Mrs. Tabby White her breakfast, she noticed +that cook poured the milk out of a jug into +a saucer. That afternoon Tabby felt thirsty, +but instead of putting her head into the jug +and drinking in the usual way,—you know—she +tilted up the jug to pour the milk out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +as she had seen the cook do. But cats' +paws, though they are so strong to catch +rats and mice and birds, are too weak to +hold big brown jugs. The nasty deceitful +jug fell off the dresser and broke itself. +'Just to spite me, I do believe,' said Mrs. +Tabby. And the milk was all spilled.</p> + +<p>"Now how on earth could that jug have +been broken?' said cook, when she came in.</p> + +<p>"'It must have been the cat,' said the +kitchenmaid; and she was quite right, but +nobody believed her.</p> + +<p>"Then Mrs. Tabby White noticed that +human people slept in big soft-cushioned +white beds, instead of sleeping on the kitchen +hearth-rug, or in the barn, like cat people. +So she said to her children one evening—</p> + +<p>"'My dears, we are going to move into +a new house.'</p> + +<p>"And the kittens were delighted, and they +all went upstairs very quietly, and crept<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> +into the very best human bed. But unfortunately +that bed had been got ready +for a human uncle to sleep in; and when +he found the cats there he turned them +out, not gently, and threw boots at them +till they fled, pale with fright to the ends +of their pretty tails. And next morning +he told the Mistress of the house that +horrid CATS had been in his bed, and +he vowed that he would never pass +another night under a roof where such +things were possible. Mrs. Tabby White +was very glad—because no lady can wish +for the visits of a person who throws +boots at her. But the Mistress of the +house said sadly, 'Oh, Tabby!—you +have lost us a fortune!' And Tabby for +all her cleverness didn't understand what +the Mistress meant, but went on purring +proudly, and wondering what clever thing +she could do next. And <i>I</i> don't know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +what it meant either, so don't you interrupt +with silly questions.</p> + +<p>"'I think we ought to wear shoes,' was +the next thing Mrs. Tabby White said; +but all the human shoes were too big for +her. However, there was a nice pair of +salmon-coloured kid shoes, quite new, belonging +to the human child's big doll—and +Mrs. Tabby White put them on her eldest +kitten's little browny feet.</p> + +<p>"'Now, Brindle,' she said (he was named +after the gentleman who told me the +story), 'you are grander than any kitten +ever was before.' And at first Brindle felt +pleased—then he tried to feel pleased—then +he knew he wasn't pleased at all. Then +the shoes began to hurt him horribly, +so he mewed sadly; and Mrs. Tabby +White boxed his ears softly—as mother +cats do; <i>you</i> know how I mean! But +when she was asleep he took off the pink<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +shoes and bit them to pieces. And Nurse +slapped him for it. Poor Mrs. Tabby +White was very miserable when she saw +her son being slapped: for it is one thing +to box your son's ears (softly, as mother +cats do; <i>you</i> know how I mean), and quite +another to see another person do it—heavily, +as is the way with nursemaids.</p> + +<p>"But the last and greatest effort Mrs. +Tabby White made to imitate human manners +was one Saturday night.</p> + +<p>"She saw the human child have its bath +before the nursery fire, with hot water, pink +soap, dry towels, and much fussing, and +she said to herself, 'Why should I waste +hours every day in washing my children +with my little white paws and my little pink +tongue, when this human child can be made +clean in ten minutes with this big bath. If +I had more time I could learn to be cleverer, +and I should end by being the most wonderful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +Cat in all the world.' So she sat, +and watched, and waited.</p> +<div class="figleft" style="width: 319px;"> +<img src="images/illus008.png" width="319" height="400" alt=""Nurse dried the poor, dear, cruelly-used kittens a little."" title=""Nurse dried the poor, dear, cruelly-used kittens a little."" /> +<span class="caption">"Nurse dried the poor, dear, cruelly-used kittens a little."</span> +</div> +<p>"When the human child was in bed and +asleep, Nurse went down to her supper, +leaving the bath to be cleared away later, +for it was a hot supper of baked onions and +toasted cheese, and if you don't go to that +supper directly it is ready, you may as well +not go at all, for it won't be worth eating—at +least so I have heard the kitchenmaid +say.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Tabby White waited till she heard +the last of Nurse's steps on the stairs below, +and then she put both her cat-children into +the tub, and washed them with rose-scented +soap and a Turkey sponge. At first they +thought it very good fun, but presently +the soap got in their eyes and they were +frightened of the sponge, and they cried, +mewing piteously, to be taken out. I +don't know how she could have done it, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +couldn't have treated a kitten of <i>mine</i> like +that.</p> + + + +<p>"When she took them out, Mrs. Tabby +tried to dry them with the soft towel, but +somehow catskin is not so easy to dry +as child-skin, and the little cats began to +shiver, and moan: 'Oh, mother, we were +so nice and warm, and now we are so cold! +Why is it? What have we done? Were +we naughty?'</p> + +<p>"'Drat the cats!' said Nurse, when she +came up from supper, and found Mrs. +Tabby White trying to warm her kittens +against her own comfortable fur; 'if they +haven't tumbled in the bath!'</p> + +<p>"Nurse dried the poor, dear, cruelly-used +kittens a little (her hands were bigger than +Mrs. Tabby's, so she could do it better), +and put them in a basket with flannel, and +next day Tabby-Kit was quite well, though +rather ragged looking; but Brindle had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +taken a chill, and for days he hung between +life and death. Poor Mrs. Tabby was like +a wild cat with anxiety, and when at last +Brindle was well again (or nearly, for he +always had a slight cough after that), Mrs. +Tabby White said to her children, 'My +darlings, I was wrong, I was a silly +old cat.'</p> + +<p>"'No,' purred the cat-children, 'darling +mother, you were always the best of cats.'</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Tabby kissed them both, for of +course any one would be pleased that her +children should think her the best of cats, +but in her heart she knew well enough +how silly she had been.</p> + +<p>"Then she set about washing the kittens, +not with pink soap and white towel this +time, but with white paws and pink tongue +in the good old-fashioned way."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"Thank you, mother," said all the kittens; +"what a nice horrible story."</p> + +<p>"What is the moral?" asked the youngest +kitten but three.</p> + +<p>"The moral," said Mrs. Buffy, "is, 'There +is such a thing as being too clever by half.' +I'm not sure about the story being true, +but I know the moral is. Why, it's nearly +tea-time. Come along, children, and get +your tea."</p> + +<p>So they all crept quietly away to catch +the necessary mice, and the youngest was +so afraid of being too clever by half, that +she would never have caught a mouse at +all, if her mother had not boxed her ears—softly, +as mother cats do; you know +how I mean!</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/illus009.png" width="300" height="46" alt="Mice running" title="Mice running" /> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/illus010.png" width="400" height="202" alt="The White Persian" title="The White Persian" /> +</div> + + + +<h2>The White Persian</h2> + + +<div class='cap'>I WAS a handsome, discreet, middle-aged, +respectable, responsible, domesticated +tabby cat. I was humble. I knew +my place, and kept it. My place was +the place nearest the fire in winter, or +close to the sunny window in summer. +There was nothing to trouble me—not so +much as a fly in the cream, or an error in +the leaving of the cat's meat, until some +thoughtless person gave my master the +white Persian cat.</div> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 248px;"> +<img src="images/illus011.png" width="248" height="400" alt=""She was very beautiful."" title=""She was very beautiful."" /> +<span class="caption">"She was very beautiful."</span> +</div> + +<p>She was very beautiful in her soft,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +foolish, namby-pamby, blue-eyed way. Of +course, she did not understand English, +and when they called "Puss, puss," she +only ran under the sofa, for she thought +they were teasing her. She was mistress +only of two languages—Persian and +cat-talk.</p> + +<p>My master did not think of this. He +called her "Puss"; he called her "Pussy"; +he called her "Tittums" and "Pussy +then"; and a thousand endearments that +had formerly been lavished on me were +vainly showered on this unresponsive +stranger. But when he found she was +cold to all of them, my master sighed.</p> + +<p>"Poor thing!" he said; "she is deaf."</p> + +<p>I sat by the bright fender, and washed +my face, and sleeked my pretty paws, and +looked on. My master gave up taking +very much notice of the new cat. But I +had a fear that he might learn Persian or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +cat-talk, and make friends with her; so I +resolved that the best thing for me would +be a complete change in the Persian's behaviour—such +a change as should make it +impossible for her ever to be friends with +him again; so I said to her:</p> + +<p>"You wonder that our master looks +coldly at you. Perhaps you don't know +that in England a white cat is supposed to +mew twenty times longer and to purr +twenty times louder than a cat of any +other colour?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, thank you so much for telling me," +she said gratefully. "I didn't know. As +it happens, I have a very good voice."</p> + +<p>And the next time she wanted her milk, +she mewed in a voice you could have +heard twenty miles away. Poor master +was so astonished that he nearly dropped +the saucer. When she had finished the +milk, she jumped upon his knee, and he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +began to stroke her. She nearly gave +herself a fit in her efforts to purr loud +enough to please him. At first he was +pleased, but when the purring got louder +and louder, the poor man put his hands +to his ears and said, "Oh dear! oh dear! +this is worse than a whole hive of +bees."</p> + +<p>Still he put her down gently, and I +congratulated her on having done so well. +She did better. She was an affectionate +person, though foolish, and in her anxiety +to do what was expected of a cat of her +colour in England, she practised day and +night.</p> + +<p>Her purr was already the loudest I have +heard from any cat, but she fancied she +could improve her mewing; and she mewed +in the garden, she mewed in the house, +she mewed at meals, she mewed at prayers, +she mewed when she was hungry to show<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +that she wanted food, and she mewed when +she had had it to show her gratitude.</p> + +<p>"Poor thing," said the master to a friend +who had come to see him, "she is so deaf +she can't hear the noise she makes."</p> + +<p>Of course, I understood what he said, +but she hadn't yet picked up a word of +English; and if the master <i>had</i> begun to +learn Persian, I don't suppose he had got +much beyond the alphabet.</p> + +<p>The Persian's mew was rather feebler +that day, because she had a cold.</p> + +<p>"I don't think it's so bad," said his friend. +"If you really wanted to get rid of her, she +is very handsome; she would take a prize +anywhere."</p> + +<p>"She is yours," said the master instantly; +and the strange gentleman took her away +in a basket.</p> + +<p>That evening it was I who sat on my +master's knee—I who superintended the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +writing of his letters on the green-covered +writing table—I who had all the milk that +was left over from his tea.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 232px;"> +<img src="images/illus012.png" width="232" height="300" alt=""I who superintended the writing of his letters."" title=""I who superintended the writing of his letters."" /> +<span class="caption">"I who superintended the writing of his letters."</span> +</div> + +<p>In a few days he had a letter. I read +it when he laid it down; and if you don't +believe cats can read, I can only say that +it is just as easy to read a letter like the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +master's as it is to write a story like this. +The letter begged my master to take back +the fair Persian.</p> + +<p>"Her howls," the letter went on, "become +worse and worse. The poor creature is, +as you say, too deaf to be tolerated."</p> + +<p>My master wrote back instantly to say +that he would rather be condemned to keep +a dog than have the fair Persian within +his doors again.</p> + +<p>Then by return of post came a pitiful +letter, begging for help and mercy, and +the friend came again to tea. I trembled +lest my foreign rival should come back to +live with me. But she didn't. The next +morning my master took me on his knee, +and, stroking me gently, said—</p> + +<p>"Ah, Tabbykins! no more Persians for +us. I have sent her to my deaf aunt. +She will be delighted with her—a most +handsome present—and as they are both<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +deaf, the fair Persian's shrieks will hurt +nobody.</p> + +<p>"But I will have no more prize cats," +he said, pouring out some cream for me +in his own saucer. "You know how to +behave; I will never have any cat but +you."</p> + +<p>I do, and he never has.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 137px;"> +<img src="images/illus013.png" width="137" height="300" alt="Cat on chair" title="Cat on chair" /> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/illus014.png" width="400" height="157" alt="Two Mice" title="Two Mice" /> +</div> + + + +<h2>A Powerful Friend</h2> + + +<div class='cap'>MY mother was the best of cats. She +washed us kittens all over every +morning, and at odd times during the day +she would wash little bits of us, say an +ear, or a paw, or a tail-tip, and she was +very anxious about our education. I am +afraid I gave her a great deal of trouble, +for I was rather stout and heavy, and did +not take a very active or graceful part in +the exercises which she thought good for us.</div> + +<p>Our gymnasium was the kitchen hearth-rug. +There was always a good fire in the +grate, and it seemed to me so much better<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +to go to sleep in front of it than to run +round after my own tail, or even my +mother's, though, of course, that was a +great honour.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 328px;"> +<img src="images/illus015.png" width="328" height="340" alt=""So much better to go to sleep in front of it."" title=""So much better to go to sleep in front of it."" /> +<span class="caption">"So much better to go to sleep in front of it."</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p> + +<p>As for running after the reel of cotton +when the cook dropped it, or playing with +the tassel of the blind-cord, or pretending +that there were mice inside the paper bag +which I knew to be empty, I confess that +I had no heart or imagination for these +diversions.</p> + +<p>"Of course, you know best, mother," I +used to say; "but it does seem to me a +dreadful waste of time. We might be much +better employed."</p> + +<p>"How better employed?" asked my mother +severely.</p> + +<p>"Why," I answered, "in eating or sleeping."</p> + +<p>At first my mother used to box my ears, +and insist on my learning such little accomplishments +as she thought necessary for my +station in life.</p> + +<p>"You see," she would say, "all this playing +with tails and reels and balls of worsted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +is a preparation for the real business of +life."</p> + +<p>"What is that?" asked my sister.</p> + +<p>"Mouse-catching," said my mother very +earnestly.</p> + +<p>"There are no mice here," I said, stretching +myself.</p> + +<p>"No, but you will not always be here; +and if you practise the little tricks I show +you now with the ball of worsted and the +tips of our tails, then, when the great hour +comes, and a career is open to you, and +you see before you the glorious prize—the +MOUSE—you will be quick enough +and clever enough to satisfy the highest +needs of your nature."</p> + +<p>"And supposing we don't play with our +tails and the balls of worsted?" I said.</p> + +<p>"Then," said my mother bitterly, "you +may as well lie down for the mice to run +over you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span></p> + +<p>Thus at first she used to try to show +me how foolish it was to think of nothing +but eating and sleeping; but after a while +she turned all her attention to teaching my +brother and sister, and they were apt pupils. +They despised nothing small enough to be +moved by their paws, which could give them +an opportunity of practising. They did not +mind making themselves ridiculous—a thing +which has been always impossible with me. +I have seen Tabby, my sister, in the garden, +playing with dead leaves, as excited and +pleased as though they had been the birds +which she foolishly pretended that they +were.</p> + +<p>I thought her very silly then, but I lived +to wish that I had taken half as much +trouble with my lessons as she did with +hers. My mother was very pleased with +her, especially after she caught the starlings. +This was a piece of cleverness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +which my sister invented and carried through +entirely out of her own head. She made +friends with one of the cows at the farm +near us, and used to go into the cowhouse +and jump on the cow's back. Then when +the cow was sent out into the field to get +her grassy breakfast, my sister used to go +with her, riding on her back.</p> + +<p>Now birds are always very much on +the look-out for cats, and, if they can help +it, never allow one of us to come within +half-a-dozen yards of them without taking +to those silly wings of theirs. I never +could see why birds should have wings—so +unnecessary.</p> + +<p>But birds are not afraid of cows, for +cows are very poor sportsmen, and never +care to kill and eat anything.</p> + +<p>Now the back of a cow is the last place +where you would think of looking for a +cat; so when the starlings saw the cow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +coming, they didn't think it worth while +to use their wings, and when the cow was +quite close to the birds—beautiful, fat, +delightful birds—my sister used to pick +out with her eye the fattest starling, and +then leap suddenly from the cow's back on +to her prey. She never missed.</p> + +<p>"I have never known," said my poor +mother with tears of pride in her green +eyes—"I have never known a cat do anything +so clever."</p> + +<p>"It's all your doing, mother dear," said +my sister prettily; "if you hadn't taught +me so well when I was little, I should never +have thought of it." And they kissed each +other affectionately.</p> + +<p>I showed my claws and growled. My +mother shook her tabby head.</p> + +<p>"O Buff," she said, "if you had only been +willing to learn when you were little, you +might have been as clever as your sister,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +instead of being the great anxiety you are +to me."</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 242px;"> +<img src="images/illus016.png" width="242" height="327" alt=""Now the back of a cow is the last place where you would look for a cat."" title=""Now the back of a cow is the last place where you would look for a cat."" /> +<span class="caption">"Now the back of a cow is the last place where you would look for a cat."</span> +</div> + +<p>"And why am I an anxiety?" I said, +ruffling up my fur and my tail, for I was +very angry.</p> + +<p>"Because you are useless," she said, "and +not particularly handsome; and when a cat +is useless and not particularly handsome, +they sometimes——"</p> + +<p>"What?" I said, turning pale to the +ends of my ears.</p> + +<p>"They sometimes drown it, Buff," she +said in a whisper, and turned away to hide +her feelings.</p> + +<p>Judge of my own next day when they +came into the kitchen and took me up and +put me into a basket. I knew all about +drowning. These tales of horror are told +at twilight time in all cat nurseries, and I +knew that if three large stones were put<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +into the basket with me, I might consider +my fate sealed.</p> + +<p>It was very uncomfortable in the basket. +They carried me upside-down part of the +way, and it was draughty and hard; but, +so far, there were no stones. When they +took off the lid of the basket, I found myself +under the shade of a huge moving +mountain, that seemed about to fall and +crush me. It was an elephant.</p> + +<p>I found that the people where my mother +lived had given me to the cook, who had +given me to her cousin, who was engaged +to be married to a young man whose +brother-in-law was the elephant's keeper, +and so I found myself in the elephant's +house.</p> + +<p>There was no milk for me—no heads +and tails of fish—no scraps of meat—no +delicious unforeseen morsels of butter.</p> + +<p>The elephant was very kind to me. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +had once had a friend exactly like me, he +explained, but had unfortunately walked +upon him, and now I had come to fill the +vacant place in his large heart.</p> + +<p>I resolved at once that he should not +walk upon me; but in order to insure this, +I was compelled to enter upon a more active +existence than I had ever known.</p> + +<p>When I asked what I was expected to +eat, he said—</p> + +<p>"Mice, I suppose; or you can have some +of my buns if you like. You might like +them at first, but you will soon get tired +of them."</p> + +<p>But I couldn't eat buns. I was never, +from a kitten, fond of such things. I got +very hungry. Again and again the mice +rushed through the straw, and I, heavily, +helplessly, in my unpractised way, rushed +after them. At first the elephant laughed +heartily at my inexpertness; but when he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +saw how hungry and wretched I was, he +said—</p> + +<p>"They won't give you any milk, and if +they find you don't catch the mice they will +take you away from me. Now you are a +nice little cat, and I don't want to part with +you. We must try and arrange something."</p> + +<p>Then the great thought of my life came +to me.</p> + +<p>"You walked on the other cat," I said.</p> + +<p>"What?" he trumpeted in a voice of +thunder.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," I said hastily; "I +didn't mean to hurt your feelings"—and, +indeed, I could not have imagined that an +elephant would have been so thin-skinned—"but +a great idea has come to me. Why +shouldn't you walk on mice—not too hard, +but just so that I could eat them afterwards?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well," said the elephant, showing his +long tusks in a smile, "you are not very +handsome, and you are not very brisk; but +you certainly have brains, my dear."</p> + +<p>He dropped his great foot as he spoke. +When he lifted it, there lay a mouse. I +had an excellent supper; and before the +week's end I heard the keeper say, "This +cat has certainly done the trick. She has +kept the mice down. We must keep her."</p> + +<p>They have kept me. They even go so +far as to allow me to moisten my mice +with milk.</p> + +<p>There is no moral to this story, except +that you should do as you are told, and +learn everything you can while you are +young. It is true that I get on very well +without having done so, but then you may +not have my good luck. It is not every +cat who can get an elephant to catch her +mice for her.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 340px;"> +<img src="images/illus017.png" width="340" height="127" alt="Two Kittens" title="Two Kittens" /> +</div> + + + +<h2>A Silly Question</h2> + + +<div class='cap'>"HOW do you come to be white, when +all your brothers are tabby, my +dear?" Dolly asked her kitten. As she +spoke, she took it away from the ball it +was playing with, and held it up and looked +in its face as Alice did with the Red +Queen.</div> + +<p>"I'll tell you, if you'll keep it a secret, +and not hold me so tight," the kitten answered.</p> + +<p>Dolly was not surprised to hear the kitten +speak, for she had read her fairy books, as +all good children should, and she knew that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +all creatures answer if one only speaks to +them properly. So she held the kitten more +comfortably and the tale began.</p> + +<p>"You must know, my dear Dolly," the +kitten began—and Dolly thought it dreadfully +familiar—"you must know that when +we were very small we all set out to seek +our fortunes."</p> + +<p>"Why," interrupted Dolly, "you were all +born and brought up in our barn! I used +to see you every day."</p> + +<p>"Quite so," said the kitten; "we sought +our fortune every night, and it turned out +to be mice, mostly. Well, one night I was +seeking mine, when I came to a hole in the +door that I had never noticed before. I +crept through it, and found myself in a +beautiful large room. It smelt delicious. +There was cheese there, and fish, and +cream, and mice, and milk. It was the +most lovely room you can think of."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p> + +<p>"There's no such room——" began +Dolly.</p> + +<p>"Did I say there was?" asked the kitten. +"I only said I found myself there. Well, +I stayed there some time. It was the +happiest hour of my life. But, as I was +washing my face after one of the most +delicious herring's heads you ever tasted, +I noticed that on nails all round the room +were hung skins—and they were cat skins," +it added slowly. "Well may you tremble!"</p> + +<p>Dolly hadn't trembled. She had only +shaken the kitten to make it speak faster.</p> + +<p>"Well, I stood there rooted to the +ground with horror; and then came a sort +of horrible scramble-rush, and a barking +and squeaking, and a terrible monster stood +before me. It was something like a dog +and something like a broom, something like +being thrown out of the larder by cook—I +can't describe it. It caught me up, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +in less than a moment it had hung my +tabby skin on a nail behind the door.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 326px;"> +<img src="images/illus018.png" width="326" height="444" alt=""I don't believe a word of it."" title=""I don't believe a word of it."" /> +<span class="caption">"I don't believe a word of it."</span> +</div> + +<p>"I crept out of that lovely fairyland a +cat without a skin. And that's how I came +to be white."</p> + +<p>"I don't quite see——" began Dolly.</p> + +<p>"No? Why, what would your mother +do if some one took off your dress, and hung +it on a nail where she could not get it?"</p> + +<p>"Buy me another, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"Exactly. But when my mother took +me to the cat-skin shop, they were, unfortunately, +quite out of tabby dresses in my +size, so I had to have a white one."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe a word of it," said Dolly.</p> + +<p>"No? Well, I'm sure it's as good a +story as you could expect in answer to such +a silly question."</p> + +<p>"But you were always——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, well!" said the kitten, showing its +claws, "if you know more about it than I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +do, of course there's no more to be said. +Perhaps you could tell me why your hair +is brown?"</p> + +<p>"I was born so, I believe," said Dolly +gently.</p> + +<p>The kitten put its nose in the air.</p> + +<p>"You've got no imagination," it said.</p> + +<p>"But, Kitty, really and truly, without pretending, +you <i>were</i> born white, you know."</p> + +<p>"If you know all about it, why did you +ask me? At any rate, you can't expect +me to remember whether I was born white +or not. I was too young to notice such +things."</p> + +<p>"Now you are in fun," said poor Dolly, +bewildered.</p> + +<p>The kitten bristled with indignation.</p> + +<p>"What! you really don't believe me? I'll +never speak to you again," it said. And +it never has.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/illus019.png" width="400" height="203" alt="Two cats on a garden wall" title="Two cats on a garden wall" /> +</div> + + + +<h2>The Selfish Pussy</h2> + + +<div class='cap'>"YES," said the tortoiseshell cat to +the grey one, as she thoughtfully +washed her left ear, "I have lived in a +great many families. You see, it's not +every trade that deserves to have a cat +about the place. My first master was a +shoemaker, and I lived with him happily +enough, until one morning in winter, when +I found the wicked man sewing strips of—let +me whisper—<i>cat's fur</i> on a pair of +lady's slippers!</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>"I mewed as I saw it, and he, thinking +I wanted milk, put down his work to get +me some, for he was fond enough of me. +I drank the milk, and then I ran away. I +could not live with such a man.</p> + +<p>"My next home was in a garret, with a +half-starved musician who made violins. +A violin is a musical instrument that miauls +when you touch it just as we cats do, and +it was amusing to live with a man who could +make things with voices like my own. He +was very poor, and often had not enough to +eat, but he always got me my cat's-meat; +and when there was no fire on, he nursed me +to keep me warm. But one day I learned, +from the talk of one of his friends (a man +as lean as himself) who came to see him, +that the strings of the violins were taken +from the bodies of dead cats. No wonder +the voices were like my brothers' voices, +since they were stolen from my brothers'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +bodies. He might take my own voice +some day.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 260px;"> +<img src="images/illus020.png" width="260" height="400" alt=""I was picked up in the street by a child."" title=""I was picked up in the street by a child."" /> +<span class="caption">"I was picked up in the street by a child."</span> +</div> + +<p>"So next day, after the cat's-meat man +had called, I walked quietly out, and never +saw that bad violin-maker again.</p> + +<p>"I was picked up in the street by a +child, who took me home to her mother's +house. They were rich folk; they had +curtains, and cushions, and couches, and +they did very little but nurse me, or sometimes, +not wishing to hurt his feelings, the +Italian greyhound. But they liked <i>me</i> best, +of course. They were a noble family; and +I should have been living with them still, +but one year, when they went to the seaside, +they forgot to provide for my board +and lodging, and I had to go into trade +again.</p> + +<p>"'Milk ahoy! milk ahoy!' I heard that +well-known music as I sat lonely on the +doorstep of the deserted mansion in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +Square. The milkman looked lonely too; +so I thought it would be only kind to go +home with him. I did. He was a very +well-meaning man, but his tastes were low. +He took skim milk in his tea, and gave +me the same. Of course, after that, I could +not stay another hour under his roof.</p> + +<p>"I tried two or three other houses, and +I could have been happy with a very nice +butcher who kept a corner shop, but he +kept a dog also, a dog that no cat in her +senses would live in the same street with; so +I came away—rather hurriedly, I remember—and +the dog saw me off. Now I live with +a worker in silver, and I have cream every +day; and when he makes a cream-jug, and +I remember what will be put in it some +day, I lick my lips, and think what a happy +cat I am to live with such a good man. +Where do you live?"</p> + +<p>"With a poor widow, in an attic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>. I +never have enough to eat." And, indeed, +the grey cat was thin.</p> + +<p>"Why do you stay with her?"</p> + +<p>"Because I love her," said the grey +cat.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/illus021.png" width="400" height="156" alt=""The dog saw me off."" title=""The dog saw me off."" /> +<span class="caption">"The dog saw me off."</span> +</div> + +<p>"Love!" replied the tortoiseshell cat. +"Nonsense! I never heard of such a +thing."</p> + +<p>"Poor puss!" said the parrot in the +window. The grey cat thought it was +speaking to the tortoiseshell, and the tortoiseshell +was certain it meant the grey. +Which do <i>you</i> think it meant?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/21a.png" width="400" height="153" alt="Cat eating fish" title="Cat eating fish" /> +</div> + + + +<h2>Meddlesome Pussy</h2> + + +<div class='cap'>I WAS separated from my mother at a +very early age, and sent out into the +world alone, long before I had had +time to learn to say "please" and "thank +you," and to shut the door after me, and +little things like that. One of the things I +had not learned to understand was the +difference between milk in a saucer on the +floor, and milk in a jug on the table. +Other cats tell me there is a difference, but +I can't see it. The difference is not in the +taste of the milk—that is precisely the +same.</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>It is not so easy to get the milk out of +a jug, and I should have thought some +credit would attach to a cat who performed +so clever a feat. The world, my dear, +thinks otherwise. This difference of opinion +has, through life, been a fruitful source of +sorrow to me. I cannot tell you how much +I have suffered for it. The first occasion +I remember was a beautiful day in June, +when the sun shone, and all the world +looked fair. I was destined to remember +that day.</p> + +<p>The fishmonger (talk of statues to heroes! +I would raise one to that noble man!)—the +fishmonger, I say, brought his usual little +present to <i>me</i>. I let the cook take it and +prepare it for my eating. I am always +generous enough to permit the family to be +served first—and then I have my dinner +quietly at the back door.</p> + +<p>Well, he had brought the salmon, and I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +followed the cook in, to see that it wasn't +put where those dogs could get it; and +then, the dining-room door being opened, +I walked in. The breakfast things were +lying littered about, and on the tea-tray was +a jug.</p> + +<p>Of course, I walked across the table, +and looked into the jug; there was milk +in it.</p> + +<p>It was a sensible, wide-mouthed jug, +and I should have been quite able to make +a comfortable breakfast, if some clumsy, +careless servant hadn't rushed into the +room, crying "Shoo! scat!"</p> + +<p>This startled me, of course. I am very +sensitive. I started, the jug went over, +and the milk ran on to the cloth, and down +on the new carpet. You will hardly believe +it, but that servant, to conceal her own +carelessness, beat me with a feather brush, +and threw me out of the back door; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +cook, who was always a heartless person, +though stout, gave me no dinner. Ah! if +my fishmonger had only known that I never +tasted his beautiful present, after all!</p> + +<p>But though I admired him so much, I +could not talk to him. I never, from a +kitten, could speak any foreign language +fluently. So he never knew.</p> + +<p>My next misadventure was on an afternoon +when the family expected company, +and the best china was set out. Why +"best"? Why should a saucer, all blue +and gold and red, with a crown on the +back, be better than a white one with +mauve blobs on it? I never could see. +Milk tastes equally well from both.</p> +<div class="figleft" style="width: 322px;"> +<img src="images/illus022.png" width="322" height="350" alt=""Seeing the tea set out, I got on the table."" title=""Seeing the tea set out, I got on the table."" /> +<span class="caption">"Seeing the tea set out, I got on the table."</span> +</div> + +<p>I went into the drawing-room before the +guests arrived—just to be sure that everything +was as I could wish—and, seeing the +tea set out, I got on the table, as usual, to +see whether there was anything in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +saucers. There was not, but in the best +milk-jug there was—CREAM!</p> + +<p>The neck of the best milk-jug was +narrow. I could not get my head in, so I +turned it over with my paw. It fell with +a crash, and I paused a moment—these +little shocks always upset me. All was +still—I began to lap. Oh! that cream! +I shall never forget it!</p> + +<p>Then came a rush, and the fatal cry of +"Shoo! scat!"—always presaging disaster. +I saw the door open, and, by an instinct I +cannot explain, I leaped from the table. In +my hurry, my foot caught in the handle of +the silver tray. We fell together—neither +the tray nor I was hurt—but the best +china!!!</p> + + +<p>I picked myself up, and looked about +me. The family had come in. I read +in their faces that their servant's unlucky +interruption of my meal had destroyed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +what was dearer to them than life—than +<i>my</i> life, at any rate. I fled. I went out +homeless and hopeless into the golden +afternoon.</p> + +<p>I live now with a Saint—a maiden lady, +who takes condensed milk in her own tea, +and buys me two-pennyworth of cream +night and morning.</p> + +<p>And cat's meat, too!</p> + +<p>And the glorious fishmonger still leaves +his offerings at my door.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/illus023.png" width="400" height="133" alt="Basket of fish" title="Basket of fish" /> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/illus024.png" width="400" height="197" alt="Cat among flowers" title="Cat among flowers" /> +</div> + + + +<h2>Nine Lives</h2> + + +<div class='cap'>"MOTHER," said the yellow kitten, +"is it true that we cats have +nine lives?"</div> + +<p>"Quite, my dear," the brindled cat replied. +She was a very handsome cat, and +in very comfortable circumstances. She +sat on a warm Turkey carpet, and wore +a blue satin ribbon round her neck. "I +am in the ninth life myself," she said.</p> + +<p>"Have you lived all your lives here?"</p> + +<p>"Oh dear, no!"</p> + +<p>"Were you here," the white kitten asked,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +in a sleepy voice, "when the Turkey carpet +was born? Rover says it is only a few +months old."</p> + +<p>"No," said the mother, "I was not. +Indeed, it was partly the softness of that +carpet that made me come and live here."</p> + +<p>"Where did you live before?" the black +kitten said.</p> + +<p>A dreamy look came into the brindled +cat's eyes.</p> + +<p>"In many strange places," she answered +slowly; adding more briskly, "and if you +will be good kittens, I will tell you all +about them. Goldie! come down from that +stool, and sit down like a good kitten. +Sweep! leave off sharpening your claws on +the furniture; <i>that</i> always ends in trouble +and punishment. Snowball! you're asleep +again! Oh, well; if you'd rather sleep +than hear a story——"</p> + +<p>Snowball shook herself awake, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +others sat down close to their mother with +their tails arranged neatly beside them, and +waited for the story.</p> + +<p>"I was born," said the brindled cat, "in +a barn."</p> + +<p>"What is a barn?" asked the black +kitten.</p> + +<p>"A barn is like a house, but there is +only one room, and no carpets, only +straw."</p> + +<p>"I should like that," said the yellow +kitten, who often played among the straw +in the big box which brought groceries +from the Stores.</p> + +<p>"I liked it well enough when I was +your age," said the mother indulgently, +"but a barn is not at all a genteel place +to be born in. My mother had had a +little unpleasantness with the family she +lived with, and, of course, she was too +proud to stay on after that. And so she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +left them, and went to live in the barn. +It wasn't at all the sort of life she had +been accustomed to."</p> + +<p>"What was the unpleasantness?" Sweep +asked.</p> + +<p>"Well, it was about some cream which +the woman of the house wanted for her +tea. She should have said so. Of course, +my mother would not have taken it if she +had had any idea that any one else wanted +it. She was always most unselfish."</p> + +<p>"What is tea?"</p> + +<p>"A kind of brown milk—very nasty +indeed, and very bad for you. Well, I +lived with my brothers and sisters very +happily for some months, for I was too +young to know how vulgar it was to live +in a barn and play with straw."</p> + +<p>"What is vulgar, mother?"</p> + +<p>"Dear, dear; how you do ask questions," +said the brindled cat, beginning to look<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +worried. "Vulgar is being like everybody +else."</p> + +<p>"But does everybody else live in a +barn?"</p> + +<p>"No; nobody does who is respectable. +Vulgar really means—not like respectable +cats."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said the black kitten and the +yellow, trying to look as if they understood. +But the white one did not say +anything, because it had gone to sleep +again.</p> + +<p>"Well," the mother went on, "after a +while they took me to live in the farm-house. +And I should have liked it well +enough, only they had a low habit of +locking up the dairy and the pantry. Well, +it would be tiresome to go into the whole +story; however, I soon finished my life at +the farm-house and went to live in the +stable. It was very pleasant there. Horses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +are excellent company. That was my third +life. My fourth was at the miller's. He +came one day to buy some corn; he saw +me, and admired me—as, indeed, every +one has always done. He and the farmer +were disputing about the price of the corn, +and at last the miller said—</p> + +<p>"'Look' here; you shall have your price +if you'll throw me that cat into the +bargain.'"</p> + +<p>The kittens all shuddered. "What is a +bargain? Is it like a pond? And were +you thrown in?"</p> + +<p>"I was thrown in, I believe. But a +bargain is not like a pond; though I heard +the two men talk of 'wetting' the bargain. +But I suppose they did not do it, for I +arrived at the mill quite dry. That was +a very pleasant life—full of mice!"</p> + +<p>"Who was full of mice?" asked the +white kitten, waking up for a moment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I was," said the mother sharply; "and +I should have stayed in the mill for ever, +but the miller had another cat sent him by +his sister.</p> + +<p>"However, he gave me away to a man +who worked a barge up and down the +river. I suppose he thought he should +like to see me again sometimes as the +barge passed by.</p> + +<p>"Life in a barge is very exciting. +There are such lots of rats, some of them +as big as you kittens. I got quite clever +at catching them, though sometimes they +made a very good fight for it. I used +to have plenty of milk, and I slept with +the bargee in his warm little bunk, and of +nights I sat and toasted myself in front +of his fire in the small, cosy cabin. He +was very fond of me, and used to talk to +me a great deal. It is so lonely on a +barge that you are glad of a little conversation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +He was very kind to me, and +I was very grieved when he married a +lady who didn't like cats, and who chased +me out of the barge with a barge-pole."</p> + +<p>"What is a barge-pole?" the yellow +kitten asked lazily.</p> + +<p>"The only leg a barge has. I ran +away into the woods, and there I lived +on birds and rabbits."</p> + +<p>"What are rabbits?"</p> + +<p>"Something like cats with long ears; +very wholesome and nutritious. And I +should have liked my sixth life very much, +but for the keeper. No, don't interrupt to +ask what a keeper is. He is a man who, +when he meets a cat or a rabbit, points a +gun at it, and says 'Bang!' so loud that +you die of fright."</p> + +<p>"How horrible!" said all the kittens.</p> + +<p>"I was looking out for my seventh life, +and also for the gamekeeper, and was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +sitting by the river with both eyes and +both ears open, when a little girl came by—a +nice little girl in a checked pinafore.</p> + +<p>"She stopped when she saw me, and +called—'Pussy! pussy!' So I went very +slowly to her, and rubbed myself against +her legs. Then she picked me up and +carried me home in the checked pinafore. +My seventh life was spent in a clean little +cottage with this little girl and her mother. +She was very fond of me, and I was as +fond of her as a cat can be of a human +being. Of course, we are never so <i>unreasonably</i> +fond of them as they are +of us."</p> + +<p>"Why not?" asked the yellow kitten, +who was young and affectionate.</p> + +<p>"Because they're only human beings, +and we are Cats," returned the mother, +turning her large, calm green eyes on +Goldie, who said, "Oh!" and no more.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, what happened then?" asked +the black kitten, catching its mother's +eye.</p> +<div class="figright" style="width: 306px;"> +<img src="images/illus025.png" width="306" height="400" alt=""Sitting up, and beginning to wash the kitten's face very hard indeed."" title=""Sitting up, and beginning to wash the kitten's face very hard indeed."" /> +<span class="caption">"Sitting up, and beginning to wash the kitten's face very hard indeed."</span> +</div> +<p>"Well, one day the little girl put me into +a basket, and carried me out. I was always +a fine figure of a cat, and I must have been +a good weight to carry. Several times she +opened the basket to kiss and stroke me. +The last time she did it we were in a room +where a sick girl lay on a bed.</p> + +<p>"'I did not know what to bring you for +your birthday,' said my little girl, 'so I've +brought you my dear pussy.'</p> + +<p>"The sick girl's eyes sparkled with delight. +She took me in her arms and +stroked me. And though I do not like +sick people, I felt flattered and pleased. +But I only stayed a very little time with +her."</p> + +<p>"Why?" asked all the kittens at once.</p> + +<p>"Because——but no; that story's too<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +sad for you children; I will tell it you +when you're older."</p> + +<p>"But that only makes eight lives," said +Sweep, who had been counting on his +claws, "and you said you had nine. Which +was the ninth?"</p> + +<p>"Why, <i>this</i>, you silly child," said the +brindled pussy, sitting up, and beginning +to wash the kitten's face very hard indeed. +"And as it's my last life, I must be very +careful of it. That's why I'm so particular +about what I eat and drink, and why I +make a point of sleeping so many hours +a-day. But it's your <i>first</i> life, Snowball, +and I can't have you wasting it all in sleep. +Go and catch a mouse at once."</p> + +<p>"Yes, mamma," said Snowball, and went +to sleep again immediately.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Mrs. Brindle, "I'll wash +you next. That'll make you wake up, my +dear."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Snowball's always sleepy," said the +yellow kitten, stretching itself. "But, +mamma dear, she doesn't care for history, +and yours was a very long tale."</p> + +<p>"You can't have too much of a good +thing," said the mother, looking down at +her long brindled tail. "If it's a good tail, +the longer it is the better."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 202px;"> +<img src="images/illus026.png" width="202" height="350" alt="Cat on pillow" title="Cat on pillow" /> +</div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 195px;"> +<img src="images/illus027.png" width="195" height="250" alt="Cat with mouse" title="Cat with mouse" /> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p> + +<h2>Doggy Tales</h2> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/illus028.png" width="300" height="128" alt="Birds flying" title="Birds flying" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/illus029.png" width="400" height="216" alt="Tinker" title="Tinker" /> +</div> + + + +<h2>Tinker</h2> + + +<div class='cap'>MY name is Stumps, and my mistress +is rather a nice little girl; but she +has her faults, like most people. I myself, +as it happens, am wonderfully free from +faults. Among my mistress's faults is what +I may call a lack of dignity, joined to a +desire to make other people undignified +too.</div> + +<p>You will hardly believe that, before I +had belonged to her a month, she had +made me learn to dance and to jump<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>. I +am a very respectable dachshund, of cobby +build, and jumping is the very last exercise +I should have taken to of my own accord. +But when Miss Daisy said, "Now jump, +Stumps; there's a darling!" and held out +her little arms, I could not well refuse. +For, after all, the child is my mistress.</p> + +<p>I never could understand why the cat +was not taught to dance. It seemed to me +very hard that, when I was having those +long, miserable lessons, the cat should be +allowed to sit down doing nothing but +smile at my misfortunes. Trap always +said we ought to feel honoured by being +taught, and the reason why Pussy wasn't +asked to learn was because she was so +dreadfully stupid, and had no brains for +anything but the pleasures of the chase and +the cares of a family; but I didn't think +that could be the reason, because the doll +was <i>taught</i> to dance, though she never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +<i>learned</i>, and I am sure <i>she</i> was stupid +enough.</p> + +<p>Another thing which Miss Daisy taught +me to do was to beg; and the action fills +me with shame and pain every time I +perform it, and as the years go on I hate +it more and more.</p> + +<p>For a stout, middle-aged dog, the action +is absurd and degrading. Yet, such is the +force of habit, that I go through the performance +now quite naturally whenever I +want anything. Trap does it too, and says +what does it matter? but then he has no +judgment, and, besides, he's thin.</p> + +<p>But one of the most thoughtless things +my little mistress ever did was one day +last summer when she was out without me. +I chose to stay at home because it was +very hot, and I knew that the roads would +be dusty; and she was only going down +to the village shop, where no one ever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +thinks of offering a dog anything to drink. +If she had been going to the farm, I should, +have gone with her, because the lady there +shows proper attention to visitors, and +always sets down a nice dish of milk for +us dogs. Besides, I was a little unwell +just then; the family had had duck for +dinner, and I always feel a little faint +after duck. All our family do. So I +stayed at home. Well, Miss Daisy had +gone out with only Trap and her hoop. +I wish I had been there, for Trap is far +too easy-going, and a hoop never gives +any advice worth listening to. Trap told +me all about it as well as he could. Trap +can't tell a story very well, poor fellow!</p> + +<p>It seems that, as Miss Daisy went across +the village green, she saw a crowd of children +running after a dog with—I hardly like to +mention such a thing—a tin saucepan tied +to his tail! The dog bolted into the empty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +dog-kennel by the blacksmith's shop, and +stayed there, growling.</p> + +<p>"Go away, bad children," said Miss +Daisy; "how dare you treat a poor dear +doggie so?"</p> + +<p>The children wouldn't go away at first. +"Very well," said Miss Daisy; "I shall +tell Trap what I think of you all."</p> + +<p>Then she whispered to Trap, and he +began to growl so fiercely that the children +dared not come nearer. Any one can growl. +Presently the children got tired of listening +to him, and went away. Then Miss Daisy +coaxed the unpleasant, tin-tailed creature out +of the kennel, and untied the string, and took +off the pan. Then, if you'll believe a dog +of my character (and of course you must), +she carried that low dog home in her arms, +and washed him, and set him down to eat +out of the same plate as Trap and myself! +Trap was friends with him directly—some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +people have no spirit—but I hope I know +my duty to myself too well for that. I +snarled at the base intruder till he was quite +ashamed of himself. I knew from the first +that he'd be taught jumping and begging, +and things like that. I hate those things +myself, but that's no reason why every low +dog should be taught them. Miss Daisy +called him Tinker, because he once carried +a tin pan about with him, and she tried very +hard to make me friendly to him; but I +can choose my own friends, I hope.</p> + +<p>Every one made a great fuss about one +thing he did, but actually it was nothing +but biting; and if biting isn't natural to +a dog, I should like to know what is; and +why people should be praised and petted, +and have new collars, and everybody else's +share of the bones, only for doing what is +quite natural to them, I have never been +able to comprehend. Besides, barking is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +as good as biting, any day, and I'm sure +I barked enough, though it wasn't my +business.</p> + +<p>Miss Daisy had gone away to stay with +her cousins in London, and she had taken +Trap with her. Why she should have +taken him instead of me is a matter on +which I can offer no opinion. If my +opinion had been asked, I should have +said that I thought it more suitable for her +to have a heavy middle-aged dog of good +manners than a harum-scarum young stripling +like Trap. Trap told me afterwards that +he thought the reason he was taken was +because Miss Daisy would have had more +to pay for the dog-ticket of such a heavy +dog as I am; but I can't believe that dogs +are charged for by the weight, like butter. +As I was saying, Miss Daisy took Trap with +her, and also her father and mother; and +Tinker and I were left to take care of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +servants. We had a very agreeable time, +though I confess that I missed Miss Daisy +more than I would have believed possible. +But there was more to eat in the kitchen +than usual, and the servants often left +things on the table when they went out +to take in the milk or to chat with the +gardeners; and if people leave things on +tables, they have only themselves to thank +for whatever happens.</p> + +<p>There was a young man who wore a +fur cap, and who used to call with fish; +and I was more surprised than I care to +own when I met him walking out with +cook one Sunday afternoon, for I thought +she had a soul above fish; yet when the +servants began to ask this young man to +tea in the kitchen, I thought, of course, +it must be all right, but Tinker would +do nothing but growl the whole time the +young man was there; so that at last cook<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +had to lock us up in the butler's pantry till +the young man was gone. <i>I</i> had not +growled, but I was locked in too. The +world is full of injustice and ingratitude.</p> + +<p>Now one night, when the servants went +to bed, Tinker and I lay down in our +baskets under the hall table as usual; but +Tinker was dreadfully restless, which must +have been only an accident, because he +said himself he didn't know what was the +matter with him; and he would not go to +sleep, but kept walking up and down as if +he were going to hide a bone and couldn't +find a good place for it.</p> + +<p>"Do lie down, for goodness' sake, +Tinker," I said, "and go to sleep. Any +one can see you have not been brought up +in a house where regular hours are kept."</p> + +<p>"I can't go to sleep; I don't know +what's the matter with me," he said +gloomily.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p> + +<p>Well, I tried to go to sleep myself, and +I think I must almost have dropped off, +when I heard a scrape-scraping from the +butler's pantry. I wasn't going to bark. +It wasn't my business. I have often +heard Miss Daisy's relations say that I +was no house-dog. Still, I think Tinker +ought to have barked then, but he didn't: +only just pricked his ears and his tail; and +he waited, and the scraping went on.</p> + +<p>Then Tinker said to me—"Don't you +make a noise, for your life; I am going to +see what it is;" and he trotted softly into +the butler's pantry. It was rather dark, +but you know we dogs can see as well as +cats in the dark, although they do make +such a fuss about it, and declare that they +are the only creatures who can.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 316px;"> +<img src="images/illus030.png" width="316" height="400" alt=""The man's arm dragged through the window-pane, and Tinker hanging on to his fingers."" title=""The man's arm dragged through the window-pane, and Tinker hanging on to his fingers."" /> +<span class="caption">"The man's arm dragged through the window-pane, and Tinker hanging on to his fingers."</span> +</div> + +<p>There was a man outside the window, +and I tapped Tinker with my tail to show +him that he ought to bark, but he never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +moved. The man had been scraping and +scraping till he had got out one of the +window-panes. It was a very little window-pane, +only just big enough for his hand +to go through; and the man took out the +window-pane and put his hand through, +making a long arm to get at the fastening +of the window; and just as he was going +to undo the hasp, Tinker made a spring +on to the window-ledge, and he caught +the man's hand in his mouth, and the man +gave a push, and Tinker fell off the window-ledge, +but he took the man's hand with +him; and there was the man's arm dragged +through the window-pane, and Tinker hanging +on to his fingers.</p> + +<p>The man broke some more panes and +tried to get his other hand through, and if +he had he would have done for Tinker, but +he could not manage it; and now I thought +"This is the time to bark," and I barked.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +I barked my best, I barked nobly, though +I am not a house-dog, and I don't think +it's my business.</p> + +<p>In less than a minute down came the +gardener and the under-gardener: and +Tinker was still holding on, and they took +the man, and he was marched off to +prison, and it turned out to be the man +in the fur cap. But though they made +fuss enough about Tinker's share in the +business, you may be sure it didn't make +me think much more of him.</p> + +<p>I should never have had anything to +say to him but for one thing. Early one +morning we three dogs—it's all over long +ago, and I hope I can be generous and +let bygones be bygones; he is one of +<i>us</i> now—went out for a run in the paddock +by the wood, and while Trap and I +were trotting up and down chatting about +the weather, that Tinker dog bolted into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> +the wood, and in less than a minute came +out with a rabbit.</p> + +<p>I saw at once that he could never get +it eaten before Miss Daisy came out, and +I knew that, if he were found with it, his +sufferings would be awful. So I helped +him to eat it. I know my duty to a +fellow-creature, I trust. It was a very +young rabbit, and tender. Not too much +fur. Fur gets in your throat, and spoils +your teeth, besides. We had just finished +it when my mistress came out. Trap would +not eat a bit, even to help Tinker out of his +scrape, but <i>I</i> have a kind heart.</p> + +<p>Well, after that I thought I might as +well consent to be friends with Tinker, in +spite of his low breeding. You see, I had +helped him out of a dreadful scrape, and +one always feels kindly to people one +has helped. He has caught several more +rabbits since then, and I have always<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +stood by him on those occasions, and I +always mean to. I am not one to turn +my back on a friend, I believe.</p> + +<p>So now he has a collar like ours, and +I hardly feel degraded at all when I sit +opposite to him at the doll's tea-parties.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 145px;"> +<img src="images/illus031.png" width="145" height="300" alt="Sitting up at a tea-party" title="Sitting up at a tea-party" /> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/illus032.png" width="400" height="175" alt="Manchester terrier" title="Manchester terrier" /> +</div> + + +<h2>Rats!</h2> + + +<div class='cap'>"HE has no nose," said my master; +"he is a handsome dog, but he +has no nose."</div> + +<p>This annoyed me very much, for I have +a nose—a very long, sharp, black nose. +I wear tan boots and gloves, and my coat +is a beautiful shiny black.</p> + +<p>I am a Manchester terrier, and I fulfil +the old instructions for such dogs. I am</p> + +<div class='poem'> +<i>Neckèd like a drakè,</i><br /> +<i>Headed like a snakè,</i><br /> +<i>Tailed like a ratte,</i><br /> +<i>And footed like a catte.</i><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>And then they said I had no nose.</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +But Kerry explained to me that my +master did not mean to find fault with +the shape of my nose, but that what he +wanted to be understood was that I had +no nose for smelling rats. Kerry has, and +he is ridiculously vain of this accomplishment.</p> + +<p>"And you have no nose, you know, +old boy," said Kerry; "why, you would +let the rats run all over you and never +know it."</p> + +<p>I turned up my nose—my beautiful, +pointed, handsome nose—and walked away +without a word.</p> + +<p>A few weeks afterwards my master +brought home with him some white rats. +Kerry was out at the time, but my master +showed me the rats through the bars of +their cage. He also showed me a boot +and a stick. Although I have no nose, +I was clever enough to put two and two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +together. Did I mention that there were +two rats?</p> + +<p>We were not allowed to go in the study, +either of us, and my master put the rats +there in their cage on the table.</p> + +<p>That night, when everybody had gone +to bed, I said to Kerry, "I may have +no nose, old man, but I smell rats."</p> + +<p>Kerry sniffed contemptuously.</p> + +<p>"You!" said he, curling himself round +in his basket; "I don't believe you could +smell an elephant if there were one in the +dresser drawer."</p> + +<p>I kept my temper. "I am not feeling +very well, Kerry," I said gently, "or I +would go and see myself. But I am sure +there <i>are</i> rats; I smell them plainly; they +seem to be in the study."</p> + +<p>"Go to sleep," he said; "you're dreaming, +old man."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you go and see?" I said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +"If I didn't feel so very faint, I would +go myself."</p> + +<p>Kerry got out of his basket reluctantly. +"I suppose I ought to go, if you are +quite certain," he said; and he went.</p> + +<p>In less than a minute he returned to the +kitchen, trembling all over with excitement.</p> + +<p>"Chappie!" he said; "Chappie!"</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"There <i>are</i> rats," he whispered hoarsely; +"there are rats in the study."</p> + +<p>"Did you go in?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"No, you know we're forbidden to go +in, but I smelt them quite plainly. I can't +smell them at all here," he said regretfully. +"What a nose you have got, after +all, Chappie!"</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do, Kerry?" +I asked.</p> + +<p>"Why, nothing," he said; "we mustn't +go in the study."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh," I said, "rules weren't made for +great occasions like this; it's your business +to kill rats wherever they are."</p> + +<p>And that misguided wire-haired person +went up. He got them out of the cage, +and killed them.</p> + +<p>The next morning, when the master +came down, he thrashed Kerry within an +inch of his life. He knows I don't touch +rats; and, besides, I was so unwell that +nobody could have suspected me. And +I explained to Kerry that, good as my +nose is, I couldn't possibly tell by the +smell that the rats were white, and, therefore, +sacred. It was not worth while to +mention that I had seen them before.</p> + +<p>Kerry looks up to me now as a dog +with a nose, and I am much happier than +formerly. But Kerry is not nearly so +keen on rats now. I thought somehow +he wouldn't be.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/illus033.png" width="400" height="213" alt="The Tables Turned" title="The Tables Turned" /> +</div> + + +<h2>The Tables Turned</h2> + + +<div class='cap'>WE knew it was a dog, directly +the basket was set down in the +hall. We heard it moving about inside. +We sniffed all round. We asked it why +it didn't come out (the basket was tightly +tied up with string). "Are you having +a good time in there?" said Roy. "Can't +you show your face?" said I. "He's +ashamed of it," said Roy, waving his long +bushy tail. Then he growled a little, and +the dog inside growled too; and then, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>as Roy had an appointment with the +butcher at his own back door, I went out +to see him home.</div> + +<p>"I am so sorry I am going away for +Christmas with my master," he said when +we parted; "but you must introduce that +new dog to me when I come home. We +mustn't stand any of his impudence, eh?"</p> + +<p>I was sorry Roy was going away, for +Roy is my great friend. He always fights +the battles for both of us. I daresay I +might have got into the way of fighting +my own battles, but I never like to interfere +with anybody's pleasure, and Roy's +chief pleasure is fighting. As for me, I +think the delights of that recreation are +over-estimated.</p> + +<p>When my master came home, he opened +the basket, and a dog of Irish family +tumbled out, growling and snarling, and +hid himself under the sofa. They wasted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +more biscuits on him than I have ever +seen wasted on any deserving dog; and +at last they got him out, and he consented +to eat some supper. They gave him a +much better basket than mine, and we +went to bed.</p> + +<p>Next morning, the Irish terrier got out +of his basket, stretched himself, yawned, +and insisted on thrashing me before breakfast.</p> + +<p>"But I am a dog of peace," I said; "I +don't fight."</p> + +<p>"But I do, you see," he answered, "that's +just the difference."</p> + +<p>I tried to defend myself, but he got hold +of one of my feet, and held it up. I sat +up, and howled with pain and indignation.</p> + +<p>"Have you had enough?" he said, and, +without waiting for my answer, proceeded +to give me more.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But I don't fight," I said; "I don't +approve of fighting."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll teach you to have better +manners than to say so," said he, and he +taught me for nearly five minutes.</p> + +<p>"Now then," he said, "are you licked?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," I answered; for indeed I was.</p> + +<p>"Are you sorry you ever tried to fight +with me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," still seemed to be the only thing +to say.</p> + +<p>"And do you approve of fighting?"</p> + +<p>He seemed to wish me to say "yes," +and so I said it.</p> + +<p>"Very well, then," he said; "now we'll +be friends, if you like. Come along; you +have given me an appetite for breakfast."</p> + +<p>"Any society worth cultivating about +here?" he asked, after the meal, in his +overbearing way.</p> + +<p>"I have a very great friend who lives<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +next door," I said; "but I don't know +whether I should care to introduce you to +him."</p> + +<p>He showed his teeth, and asked what +I meant.</p> + +<p>"You see, you might not like him; and, +if you didn't like him——but he's a most +agreeable dog."</p> + +<p>"A good fighter?" asked Rustler.</p> + +<p>I scratched my ear with my hind foot, +and pretended to think.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I see he's not," said Rustler contemptuously; +"well, you shall introduce +him to me directly he comes back."</p> + +<p>Rustler's overbearing and disagreeable +manners so upset me that I was quite thin +when, at the end of the week, Roy came +home. I told him my troubles at once.</p> + +<p>"Bring your Rustler along," he said +grandly, "and introduce him to <i>me</i>."</p> + +<p>So I did. Rustler came along with his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +ears up, and his miserable tail in the air. +Roy lay by his kennel looking the image +of serenity and peacefulness. To judge by +his expression, he might not have had a +tooth in his head.</p> + +<p>Rustler stood with his feet as far apart +as he could get them, and put his head on +one side.</p> + +<p>"I have heard so much about you, Mr. +What's-your-name," he said, "that I have +come to make a closer acquaintance."</p> + +<p>"Delighted, I'm sure," said Roy, who +has splendid manners.</p> + +<p>"If you will get on your legs," said +Rustler rudely, "I will tell you what I +think of you."</p> + +<p>Roy got on his legs, still looking very +humble, and the next minute he had +Rustler by the front foot, and was making +him sit down and scream just as Rustler +had made me. It was a magnificent fight.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Have you had enough?" said Roy, and +then gave him more without waiting for an +answer.</p> + +<p>"I don't want to fight any more," said +Rustler at last; "I am sorry I spoke."</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 265px;"> +<img src="images/illus034.png" width="265" height="300" alt=""It was a magnificent fight."" title=""It was a magnificent fight."" /> +<span class="caption">"It was a magnificent fight."</span> +</div> + +<p>"Then I'll teach you to have more pluck +than to own it," said Roy.</p> + +<p>When he had taught him for some time, +he said, "Are you licked?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes," said Rustler, glaring at me out +his uninjured eye.</p> + +<p>"Are you sorry you tried to fight with +me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Will you promise to leave my little +friend here alone?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>Then Roy let him go. We shook tails +all round, and Rustler and I went home.</p> + +<p>"Poor Rustler," I said, "I know exactly +how you feel."</p> + +<p>"You little humbug," he said, with half +a laugh—for he is not an ill—natured +fellow when you come to know him—"you +managed it very cleverly! and I'm not one +to bear malice; but, I say, your friend is +A1."</p> + +<p>We are now the most united trio, and +Roy and Rustler have licked all the other +dogs in the neighbourhood.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/illus035.png" width="400" height="293" alt="A Noble Dog" title="A Noble Dog" /> +</div> + + + + +<h2>A Noble Dog</h2> + + +<div class='cap'>ROVER would go into the water fast +enough for a bathe or a swim, but +he would not bring anything out. The +children used to throw in sticks, and Rover +and I used to bound in together; but I +would bring the stick back, while he swam +round and round, enjoying himself.</div> + +<p>I am not vain, but I could not help +feeling how much superior I was to such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +a dog as Rover. He is a prize Newfoundland, +and I am only a humble retriever +of obscure family.</p> + +<p>So one day I said to him—</p> + +<p>"Why don't you fetch the sticks out +when the children throw them in?"</p> + +<p>"I don't care about sticks," he said.</p> + +<p>"But it's so grand and clever to be +able to fetch them out."</p> + +<p>"Is it?" he answered.</p> + +<p>"I know it is, for the children tell me +so.</p> + +<p>"Do they?" he said.</p> + +<p>"I wonder you are not ashamed," I +went on, a little nettled by his meekness, +"never to do anything useful. I should +be, if I were you."</p> + +<p>"Ah," he said, "but you see you are +not. Good night."</p> +<div class="figleft" style="width: 276px;"> +<img src="images/illus036.png" width="276" height="400" alt=""He pulled her out some ten yards down the stream."" title=""He pulled her out some ten yards down the stream."" /> +<span class="caption">"He pulled her out some ten yards down the stream."</span> +</div> +<p>We used to spend a great deal of time +by the river. The children loved to play<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +there, and we dogs were always expected +to go with them.</p> + +<p>One day, as I was lying asleep on the +warm grass by the river bank, I heard +a splash. I jumped in, but there was +no stick, only one of the children floating +down on the stream, and screaming +whenever her head came from under the +water.</p> + +<p>I thought it was a new kind of game, +not very interesting, so I swam out again; +and just as I was shaking the water out +of my ears, I heard another great flop, +and there was Rover in the water, holding +on to the child's dress. He pulled her +out some ten yards down the stream; and +oh! if you could have seen the fuss that +the master and mistress and the rest of +the children made of that black and white +spotted person!</p> + + + +<p>"Why, Rover," I said afterwards, when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +we had got home and were talking it +over, "whatever made you think that the +child wanted to be pulled out of the +water?"</p> + +<p>"It's my business to pull people out of +the water," he said.</p> + +<p>"But," I urged, "I always thought you +were too stupid to understand things."</p> + +<p>"Did you?" he said, turning his mild +eyes on me.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you explain to me that +you——"</p> + +<p>"My dear dog," he said, "I never think +it worth while to fetch sticks out of the +water, and I never think it worth while +to explain things to stupid people."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/illus037.png" width="300" height="68" alt="Mushrooms" title="Mushrooms" /> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/illus038.png" width="400" height="322" alt="The Dyer's Dog" title="The Dyer's Dog" /> +</div> + + +<h2>The Dyer's Dog</h2> + + +<div class='cap'>SHE was beautiful, with a strange unearthly +beauty. She had a little +black nose. Her eyes were small, but +bright and full of charm. Her ears were +long and soft, and her tail curled like one +of the ostrich plumes in the window of +the dyer with whom she lived.</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have met many little dogs with noses +as charming, and eyes as bright, and tails +as curly; but never one who, like my +Bessie, was a rich, deep pink all over.</p> + +<p>I lived with a baker then. I was sitting +on his doorstep when she first delighted +my eyes. I ran across the road to give +her good morning. She seemed pleased to +see me. We had a little chat about the +weather and the other dogs in the street, +and about buns, and rats, and the vices of +the domestic cat.</p> + +<p>Her manners and her conversation were +as bright and charming as her eyes. Before +we parted, we had made an appointment +for the next afternoon, and as I said +good-bye, I ventured to ask—</p> + +<p>"How is it, lady, that you are of such +a surpassingly beautiful colour?"</p> + +<p>"It is natural to our family," she said, +tossing her pretty ears. "My mother was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +the Royal Crimson Dog at the Court of +the King of India."</p> + +<p>I bowed with deep respect and withdrew, +for I heard them calling me at home.</p> + +<p>The next day I looked for my beautiful +pink-coloured lady, but I looked in vain. +Instead, a dog of a bright sky-blue, with +a yellow ribbon round its neck, sat in the +sun on the dyer's doorstep. Yet, could I +be mistaken? That nose, those ears, +that feathery tail, those bright and beaming +eyes!</p> + +<p>I went across. She received me with +some embarrassment, which disappeared as +I talked gaily of milk and guinea pigs, and +the habits of the cats'-meat man. Before +we parted I said—</p> + +<p>"You have changed your dress."</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said, "it's so common and +vulgar to wear always one colour."</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 252px;"> +<img src="images/illus039.png" width="252" height="350" alt=""Sat in the sun on the dyer's doorstep."" title=""Sat in the sun on the dyer's doorstep."" /> +<span class="caption">"Sat in the sun on the dyer's doorstep."</span> +</div> + +<p>"But I thought"—I hesitated—"that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> +your mother was the Royal Crimson Dog +at the Court of——"</p> + +<p>"So she was," replied the lady promptly, +"but my father was the well-known sky-blue +terrier at the Crystal Palace Dog +Show. I resemble both my parents."</p> + +<p>I retired, fascinated by her high breeding +and graceful explanations. Through my +dreams that night wandered a long procession +of blue and crimson dogs.</p> + +<p>The next day, when I hurried to keep +the appointment she had been good enough +to make with me, I found her a deep +purple. Again I concealed my surprise, +while we talked of subjects of common +interest, of dog—collars and chains and +kennels, of biscuits, bones, and the outrage +of the muzzling order; and at last I said—</p> + +<p>"You have changed your dress again. +Your mother was the Royal——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't," she said, "it's so tiresome<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +to keep repeating things. My father was +red and my mother was blue, and I myself, +as you see, am purple. Don't you +know that crimson and blue make purple? +Any child with a shilling box of paints +could have told you that."</p> + +<p>I thanked her, and came away. Purple +seemed to me the most beautiful colour in +the world.</p> + +<p>But the next day she was green—as green +as grass. After the customary exchange of +civilities, I remarked firmly—</p> + +<p>"Blue and crimson may make purple, +but——"</p> + +<p>"But green is my favourite colour," she +said briskly. "I suppose a dog is not to +be bound down by the prejudices of its +parents?"</p> + +<p>I went away very sadly, and, as I went, +I noticed that there were some curtains in +the dyer's window of exactly the same tint<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +as my friend's dress. The next day she +was gone.</p> + +<p>I sought her in vain. The day after, +a French poodle appeared on the dyer's +doorstep, dressed in stripes of orange and +scarlet. I went boldly across to him.</p> + +<p>"Good morning, old man; how do you +come to be that colour?" I said.</p> + +<p>"They dye me so," he answered gloomily. +"It's a dreadful lot for a dog that respects +himself."</p> + +<p>I never saw Bessie but once again. She +seemed then to be living with a tinsmith, +and her colour was a gingery white.</p> + +<p>I hope I am too much of a gentleman +to taunt any lady in misfortune, but I +couldn't help saying—</p> + +<p>"Why don't you wear any of your beautiful +coloured dresses now?"</p> + +<p>She answered me curtly, for she saw +that she had ceased to charm.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I gave up wearing my pretty dresses," +she said, "because silly people asked me +so many questions about them."</p> + +<p>As usual, I accepted her explanations in +silence; but, when I see the poodle opposite, +in his varying glories of blue, and green, +and orange, and purple, I can't help thinking +that perhaps my fair Bessie did not +always speak the truth.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 167px;"> +<img src="images/illus040.png" width="167" height="300" alt="The dyer's dog" title="The dyer's dog" /> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/illus041.png" width="400" height="211" alt="The Vain Setter" title="The Vain Setter" /> +</div> + + + + +<h2>The Vain Setter</h2> + + +<div class='cap'>OURS is one of the most ancient +and noble families in the land, and +I contend that family pride is an exalted +sentiment. I still hold to this belief, in +spite of all the sufferings that it has brought +upon me.</div> + +<p>My father, whose ancestor came over +with the Conqueror, has taken prizes at +many a county show; and my mother, +the handsomest of her sex, took one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +prize, and would have taken more, but +for the unfortunate accident of having her +tail cut off in a door.</p> + +<p>I early determined to be worthy of my +high breeding and undoubted descent. A +setter should have long, silky ears. I made +my brother pull mine gently for an hour +at a time. In order to lengthen them, I +combed their fringes with my paws.</p> + +<p>My father's brow is lofty and narrow. +The unfortunate accident which removed +my mother from public life, suggested to +me a way of cultivating our most famous +family characteristic. I used to place my +head between the doorpost and the door, +while my brother leaned gently against +the latter, so as to press my skull to the +requisite shape. My legs, I knew, ought +to be straight. I never indulged in any +of those field-sports, to which my brother +early turned a light-hearted attention; for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +I knew that undue exercise tends to curve +the legs.</p> + +<p>My tail was my special care. Regardless +of comfort, I twisted myself into the +shape of a capital O, and, holding the end +of my tail gently, but firmly, in my teeth, +I stretched myself and it.</p> + +<p>So much pains devoted to such a noble +object could not be thrown away. I became +the handsomest setter in the three +counties.</p> + +<p>My brother, in the meantime, grew expert +in the coarse sporting exercises to which +he devoted his energies. He had no pride. +He tramped the mud of the fields; he tore +his ears in bramble bushes; and I have +seen him so far lose all sense of our family's +dignity as to grovel at the feet of his master, +and raise one of his paws, to indicate that +birds were near—common birds; I believe +they are called partridges.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You might as well," I said to him +bitterly—"you might as well have been +born a pointer."</p> + +<p>"Why not?" he said. "I know a +pointer," he went on, laughing in his merry, +careless way—"I know a pointer who lives +at the Pines Farm. A capital fellow he is."</p> + +<p>"My dear boy," I said, "just come and +squeeze my head in the door a little, will +you? and let me tell you that for one of +our family to associate with a pointer is +social ruin—common, coarse, smooth-coated +persons, related, I should suppose, to the +vulgar plum-pudding dog."</p> + +<p>My brother only laughed; but he was +a good-natured fellow, and pinched my head +in the door until my forehead could stand +the strain no longer.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 268px;"> +<img src="images/illus042.png" width="268" height="400" alt=""I took the first prize."" title=""I took the first prize."" /> +<span class="caption">"I took the first prize."</span> +</div> + +<p>I was sent to the Crystal Palace Dog +Show; and, as I looked round on the +hundreds of dogs of all families and nationalities,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +I breathed a sigh of contentment, +and blessed the fate that had made me, in +this England of ours, a well-born English +setter. My brother was not at the Show, +of course; but I think even he would have +admired me if he could have seen how far +superior I was to all about me. Of course, +I took the first prize. My mission was fulfilled: +my family pride was satisfied. The +judges unanimously pronounced me to be +the most perfect and beautiful sporting +dog in the whole Show. My master, wild +with delight, patted my silky forehead, and +then turned aside to talk with a stout +gentleman in gaiters.</p> + +<p>I thought of what my life would be—one +long, joyous round of shows, applause, +pats on the head from a grateful master, +delicious food and first prizes.</p> + +<p>But my master's base nature—his ancestors +came over with George and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +Hanoverians—struck all my hopes to the +ground. I woke from my dream of triumph +to find myself sold to the stout man in +gaiters.</p> + +<p>I never saw my brother again. I was +never able to tell my fond and doting mother +that I, like her, had taken a prize. I was +never able to chat with my father over a +bone, comparing with him experiences of +the show bench. The stout, gaitered man +took me away into a far country.</p> + +<p>The next morning he took me out into +the fields, and looked at me from time to +time, as if he expected me to do something. +Unwilling to disappoint him, I sat down +and began my usual exercise for lengthening +my tail. He at once struck me violently. +We went a little farther, and I noticed that +he looked more and more displeased; but I +could not imagine what it could be that so +distressed him. Presently one of those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> +common partridge birds had the impertinence +to fly out close to me. I caught it +at once, and looked round for applause. +There only came another shower of blows.</p> + +<p>"What's the good of your taking prizes," +he said, "if you're such an idiot in the +field?—might as well have a greyhound."</p> + +<p>"I wish you had," I said under my +breath.</p> + +<p>I spent a week in torment, and then it +occurred to me that this low-born, gaitered +person would have been better pleased with +my brother. So I tried to recall the tricks +with which my brother had particularly aggravated +me; and, the next time I smelt a +partridge, I lay down, as I had seen my +brother do, and lifted a foolish foot. I was +rewarded with a pat and encouragement.</p> + +<p>I have now sunk entirely to my brother's +level. My master pronounces me to be a +most excellent sporting dog. But I shall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +never forget the blows and angry words +that were necessary to make me renounce +my ideal of what a setter should be; and +deep in my heart I still cherish, with passionate +devotion, my views on duty, and +my honourable family pride.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 276px;"> +<img src="images/illus043.png" width="276" height="300" alt="Flying partridges" title="Flying partridges" /> +</div> + + +<div class='copyright'><br /><br /><br /><br /> +Printed by <span class="smcap">Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.</span><br /> +Edinburgh & London<br /> +</div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3> +<p>Some illustration placement has been adjusted to prevent them from interrupting +paragraphs. As part of this movement, at times the illustration list link will go to the illustration +instead of the no longer existing actual page. I.E. the illustration entitled: "Now the back of a cow is the last place where you would look for a cat" +has been moved from 33 to page 35.</p></div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pussy and Doggy Tales, by Edith Nesbit + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUSSY AND DOGGY TALES *** + +***** This file should be named 27190-h.htm or 27190-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/1/9/27190/ + +Produced by Suzanne Lybarger and Emmy. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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diff --git a/27190-h/images/illus042.png b/27190-h/images/illus042.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..83553a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/27190-h/images/illus042.png diff --git a/27190-h/images/illus043.png b/27190-h/images/illus043.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3dcd6fd --- /dev/null +++ b/27190-h/images/illus043.png diff --git a/27190.txt b/27190.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a85e14 --- /dev/null +++ b/27190.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2168 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pussy and Doggy Tales, by Edith Nesbit + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Pussy and Doggy Tales + +Author: Edith Nesbit + +Illustrator: L. Kemp-Welch + +Release Date: November 7, 2008 [EBook #27190] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUSSY AND DOGGY TALES *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Lybarger and Emmy. + + + + + + +Pussy and Doggy Tales + + + + + Pussy + and Doggy + Tales + + + By + E. Nesbit + + With + Illustrations + by + L. Kemp-Welch + + + London + J. M. Dent & Co. + Aldine House + 29 & 30 Bedford Street + 1899 W.C. + + + + + Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. + At the Ballantyne Press + + + + +Contents + + +Pussy Tales + + PAGE + TOO CLEVER BY HALF 3 + + THE WHITE PERSIAN 16 + + A POWERFUL FRIEND 26 + + A SILLY QUESTION 40 + + THE SELFISH PUSSY 47 + + MEDDLESOME PUSSY 54 + + NINE LIVES 62 + + +Doggy Tales + + PAGE + TINKER 79 + + RATS! 95 + + THE TABLES TURNED 100 + + A NOBLE DOG 108 + + THE DYER'S DOG 114 + + THE VAIN SETTER 123 + + + + + +List of Illustrations + + PAGE + "_I may have no nose, old man, but I smell rats_" _Frontispiece_ + + _Page_ + _Nurse dried the poor, dear, cruelly-used kittens a little_ 11 + + _She was very beautiful_ 17 + + _I who superintended the writing of his letters_ 23 + + _So much better to go to sleep in front of it_ 27 + + _Now the back of a cow is the last place where you + would look for a cat_ 33 + + "_I don't believe a word of it_" 43 + + _I was picked up in the street by a child_ 49 + + _The dog saw me off_ 53 + + _Seeing the tea set out, I got on the table_ 59 + + _Sitting up, and beginning to wash the kitten's face + very hard indeed_ 73 + + _The man's arm dragged through the window-pane, + and Tinker hanging on to his fingers_ 89 + + _It was a magnificent fight_ 106 + + _He pulled her out some ten yards down the stream_ 111 + + _Sat in the sun on the dyer's doorstep_ 117 + + _I took the first prize_ 127 + + + + +Pussy Tales + + + + +Too Clever by Half + + +"TELL us a story, mother," said the youngest kitten but three. + +"You've heard all my stories," said the mother cat, sleepily turning +over in the hay. + +"Then make a new one," said the youngest kitten, so pertly that Mrs. +Buff boxed her ears at once--but she laughed too. Did you ever hear a +cat laugh? People say that cats often have occasion to do it. + +"I do know one story," she said; "but I'm not sure that it's true, +though it was told me by a most respectable brindled gentleman, a great +friend of my dear mother's. He said he was a second cousin twenty-nine +times removed of Mrs. Tabby White, the lady the story is about." + +"Oh, do tell it," said all the kittens, sitting up very straight and +looking at their mother with green anxious eyes. + +"Very well," she said kindly; "only if you interrupt I shall leave off." + +So there was silence in the barn, except for Mrs. Buff's voice and the +soft sound of pleased purring which the kittens made as they listened to +the enchanting tale. + + * * * * * + +"Mrs. Tabby White seems to have been as clever a cat as ever went +rat-catching in a pair of soft-soled shoes. She always knew just where a +mouse would peep out of the wainscot, and she had her soft-sharp paw on +him before he had time to know that he was not alone in the room. She +knew how to catch nice breakfasts for herself and her children, a trick +I will teach you, my dears, when the spring comes; she used to lie quite +quietly among the ivy on the wall, and then take the baby birds out of +the nest when the grown-up birds had gone to the grub-shop. Mrs. Tabby +White was very clever, as I said--so clever that presently she was not +satisfied with being at the very top of the cat profession. + +"'Cat-people have more sense than human people, of course,' she said to +herself; 'but still there are some things one might learn from them. I +must watch and see how they do things.' + +"So next morning when the cook gave Mrs. Tabby White her breakfast, she +noticed that cook poured the milk out of a jug into a saucer. That +afternoon Tabby felt thirsty, but instead of putting her head into the +jug and drinking in the usual way,--you know--she tilted up the jug to +pour the milk out as she had seen the cook do. But cats' paws, though +they are so strong to catch rats and mice and birds, are too weak to +hold big brown jugs. The nasty deceitful jug fell off the dresser and +broke itself. 'Just to spite me, I do believe,' said Mrs. Tabby. And the +milk was all spilled. + +"'Now how on earth could that jug have been broken?' said cook, when she +came in. + +"'It must have been the cat,' said the kitchenmaid; and she was quite +right, but nobody believed her. + +"Then Mrs. Tabby White noticed that human people slept in big +soft-cushioned white beds, instead of sleeping on the kitchen +hearth-rug, or in the barn, like cat people. So she said to her children +one evening-- + +"'My dears, we are going to move into a new house.' + +"And the kittens were delighted, and they all went upstairs very +quietly, and crept into the very best human bed. But unfortunately that +bed had been got ready for a human uncle to sleep in; and when he found +the cats there he turned them out, not gently, and threw boots at them +till they fled, pale with fright to the ends of their pretty tails. And +next morning he told the Mistress of the house that horrid CATS had been +in his bed, and he vowed that he would never pass another night under a +roof where such things were possible. Mrs. Tabby White was very +glad--because no lady can wish for the visits of a person who throws +boots at her. But the Mistress of the house said sadly, 'Oh, Tabby!--you +have lost us a fortune!' And Tabby for all her cleverness didn't +understand what the Mistress meant, but went on purring proudly, and +wondering what clever thing she could do next. And _I_ don't know what +it meant either, so don't you interrupt with silly questions. + +"'I think we ought to wear shoes,' was the next thing Mrs. Tabby White +said; but all the human shoes were too big for her. However, there was a +nice pair of salmon-coloured kid shoes, quite new, belonging to the +human child's big doll--and Mrs. Tabby White put them on her eldest +kitten's little browny feet. + +"'Now, Brindle,' she said (he was named after the gentleman who told me +the story), 'you are grander than any kitten ever was before.' And at +first Brindle felt pleased--then he tried to feel pleased--then he knew +he wasn't pleased at all. Then the shoes began to hurt him horribly, so +he mewed sadly; and Mrs. Tabby White boxed his ears softly--as mother +cats do; _you_ know how I mean! But when she was asleep he took off the +pink shoes and bit them to pieces. And Nurse slapped him for it. Poor +Mrs. Tabby White was very miserable when she saw her son being slapped: +for it is one thing to box your son's ears (softly, as mother cats do; +_you_ know how I mean), and quite another to see another person do +it--heavily, as is the way with nursemaids. + +"But the last and greatest effort Mrs. Tabby White made to imitate human +manners was one Saturday night. + +"She saw the human child have its bath before the nursery fire, with hot +water, pink soap, dry towels, and much fussing, and she said to herself, +'Why should I waste hours every day in washing my children with my +little white paws and my little pink tongue, when this human child can +be made clean in ten minutes with this big bath. If I had more time I +could learn to be cleverer, and I should end by being the most +wonderful Cat in all the world.' So she sat, and watched, and waited. + +"When the human child was in bed and asleep, Nurse went down to her +supper, leaving the bath to be cleared away later, for it was a hot +supper of baked onions and toasted cheese, and if you don't go to that +supper directly it is ready, you may as well not go at all, for it won't +be worth eating--at least so I have heard the kitchenmaid say. + +"Mrs. Tabby White waited till she heard the last of Nurse's steps on the +stairs below, and then she put both her cat-children into the tub, and +washed them with rose-scented soap and a Turkey sponge. At first they +thought it very good fun, but presently the soap got in their eyes and +they were frightened of the sponge, and they cried, mewing piteously, to +be taken out. I don't know how she could have done it, I couldn't +have treated a kitten of _mine_ like that. + +"When she took them out, Mrs. Tabby tried to dry them with the soft +towel, but somehow catskin is not so easy to dry as child-skin, and the +little cats began to shiver, and moan: 'Oh, mother, we were so nice and +warm, and now we are so cold! Why is it? What have we done? Were we +naughty?' + +"'Drat the cats!' said Nurse, when she came up from supper, and found +Mrs. Tabby White trying to warm her kittens against her own comfortable +fur; 'if they haven't tumbled in the bath!' + +"Nurse dried the poor, dear, cruelly-used kittens a little (her hands +were bigger than Mrs. Tabby's, so she could do it better), and put them +in a basket with flannel, and next day Tabby-Kit was quite well, though +rather ragged looking; but Brindle had taken a chill, and for days he +hung between life and death. Poor Mrs. Tabby was like a wild cat with +anxiety, and when at last Brindle was well again (or nearly, for he +always had a slight cough after that), Mrs. Tabby White said to her +children, 'My darlings, I was wrong, I was a silly old cat.' + +"'No,' purred the cat-children, 'darling mother, you were always the +best of cats.' + +"Mrs. Tabby kissed them both, for of course any one would be pleased +that her children should think her the best of cats, but in her heart +she knew well enough how silly she had been. + +"Then she set about washing the kittens, not with pink soap and white +towel this time, but with white paws and pink tongue in the good +old-fashioned way." + + * * * * * + +"Thank you, mother," said all the kittens; "what a nice horrible story." + +"What is the moral?" asked the youngest kitten but three. + +"The moral," said Mrs. Buffy, "is, 'There is such a thing as being too +clever by half.' I'm not sure about the story being true, but I know the +moral is. Why, it's nearly tea-time. Come along, children, and get your +tea." + +So they all crept quietly away to catch the necessary mice, and the +youngest was so afraid of being too clever by half, that she would never +have caught a mouse at all, if her mother had not boxed her +ears--softly, as mother cats do; you know how I mean! + + + + +The White Persian + + +I WAS a handsome, discreet, middle-aged, respectable, responsible, +domesticated tabby cat. I was humble. I knew my place, and kept it. My +place was the place nearest the fire in winter, or close to the sunny +window in summer. There was nothing to trouble me--not so much as a fly +in the cream, or an error in the leaving of the cat's meat, until some +thoughtless person gave my master the white Persian cat. + +She was very beautiful in her soft, foolish, namby-pamby, blue-eyed +way. Of course, she did not understand English, and when they called +"Puss, puss," she only ran under the sofa, for she thought they were +teasing her. She was mistress only of two languages--Persian and +cat-talk. + +My master did not think of this. He called her "Puss"; he called her +"Pussy"; he called her "Tittums" and "Pussy then"; and a thousand +endearments that had formerly been lavished on me were vainly showered +on this unresponsive stranger. But when he found she was cold to all of +them, my master sighed. + +"Poor thing!" he said; "she is deaf." + +I sat by the bright fender, and washed my face, and sleeked my pretty +paws, and looked on. My master gave up taking very much notice of the +new cat. But I had a fear that he might learn Persian or cat-talk, and +make friends with her; so I resolved that the best thing for me would be +a complete change in the Persian's behaviour--such a change as should +make it impossible for her ever to be friends with him again; so I said +to her: + +"You wonder that our master looks coldly at you. Perhaps you don't know +that in England a white cat is supposed to mew twenty times longer and +to purr twenty times louder than a cat of any other colour?" + +"Oh, thank you so much for telling me," she said gratefully. "I didn't +know. As it happens, I have a very good voice." + +And the next time she wanted her milk, she mewed in a voice you could +have heard twenty miles away. Poor master was so astonished that he +nearly dropped the saucer. When she had finished the milk, she jumped +upon his knee, and he began to stroke her. She nearly gave herself a +fit in her efforts to purr loud enough to please him. At first he was +pleased, but when the purring got louder and louder, the poor man put +his hands to his ears and said, "Oh dear! oh dear! this is worse than a +whole hive of bees." + +Still he put her down gently, and I congratulated her on having done so +well. She did better. She was an affectionate person, though foolish, +and in her anxiety to do what was expected of a cat of her colour in +England, she practised day and night. + +Her purr was already the loudest I have heard from any cat, but she +fancied she could improve her mewing; and she mewed in the garden, she +mewed in the house, she mewed at meals, she mewed at prayers, she mewed +when she was hungry to show that she wanted food, and she mewed when +she had had it to show her gratitude. + +"Poor thing," said the master to a friend who had come to see him, "she +is so deaf she can't hear the noise she makes." + +Of course, I understood what he said, but she hadn't yet picked up a +word of English; and if the master _had_ begun to learn Persian, I don't +suppose he had got much beyond the alphabet. + +The Persian's mew was rather feebler that day, because she had a cold. + +"I don't think it's so bad," said his friend. "If you really wanted to +get rid of her, she is very handsome; she would take a prize anywhere." + +"She is yours," said the master instantly; and the strange gentleman +took her away in a basket. + +That evening it was I who sat on my master's knee--I who superintended +the writing of his letters on the green-covered writing table--I who +had all the milk that was left over from his tea. + +In a few days he had a letter. I read it when he laid it down; and if +you don't believe cats can read, I can only say that it is just as easy +to read a letter like the master's as it is to write a story like this. +The letter begged my master to take back the fair Persian. + +"Her howls," the letter went on, "become worse and worse. The poor +creature is, as you say, too deaf to be tolerated." + +My master wrote back instantly to say that he would rather be condemned +to keep a dog than have the fair Persian within his doors again. + +Then by return of post came a pitiful letter, begging for help and +mercy, and the friend came again to tea. I trembled lest my foreign +rival should come back to live with me. But she didn't. The next morning +my master took me on his knee, and, stroking me gently, said-- + +"Ah, Tabbykins! no more Persians for us. I have sent her to my deaf +aunt. She will be delighted with her--a most handsome present--and as +they are both deaf, the fair Persian's shrieks will hurt nobody. + +"But I will have no more prize cats," he said, pouring out some cream +for me in his own saucer. "You know how to behave; I will never have any +cat but you." + +I do, and he never has. + + + + +A Powerful Friend + + +MY mother was the best of cats. She washed us kittens all over every +morning, and at odd times during the day she would wash little bits of +us, say an ear, or a paw, or a tail-tip, and she was very anxious about +our education. I am afraid I gave her a great deal of trouble, for I was +rather stout and heavy, and did not take a very active or graceful part +in the exercises which she thought good for us. + +Our gymnasium was the kitchen hearth-rug. There was always a good fire +in the grate, and it seemed to me so much better to go to sleep in +front of it than to run round after my own tail, or even my mother's, +though, of course, that was a great honour. + +As for running after the reel of cotton when the cook dropped it, or +playing with the tassel of the blind-cord, or pretending that there were +mice inside the paper bag which I knew to be empty, I confess that I had +no heart or imagination for these diversions. + +"Of course, you know best, mother," I used to say; "but it does seem to +me a dreadful waste of time. We might be much better employed." + +"How better employed?" asked my mother severely. + +"Why," I answered, "in eating or sleeping." + +At first my mother used to box my ears, and insist on my learning such +little accomplishments as she thought necessary for my station in life. + +"You see," she would say, "all this playing with tails and reels and +balls of worsted is a preparation for the real business of life." + +"What is that?" asked my sister. + +"Mouse-catching," said my mother very earnestly. + +"There are no mice here," I said, stretching myself. + +"No, but you will not always be here; and if you practise the little +tricks I show you now with the ball of worsted and the tips of our +tails, then, when the great hour comes, and a career is open to you, and +you see before you the glorious prize--the MOUSE--you will be quick +enough and clever enough to satisfy the highest needs of your nature." + +"And supposing we don't play with our tails and the balls of worsted?" I +said. + +"Then," said my mother bitterly, "you may as well lie down for the mice +to, run over you." + +Thus at first she used to try to show me how foolish it was to think of +nothing but eating and sleeping; but after a while she turned all her +attention to teaching my brother and sister, and they were apt pupils. +They despised nothing small enough to be moved by their paws, which +could give them an opportunity of practising. They did not mind making +themselves ridiculous--a thing which has been always impossible with me. +I have seen Tabby, my sister, in the garden, playing with dead leaves, +as excited and pleased as though they had been the birds which she +foolishly pretended that they were. + +I thought her very silly then, but I lived to wish that I had taken half +as much trouble with my lessons as she did with hers. My mother was very +pleased with her, especially after she caught the starlings. This was a +piece of cleverness which my sister invented and carried through +entirely out of her own head. She made friends with one of the cows at +the farm near us, and used to go into the cowhouse and jump on the cow's +back. Then when the cow was sent out into the field to get her grassy +breakfast, my sister used to go with her, riding on her back. + +Now birds are always very much on the look-out for cats, and, if they +can help it, never allow one of us to come within half-a-dozen yards of +them without taking to those silly wings of theirs. I never could see +why birds should have wings--so unnecessary. + +But birds are not afraid of cows, for cows are very poor sportsmen, and +never care to kill and eat anything. + +Now the back of a cow is the last place where you would think of looking +for a cat; so when the starlings saw the cow coming, they didn't think +it worth while to use their wings, and when the cow was quite close to +the birds--beautiful, fat, delightful birds--- my sister used to pick +out with her eye the fattest starling, and then leap suddenly from the +cow's back on to her prey. She never missed. + +"I have never known," said my poor mother with tears of pride in her +green eyes--"I have never known a cat do anything so clever." + +"It's all your doing, mother dear," said my sister prettily; "if you +hadn't taught me so well when I was little, I should never have thought +of it." And they kissed each other affectionately. + +I showed my claws and growled. My mother shook her tabby head. + +"O Buff," she said, "if you had only been willing to learn when you were +little, you might have been as clever as your sister, instead of +being the great anxiety you are to me." + +"And why am I an anxiety?" I said, ruffling up my fur and my tail, for I +was very angry. + +"Because you are useless," she said, "and not particularly handsome; and +when a cat is useless and not particularly handsome, they sometimes----" + +"What?" I said, turning pale to the ends of my ears. + +"They sometimes drown it, Buff," she said in a whisper, and turned away +to hide her feelings. + +Judge of my own next day when they came into the kitchen and took me up +and put me into a basket. I knew all about drowning. These tales of +horror are told at twilight time in all cat nurseries, and I knew that +if three large stones were put into the basket with me, I might +consider my fate sealed. + +It was very uncomfortable in the basket. They carried me upside-down +part of the way, and it was draughty and hard; but, so far, there were +no stones. When they took off the lid of the basket, I found myself +under the shade of a huge moving mountain, that seemed about to fall and +crush me. It was an elephant. + +I found that the people where my mother lived had given me to the cook, +who had given me to her cousin, who was engaged to be married to a young +man whose brother-in-law was the elephant's keeper, and so I found +myself in the elephant's house. + +There was no milk for me--no heads and tails of fish--no scraps of +meat--no delicious unforeseen morsels of butter. + +The elephant was very kind to me. He had once had a friend exactly like +me, he explained, but had unfortunately walked upon him, and now I had +come to fill the vacant place in his large heart. + +I resolved at once that he should not walk upon me; but in order to +insure this, I was compelled to enter upon a more active existence than +I had ever known. + +When I asked what I was expected to eat, he said-- + +"Mice, I suppose; or you can have some of my buns if you like. You might +like them at first, but you will soon get tired of them." + +But I couldn't eat buns. I was never, from a kitten, fond of such +things. I got very hungry. Again and again the mice rushed through the +straw, and I, heavily, helplessly, in my unpractised way, rushed after +them. At first the elephant laughed heartily at my inexpertness; but +when he saw how hungry and wretched I was, he said-- + +"They won't give you any milk, and if they find you don't catch the mice +they will take you away from me. Now you are a nice little cat, and I +don't want to part with you. We must try and arrange something." + +Then the great thought of my life came to me. + +"You walked on the other cat," I said. + +"What?" he trumpeted in a voice of thunder. + +"I beg your pardon," I said hastily; "I didn't mean to hurt your +feelings"--and, indeed, I could not have imagined that an elephant would +have been so thin-skinned "but a great idea has come to me. Why +shouldn't you walk on mice--not too hard, but just so that I could eat +them afterwards?" + +"Well," said the elephant, showing his long tusks in a smile, "you are +not very handsome, and you are not very brisk; but you certainly have +brains, my dear." + +He dropped his great foot as he spoke. When he lifted it, there lay a +mouse. I had an excellent supper; and before the week's end I heard the +keeper say, "This cat has certainly done the trick. She has kept the +mice down. We must keep her." + +They have kept me. They even go so far as to allow me to moisten my mice +with milk. + +There is no moral to this story, except that you should do as you are +told, and learn everything you can while you are young. It is true that +I get on very well without having done so, but then you may not have my +good luck. It is not every cat who can get an elephant to catch her mice +for her. + + + + +A Silly Question + + +"HOW do you come to be white, when all your brothers are tabby, my +dear?" Dolly asked her kitten. As she spoke, she took it away from the +ball it was playing with, and held it up and looked in its face as Alice +did with the Red Queen. + +"I'll tell you, if you'll keep it a secret, and not hold me so tight," +the kitten answered. + +Dolly was not surprised to hear the kitten speak, for she had read her +fairy books, as all good children should, and she knew that all +creatures answer if one only speaks to them properly. So she held the +kitten more comfortably and the tale began. + +"You must know, my dear Dolly," the kitten began--and Dolly thought it +dreadfully familiar--"you must know that when we were very small we all +set out to seek our fortunes." + +"Why," interrupted Dolly, "you were all born and brought up in our barn! +I used to see you every day." + +"Quite so," said the kitten; "we sought our fortune every night, and it +turned out to be mice, mostly. Well, one night I was seeking mine, when +I came to a hole in the door that I had never noticed before. I crept +through it, and found myself in a beautiful large room. It smelt +delicious. There was cheese there, and fish, and cream, and mice, and +milk. It was the most lovely room you can think of." + +"There's no such room----" began Dolly. + +"Did I say there was?" asked the kitten. "I only said I found myself +there. Well, I stayed there some time. It was the happiest hour of my +life. But, as I was washing my face after one of the most delicious +herring's heads you ever tasted, I noticed that on nails all round the +room were hung skins--and they were cat skins," it added slowly. "Well +may you tremble!" + +Dolly hadn't trembled. She had only shaken the kitten to make it speak +faster. + +"Well, I stood there rooted to the ground with horror; and then came a +sort of horrible scramble-rush, and a barking and squeaking, and a +terrible monster stood before me. It was something like a dog and +something like a broom, something like being thrown out of the larder by +cook--I can't describe it. It caught me up, and in less than a moment +it had hung my tabby skin on a nail behind the door. + +"I crept out of that lovely fairyland a cat without a skin. And that's +how I came to be white." + +"I don't quite see----" began Dolly. + +"No? Why, what would your mother do if some one took off your dress, and +hung it on a nail where she could not get it?" + +"Buy me another, I suppose." + +"Exactly. But when my mother took me to the cat-skin shop, they were, +unfortunately, quite out of tabby dresses in my size, so I had to have a +white one." + +"I don't believe a word of it," said Dolly. + +"No? Well, I'm sure it's as good a story as you could expect in answer +to such a silly question." + +"But you were always----" + +"Oh, well!" said the kitten, showing its claws, "if you know more about +it than I do, of course there's no more to be said. Perhaps you could +tell me why your hair is brown?" + +"I was born so, I believe," said Dolly gently. + +The kitten put its nose in the air. + +"You've got no imagination," it said. + +"But, Kitty, really and truly, without pretending, you _were_ born +white, you know." + +"If you know all about it, why did you ask me? At any rate, you can't +expect me to remember whether I was born white or not. I was too young +to notice such things." + +"Now you are in fun," said poor Dolly, bewildered. + +The kitten bristled with indignation. + +"What! you really don't believe me? I'll never speak to you again," it +said. And it never has. + + + + + +The Selfish Pussy + + +"YES," said the tortoiseshell cat to the grey one, as she thoughtfully +washed her left ear, "I have lived in a great many families. You see, +it's not every trade that deserves to have a cat about the place. My +first master was a shoemaker, and I lived with him happily enough, until +one morning in winter, when I found the wicked man sewing strips of--let +me whisper--_cat's fur_ on a pair of lady's slippers! + +"I mewed as I saw it, and he, thinking I wanted milk, put down his work +to get me some, for he was fond enough of me. I drank the milk, and then +I ran away. I could not live with such a man. + +"My next home was in a garret, with a half-starved musician who made +violins. A violin is a musical instrument that miauls when you touch it +just as we cats do, and it was amusing to live with a man who could make +things with voices like my own. He was very poor, and often had not +enough to eat, but he always got me my cat's-meat; and when there was no +fire on, he nursed me to keep me warm. But one day I learned, from the +talk of one of his friends (a man as lean as himself) who came to see +him, that the strings of the violins were taken from the bodies of dead +cats. No wonder the voices were like my brothers' voices, since they +were stolen from my brothers' bodies. He might take my own voice some +day. + +"So next day, after the cat's-meat man had called, I walked quietly out, +and never saw that bad violin-maker again. + +"I was picked up in the street by a child, who took me home to her +mother's house. They were rich folk; they had curtains, and cushions, +and couches, and they did very little but nurse me, or sometimes, not +wishing to hurt his feelings, the Italian greyhound. But they liked _me_ +best, of course. They were a noble family; and I should have been living +with them still, but one year, when they went to the seaside, they +forgot to provide for my board and lodging, and I had to go into trade +again. + +"'Milk ahoy! milk ahoy!' I heard that well-known music as I sat lonely +on the doorstep of the deserted mansion in the Square. The milkman +looked lonely too; so I thought it would be only kind to go home with +him. I did. He was a very well-meaning man, but his tastes were low. He +took skim milk in his tea, and gave me the same. Of course, after that, +I could not stay another hour under his roof. + +"I tried two or three other houses, and I could have been happy with a +very nice butcher who kept a corner shop, but he kept a dog also, a dog +that no cat in her senses would live in the same street with; so I came +away--rather hurriedly, I remember--and the dog saw me off. Now I live +with a worker in silver, and I have cream every day; and when he makes a +cream-jug, and I remember what will be put in it some day, I lick my +lips, and think what a happy cat I am to live with such a good man. +Where do you live?" + +"With a poor widow, in an attic. I never have enough to eat." And, +indeed, the grey cat was thin. + +"Why do you stay with her?" + +"Because I love her," said the grey cat. + +"Love!" replied the tortoiseshell cat. + +"Nonsense! I never heard of such a thing." + +"Poor puss!" said the parrot in the window. The grey cat thought it was +speaking to the tortoiseshell, and the tortoiseshell was certain it +meant the grey. Which do _you_ think it meant? + + + + +Meddlesome Pussy + + +I WAS separated from my mother at a very early age, and sent out into +the world alone, long before I had had time to learn to say "please" and +"thank you," and to shut the door after me, and little things like that. +One of the things I had not learned to understand was the difference +between milk in a saucer on the floor, and milk in a jug on the table. +Other cats tell me there is a difference, but I can't see it. The +difference is not in the taste of the milk--that is precisely the same. + +It is not so easy to get the milk out of a jug, and I should have +thought some credit would attach to a cat who performed so clever a +feat. The world, my dear, thinks otherwise. This difference of opinion +has, through life, been a fruitful source of sorrow to me. I cannot tell +you how much I have suffered for it. The first occasion I remember was a +beautiful day in June, when the sun shone, and all the world looked +fair. I was destined to remember that day. + +The fishmonger (talk of statues to heroes! I would raise one to that +noble man!)--the fishmonger, I say, brought his usual little present to +_me_. I let the cook take it and prepare it for my eating. I am always +generous enough to permit the family to be served first--and then I have +my dinner quietly at the back door. + +Well, he had brought the salmon, and I followed the cook in, to see +that it wasn't put where those dogs could get it; and then, the +dining-room door being opened, I walked in. The breakfast things were +lying littered about, and on the tea-tray was a jug. + +Of course, I walked across the table, and looked into the jug; there was +milk in it. + +It was a sensible, wide-mouthed jug, and I should have been quite able +to make a comfortable breakfast, if some clumsy, careless servant hadn't +rushed into the room, crying "Shoo! scat!" + +This startled me, of course. I am very sensitive. I started, the jug +went over, and the milk ran on to the cloth, and down on the new carpet. +You will hardly believe it, but that servant, to conceal her own +carelessness, beat me with a feather brush, and threw me out of the back +door; and cook, who was always a heartless person, though stout, gave +me no dinner. Ah! if my fishmonger had only known that I never tasted +his beautiful present, after all! + +But though I admired him so much, I could not talk to him. I never, from +a kitten, could speak any foreign language fluently. So he never knew. + +My next misadventure was on an afternoon when the family expected +company, and the best china was set out. Why "best"? Why should a +saucer, all blue and gold and red, with a crown on the back, be better +than a white one with mauve blobs on it? I never could see. Milk tastes +equally well from both. + +I went into the drawing-room before the guests arrived--just to be sure +that everything was as I could wish--and, seeing the tea set out, I got +on the table, as usual, to see whether there was anything in the +saucers. There was not, but in the best milk-jug there was--CREAM! + +The neck of the best milk-jug was narrow. I could not get my head in, so +I turned it over with my paw. It fell with a crash, and I paused a +moment--these little shocks always upset me. All was still--I began to +lap. Oh! that cream! I shall never forget it! + +Then came a rush, and the fatal cry of "Shoo! scat!"--always presaging +disaster. I saw the door open, and, by an instinct I cannot explain, I +leaped from the table. In my hurry, my foot caught in the handle of the +silver tray. We fell together--neither the tray nor I was hurt--but the +best china!!! + +I picked myself up, and looked about me. The family had come in. I read +in their faces that their servant's unlucky interruption-of my meal had +destroyed what was dearer to them than life--than _my_ life, at any +rate. I fled. I went out homeless and hopeless into the golden +afternoon. + +I live now with a Saint--a maiden lady, who takes condensed milk in her +own tea, and buys me two-pennyworth of cream night and morning. + +And cat's meat, too! + +And the glorious fishmonger still leaves his offerings at my door. + + + + +Nine Lives + + +"MOTHER," said the yellow kitten, "is it true that we cats have nine +lives?" + +"Quite, my dear," the brindled cat replied. She was a very handsome cat, +and in very comfortable circumstances. She sat on a warm Turkey carpet, +and wore a blue satin ribbon round her neck. "I am in the ninth life +myself," she said. + +"Have you lived all your lives here?" + +"Oh dear, no!" + +"Were you here," the white kitten asked, in a sleepy voice, "when the +Turkey carpet was born? Rover says it is only a few months old." + +"No," said the mother, "I was not. Indeed, it was partly the softness of +that carpet that made me come and live here." + +"Where did you live before?" the black kitten said. + +A dreamy look came into the brindled cat's eyes. + +"In many strange places," she answered slowly; adding more briskly, "and +if you will be good kittens, I will tell you all about them. Goldie! +come down from that stool, and sit down like a good kitten. Sweep! leave +off sharpening your claws on the furniture; _that_ always ends in +trouble and punishment. Snowball! you're asleep again! Oh, well; if +you'd rather sleep than hear a story----" + +Snowball shook herself awake, and the others sat down close to their +mother with their tails arranged neatly beside them, and waited for the +story. + +"I was born," said the brindled cat, "in a barn." + +"What is a barn?" asked the black kitten. + +"A barn is like a house, but there is only one room, and no carpets, +only straw." + +"I should like that," said the yellow kitten, who often played among the +straw in the big box which brought groceries from the Stores. + +"I liked it well enough when I was your age," said the mother +indulgently, "but a barn is not at all a genteel place to be born in. My +mother had had a little unpleasantness with the family she lived with, +and, of course, she was too proud to stay on after that. And so she +left them, and went to live in the barn. It wasn't at all the sort of +life she had been accustomed to." + +"What was the unpleasantness?" Sweep asked. + +"Well, it was about some cream which the woman of the house wanted for +her tea. She should have said so. Of course, my mother would not have +taken it if she had had any idea that any one else wanted it. She was +always most unselfish." + +"What is tea?" + +"A kind of brown milk--very nasty indeed, and very bad for you. Well, I +lived with my brothers and sisters very happily for some months, for I +was too young to know how vulgar it was to live in a barn and play with +straw." + +"What is vulgar, mother?" + +"Dear, dear; how you do ask questions," said the brindled cat, beginning +to look worried. "Vulgar is being like everybody else." + +"But does everybody else live in a barn?" + +"No; nobody does who is respectable. Vulgar really means--not like +respectable cats." + +"Oh!" said the black kitten and the yellow, trying to look as if they +understood. But the white one did not say anything, because it had gone +to sleep again. + +"Well," the mother went on, "after a while they took me to live in the +farm-house. And I should have liked it well enough, only they had a low +habit of locking up the dairy and the pantry. Well, it would be tiresome +to go into the whole story; however, I soon finished my life at the +farm-house and went to live in the stable. It was very pleasant there. +Horses are excellent company. That was my third life. My fourth was at +the miller's. He came one day to buy some corn; he saw me, and admired +me--as, indeed, every one has always done. He and the farmer were +disputing about the price of the corn, and at last the miller said-- + +"'Look here; you shall have your price if you'll throw me that cat into +the bargain.'" + +The kittens all shuddered. "What is a bargain? Is it like a pond? And +were you thrown in?" + +"I was thrown in, I believe. But a bargain is not like a pond; though I +heard the two men talk of 'wetting' the bargain. But I suppose they did +not do it, for I arrived at the mill quite dry. That was a very pleasant +life--full of mice!" + +"Who was full of mice?" asked the white kitten, waking up for a moment. + +"I was," said the mother sharply; "and I should have stayed in the mill +for ever, but the miller had another cat sent him by his sister. + +"However, he gave me away to a man who worked a barge up and down the +river. I suppose he thought he should like to see me again sometimes as +the barge passed by. + +"Life in a barge is very exciting. There are such lots of rats, some of +them as big as you kittens. I got quite clever at catching them, though +sometimes they made a very good fight for it. I used to have plenty of +milk, and I slept with the bargee in his warm little bunk, and of nights +I sat and toasted myself in front of his fire in the small, cosy cabin. +He was very fond of me, and used to talk to me a great deal. It is so +lonely on a barge that you are glad of a little conversation. He was +very kind to me, and I was very grieved when he married a lady who +didn't like cats, and who chased me out of the barge with a barge-pole." + +"What is a barge-pole?" the yellow kitten asked lazily. + +"The only leg a barge has. I ran away into the woods, and there I lived +on birds and rabbits." + +"What are rabbits?" + +"Something like cats with long ears; very wholesome and nutritious. And +I should have liked my sixth life very much, but for the keeper. No, +don't interrupt to ask what a keeper is. He is a man who, when he meets +a cat or a rabbit, points a gun at it, and says 'Bang!' so loud that you +die of fright." + +"How horrible!" said all the kittens. + +"I was looking out for my seventh life, and also for the gamekeeper, and +was sitting by the river with both eyes and both ears open, when a +little girl came by--a nice little girl in a checked pinafore. + +"She stopped when she saw me, and called--'Pussy! pussy!' So I went very +slowly to her, and rubbed myself against her legs. Then she picked me up +and carried me home in the checked pinafore. My seventh life was spent +in a clean little cottage with this little girl and her mother. She was +very fond of me, and I was as fond of her as a cat can be of a human +being. Of course, we are never so _unreasonably_ fond of them as they +are of us." + +"Why not?" asked the yellow kitten, who was young and affectionate. + +"Because they're only human beings, and we are Cats," returned the +mother, turning her large, calm green eyes on Goldie, who said, "Oh!" +and no more. + +"Well, what happened then?" asked the black kitten, catching its +mother's eye. + +"Well, one day the little girl put me into a basket, and carried me out. +I was always a fine figure of a cat, and I must have been a good weight +to carry. Several times she opened the basket to kiss and stroke me. The +last time she did it we were in a room where a sick girl lay on a bed. + +"'I did not know what to bring you for your birthday,' said my little +girl, 'so I've brought you my dear pussy.' + +"The sick girl's eyes sparkled with delight. She took me in her arms and +stroked me. And though I do not like sick people, I felt flattered and +pleased. But I only stayed a very little time with her." + +"Why?" asked all the kittens at once. + +"Because----but no; that story's too sad for you children; I will tell +it you when you're older." + +"But that only makes eight lives," said Sweep, who had been counting on +his claws, "and you said you had nine. Which was the ninth?" + +"Why, _this_, you silly child," said the brindled pussy, sitting up, and +beginning to wash the kitten's face very hard indeed. "And as it's my +last life, I must be very careful of it. That's why I'm so particular +about what I eat and drink, and why I make a point of sleeping so many +hours a-day. But it's your _first_ life, Snowball, and I can't have you +wasting it all in sleep. Go and catch a mouse at once." + +"Yes, mamma," said Snowball, and went to sleep again immediately. + +"Ah!" said Mrs. Brindle, "I'll wash you next. That'll make you wake up, +my dear." + +"Snowball's always sleepy," said the yellow kitten, stretching itself. +"But, mamma dear, she doesn't care for history, and yours was a very +long tale." + +"You can't have too much of a good thing," said the mother, looking down +at her long brindled tail. "If it's a good tail, the longer it is the +better." + + + + +Doggy Tales + + + + +Tinker + + +MY name is Stumps, and my mistress is rather a nice little girl; but she +has her faults, like most people. I myself, as it happens, am +wonderfully free from faults. Among my mistress's faults is what I may +call a lack of dignity, joined to a desire to make other people +undignified too. + +You will hardly believe that, before I had belonged to her a month, she +had made me learn to dance and to jump. I am a very respectable +dachshund, of cobby build, and jumping is the very last exercise I +should have taken to of my own accord. But when Miss Daisy said, "Now +jump, Stumps; there's a darling!" and held out her little arms, I could +not well refuse. For, after all, the child is my mistress. + +I never could understand why the cat was not taught to dance. It seemed +to me very hard that, when I was having those long, miserable lessons, +the cat should be allowed to sit down doing nothing but smile at my +misfortunes. Trap always said we ought to feel honoured by being taught, +and the reason why Pussy wasn't asked to learn was because she was so +dreadfully stupid, and had no brains for anything but the pleasures of +the chase and the cares of a family; but I didn't think that could be +the reason, because the doll was _taught_ to dance, though she never +_learned_, and I am sure _she_ was stupid enough. + +Another thing which Miss Daisy taught me to do was to beg; and the +action fills me with shame and pain every time I perform it, and as the +years go on I hate it more and more. + +For a stout, middle-aged dog, the action is absurd and degrading. Yet, +such is the force of habit, that I go through the performance now quite +naturally whenever I want anything. Trap does it too, and says what does +it matter? but then he has no judgment, and, besides, he's thin. + +But one of the most thoughtless things my little mistress ever did was +one day last summer when she was out without me. I chose to stay at home +because it was very hot, and I knew that the roads would be dusty; and +she was only going down to the village shop, where no one ever thinks +of offering a dog anything to drink. If she had been going to the farm, +I should have gone with her, because the lady there shows proper +attention to visitors, and always sets down a nice dish of milk for us +dogs. Besides, I was a little unwell just then; the family had had duck +for dinner, and I always feel a little faint after duck. All our family +do. So I stayed at home. Well, Miss Daisy had gone out with only Trap +and her hoop. I wish I had been there, for Trap is far too easy-going, +and a hoop never gives any advice worth listening to. Trap told me all +about it as well as he could. Trap can't tell a story very well, poor +fellow! + +It seems that, as Miss Daisy went across the village green, she saw a +crowd of children running after a dog with--I hardly like to mention +such a thing--a tin saucepan tied to his tail! The dog bolted into the +empty dog-kennel by the blacksmith's shop, and stayed there, growling. + +"Go away, bad children," said Miss Daisy; "how dare you treat a poor +dear doggie so?" + +The children wouldn't go away at first. "Very well," said Miss Daisy; "I +shall tell Trap what I think of you all." + +Then she whispered to Trap, and he began to growl so fiercely that the +children dared not come nearer. Any one can growl. Presently the +children got tired of listening to him, and went away. Then Miss Daisy +coaxed the unpleasant, tin-tailed creature out of the kennel, and untied +the string, and took off the pan. Then, if you'll believe a dog of my +character (and of course you must), she carried that low dog home in her +arms, and washed him, and set him down to eat out of the same plate as +Trap and myself! Trap was friends with him directly--some people have +no spirit--but I hope I know my duty to myself too well for that. I +snarled at the base intruder till he was quite ashamed of himself. I +knew from the first that he'd be taught jumping and begging, and things +like that. I hate those things myself, but that's no reason why every +low dog should be taught them. Miss Daisy called him Tinker, because he +once carried a tin pan about with him, and she tried very hard to make +me friendly to him; but I can choose my own friends, I hope. + +Every one made a great fuss about one thing he did, but actually it was +nothing but biting; and if biting isn't natural to a dog, I should like +to know what is; and why people should be praised and petted, and have +new collars, and everybody else's share of the bones, only for doing +what is quite natural to them, I have never been able to comprehend. +Besides, barking is as good as biting, any day, and I'm sure I barked +enough, though it wasn't my business. + +Miss Daisy had gone away to stay with her cousins in London, and she had +taken Trap with her. Why she should have taken him instead of me is a +matter on which I can offer no opinion. If my opinion had been asked, I +should have said that I thought it more suitable for her to have a heavy +middle-aged dog of good manners than a harum-scarum young stripling like +Trap. Trap told me afterwards that he thought the reason he was taken +was because Miss Daisy would have had more to pay for the dog-ticket of +such a heavy dog as I am; but I can't believe that dogs are charged for +by the weight, like butter. As I was saying, Miss Daisy took Trap with +her, and also her father and mother; and Tinker and I were left to take +care of the servants. We had a very agreeable time, though I confess +that I missed Miss Daisy more than I would have believed possible. But +there was more to eat in the kitchen than usual, and the servants often +left things on the table when they went out to take in the milk or to +chat with the gardeners; and if people leave things on tables, they have +only themselves to thank for whatever happens. + +There was a young man who wore a fur cap, and who used to call with +fish; and I was more surprised than I care to own when I met him walking +out with cook one Sunday afternoon, for I thought she had a soul above +fish; yet when the servants began to ask this young man to tea in the +kitchen, I thought, of course, it must be all right, but Tinker would do +nothing but growl the whole time the young man was there; so that at +last cook had to lock us up in the butler's pantry till the young man +was gone. _I_ had not growled, but I was locked in too. The world is +full of injustice and ingratitude. + +Now one night, when the servants went to bed, Tinker and I lay down in +our baskets under the hall table as usual; but Tinker was dreadfully +restless, which must have been only an accident, because he said himself +he didn't know what was the matter with him; and he would not go to +sleep, but kept walking up and down as if he were going to hide a bone +and couldn't find a good place for it. + +"Do lie down, for goodness' sake, Tinker," I said, "and go to sleep. Any +one can see you have not been brought up in a house where regular hours +are kept." + +"I can't go to sleep; I don't know what's the matter with me," he said +gloomily. + +Well, I tried to go to sleep myself, and I think I must almost have +dropped off, when I heard a scrape-scraping from the butler's pantry. I +wasn't going to bark. It wasn't my business. I have often heard Miss +Daisy's relations say that I was no house-dog. Still, I think Tinker +ought to have barked then, but he didn't: only just pricked his ears and +his tail; and he waited, and the scraping went on. + +Then Tinker said to me--"Don't you make a noise, for your life; I am +going to see what it is;" and he trotted softly into the butler's +pantry. It was rather dark, but you know we dogs can see as well as cats +in the dark, although they do make such a fuss about it, and declare +that they are the only creatures who can. + +There was a man outside the window, and I tapped Tinker with my tail to +show him that he ought to bark, but he never moved. The man had been +scraping and scraping till he had got out one of the window-panes. It +was a very little window-pane, only just big enough for his hand to go +through; and the man took out the window-pane and put his hand through, +making a long arm to get at the fastening of the window; and just as he +was going to undo the hasp, Tinker made a spring on to the window-ledge, +and he caught the man's hand in his mouth, and the man gave a push, and +Tinker fell off the window-ledge, but he took the man's hand with him; +and there was the man's arm dragged through the window-pane, and Tinker +hanging on to his fingers. + +The man broke some more panes and tried to get his other hand through, +and if he had he would have done for Tinker, but he could not manage it; +and now I thought "This is the time to bark," and I barked. I barked my +best, I barked nobly, though I am not a house-dog, and I don't think +it's my business. + +In less than a minute down came the gardener and the under-gardener: and +Tinker was still holding on, and they took the man, and he was marched +off to prison, and it turned out to be the man in the fur cap. But +though they made fuss enough about Tinker's share in the business, you +may be sure it didn't make me think much more of him. + +I should never have had anything to say to him but for one thing. Early +one morning we three dogs--it's all over long ago, and I hope I can be +generous and let bygones be bygones; he is one of _us_ now--went out for +a run in the paddock by the wood, and while Trap and I were trotting up +and down chatting about the weather, that Tinker dog bolted into the +wood, and in less than a minute came out with a rabbit. + +I saw at once that he could never get it eaten before Miss Daisy came +out, and I knew that, if he were found with it, his sufferings would be +awful. So I helped him to eat it. I know my duty to a fellow-creature, I +trust. It was a very young rabbit, and tender. Not too much fur. Fur +gets in your throat, and spoils your teeth, besides. We had just +finished it when my mistress came out. Trap would not eat a bit, even to +help Tinker out of his scrape, but _I_ have a kind heart. + +Well, after that I thought I might as well consent to be friends with +Tinker, in spite of his low breeding. You see, I had helped him out of a +dreadful scrape, and one always feels kindly to people one has helped. +He has caught several more rabbits since then, and I have always stood +by him on those occasions, and I always mean to. I am not one to turn my +back on a friend, I believe. + +So now he has a collar like ours, and I hardly feel degraded at all when +I sit opposite to him at the doll's tea-parties. + + + + +Rats! + + +"HE has no nose," said my master; "he is a handsome dog, but he has no +nose." + +This annoyed me very much, for I have a nose--a very long, sharp, black +nose. I wear tan boots and gloves, and my coat is a beautiful shiny +black. + +I am a Manchester terrier, and I fulfil the old instructions for such +dogs. I am + + _Necked like a drake,_ + _Headed like a snake,_ + _Tailed like a ratte,_ + _And footed like a catte._ + +And then they said I had no nose. + +But Kerry explained to me that my master did not mean to find fault with +the shape of my nose, but that what he wanted to be understood was that +I had no nose for smelling rats. Kerry has, and he is ridiculously vain +of this accomplishment. + +"And you have no nose, you know, old boy," said Kerry; "why, you would +let the rats run all over you and never know it." + +I turned up my nose--my beautiful, pointed, handsome nose--and walked +away without a word. + +A few weeks afterwards my master brought home with him some white rats. +Kerry was out at the time, but my master showed me the rats through the +bars of their cage. He also showed me a boot and a stick. Although I +have no nose, I was clever enough to put two and two together. Did I +mention that there were two rats? + +We were not allowed to go in the study, either of us, and my master put +the rats there in their cage on the table. + +That night, when everybody had gone to bed, I said to Kerry, "I may have +no nose, old man, but I smell rats." + +Kerry sniffed contemptuously. + +"You!" said he, curling himself round in his basket; "I don't believe +you could smell an elephant if there were one in the dresser drawer." + +I kept my temper. "I am not feeling very well, Kerry," I said gently, +"or I would go and see myself. But I am sure there _are_ rats; I smell +them plainly; they seem to be in the study." + +"Go to sleep," he said; "you're dreaming, old man." + +"Why don't you go and see?" I said. "If I didn't feel so very faint, I +would go myself." + +Kerry got out of his basket reluctantly. "I suppose I ought to go, if +you are quite certain," he said; and he went. + +In less than a minute he returned to the kitchen, trembling all over +with excitement. + +"Chappie!" he said; "Chappie!" + +"Well?" + +"There _are_ rats," he whispered hoarsely; "there are rats in the +study." + +"Did you go in?" I asked. + +"No, you know we're forbidden to go in, but I smelt them quite plainly. +I can't smell them at all here," he said regretfully. "What a nose you +have got, after all, Chappie!" + +"What are you going to do, Kerry?" I asked. + +"Why, nothing," he said; "we mustn't go in the study." + +"Oh," I said, "rules weren't made for great occasions like this; it's +your business to kill rats wherever they are." + +And that misguided wire-haired person went up. He got them out of the +cage, and killed them. + +The next morning, when the master came down, he thrashed Kerry within an +inch of his life. He knows I don't touch rats; and, besides, I was so +unwell that nobody could have suspected me. And I explained to Kerry +that, good as my nose is, I couldn't possibly tell by the smell that the +rats were white, and, therefore, sacred. It was not worth while to +mention that I had seen them before. + +Kerry looks up to me now as a dog with a nose, and I am much happier +than formerly. But Kerry is not nearly so keen on rats now. I thought +somehow he wouldn't be. + + + + +The Tables Turned + + +WE knew it was a dog, directly the basket was set down in the hall. We +heard it moving about inside. We sniffed all round. We asked it why it +didn't come out (the basket was tightly tied up with string). "Are you +having a good time in there?" said Roy. "Can't you show your face?" said +I. "He's ashamed of it," said Roy, waving his long bushy tail. Then he +growled a little, and the dog inside growled too; and then, as Roy had +an appointment with the butcher at his own back door, I went out to see +him home. + +"I am so sorry I am going away for Christmas with my master," he said +when we parted; "but you must introduce that new dog to me when I come +home. We mustn't stand any of his impudence, eh?" + +I was sorry Roy was going away, for Roy is my great friend. He always +fights the battles for both of us. I daresay I might have got into the +way of fighting my own battles, but I never like to interfere with +anybody's pleasure, and Roy's chief pleasure is fighting. As for me, I +think the delights of that recreation are over-estimated. + +When my master came home, he opened the basket, and a dog of Irish +family tumbled out, growling and snarling, and hid himself under the +sofa. They wasted more biscuits on him than I have ever seen wasted on +any deserving dog; and at last they got him out, and he consented to eat +some supper. They gave him a much better basket than mine, and we went +to bed. + +Next morning, the Irish terrier got out of his basket, stretched +himself, yawned, and insisted on thrashing me before breakfast. + +"But I am a dog of peace," I said; "I don't fight." + +"But I do, you see," he answered, "that's just the difference." + +I tried to defend myself, but he got hold of one of my feet, and held it +up. I sat up, and howled with pain and indignation. + +"Have you had enough?" he said, and, without waiting for my answer, +proceeded to give me more. + +"But I don't fight," I said; "I don't approve of fighting." + +"Then I'll teach you to have better manners than to say so," said he, +and he taught me for nearly five minutes. + +"Now then," he said, "are you licked?" + +"Yes," I answered; for indeed I was. + +"Are you sorry you ever tried to fight with me?" + +"Yes," still seemed to be the only thing to say. + +"And do you approve of fighting?" + +He seemed to wish me to say "yes," and so I said it. + +"Very well, then," he said; "now we'll be friends, if you like. Come +along; you have given me an appetite for breakfast." + +"Any society worth cultivating about here?" he asked, after the meal, in +his overbearing way. + +"I have a very great friend who lives next door," I said; "but I don't +know whether I should care to introduce you to him." + +He showed his teeth, and asked what I meant. + +"You see, you might not like him; and, if you didn't like him----but +he's a most agreeable dog." + +"A good fighter?" asked Rustler. + +I scratched my ear with my hind foot, and pretended to think. + +"Oh, I see he's not," said Rustler contemptuously; "well, you shall +introduce him to me directly he comes back." + +Rustler's overbearing and disagreeable manners so upset me that I was +quite thin when, at the end of the week, Roy came home. I told him my +troubles at once. + +"Bring your Rustler along," he said grandly, "and introduce him to +_me_." + +So I did. Rustler came along with his ears up, and his miserable tail +in the air. Roy lay by his kennel looking the image of serenity and +peacefulness. To judge by his expression, he might not have had a tooth +in his head. + +Rustler stood with his feet as far apart as he could get them, and put +his head on one side. + +"I have heard so much about you, Mr. What's-your-name," he said, "that I +have come to make a closer acquaintance." + +"Delighted, I'm sure," said Roy, who has splendid manners. + +"If you will get on your legs," said Rustler rudely, "I will tell you +what I think of you." + +Roy got on his legs, still looking very humble, and the next minute he +had Rustler by the front foot, and was making him sit down and scream +just as Rustler had made me. It was a magnificent fight. + +"Have you had enough?" said Roy, and then gave him more without waiting +for an answer. + +"I don't want to fight any more," said Rustler at last; "I am sorry I +spoke." + +"Then I'll teach you to have more pluck than to own it," said Roy. + +When he had taught him for some time, he said, "Are you licked?" + +"Yes," said Rustler, glaring at me out his uninjured eye. + +"Are you sorry you tried to fight with me?" + +"Yes." + +"Will you promise to leave my little friend here alone?" + +"Yes." + +Then Roy let him go. We shook tails all round, and Rustler and I went +home. + +"Poor Rustler," I said, "I know exactly how you feel." + +"You little humbug," he said, with half a laugh--for he is not an +ill-natured fellow when you come to know him--"you managed it very +cleverly, and I'm not one to bear malice; but, I say, your friend is +A1." + +We are now the most united trio, and Roy and Rustler have licked all the +other dogs in the neighbourhood. + + + + +A Noble Dog + + +ROVER would go into the water fast enough for a bathe or a swim, but he +would not bring anything out. The children used to throw in sticks, and +Rover and I used to bound in together; but I would bring the stick back, +while he swam round and round, enjoying himself. + +I am not vain, but I could not help feeling how much superior I was to +such a dog as Rover. He is a prize Newfoundland, and I am only a humble +retriever of obscure family. + +So one day I said to him-- + +"Why don't you fetch the sticks out when the children throw them in?" + +"I don't care about sticks," he said. + +"But it's so grand and clever to be able to fetch them out." + +"Is it?" he answered. + +"I know it is, for the children tell me so." + +"Do they?" he said. + +"I wonder you are not ashamed," I went on, a little nettled by his +meekness, "never to do anything useful. I should be, if I were you." + +"Ah," he said, "but you see you are not. Good night." + +We used to spend a great deal of time by the river. The children loved +to play there, and we dogs were always expected to go with them. + +One day, as I was lying asleep on the warm grass by the river bank, I +heard a splash. I jumped in, but there was no stick, only one of the +children floating down on the stream, and screaming whenever her head +came from under the water. + +I thought it was a new kind of game, not very interesting, so I swam out +again; and just as I was shaking the water out of my ears, I heard +another great flop, and there was Rover in the water, holding on to the +child's dress. He pulled her out some ten yards down the stream; and oh! +if you could have seen the fuss that the master and mistress and the +rest of the children made of that black and white spotted person! + +"Why, Rover," I said afterwards, when we had got home and were +talking it over, "whatever made you think that the child wanted to be +pulled out of the water?" + +"It's my business to pull people out of the water," he said. + +"But," I urged, "I always thought you were too stupid to understand +things." + +"Did you?" he said, turning his mild eyes on me. + +"Why didn't you explain to me that you----" + +"My dear dog," he said, "I never think it worth while to fetch sticks +out of the water, and I never think it worth while to explain things to +stupid people." + + + + +The Dyer's Dog + + +SHE was beautiful, with a strange unearthly beauty. She had a little +black nose. Her eyes were small, but bright and full of charm. Her ears +were long and soft, and her tail curled like one of the ostrich plumes +in the window of the dyer with whom she lived. + +I have met many little dogs with noses as charming, and eyes as bright, +and tails as curly; but never one who, like my Bessie, was a rich, deep +pink all over. + +I lived with a baker then. I was sitting on his doorstep when she first +delighted my eyes. I ran across the road to give her good morning. She +seemed pleased to see me. We had a little chat about the weather and the +other dogs in the street, and about buns, and rats, and the vices of the +domestic cat. + +Her manners and her conversation were as bright and charming as her +eyes. Before we parted, we had made an appointment for the next +afternoon, and as I said good-bye, I ventured to ask-- + +"How is it, lady, that you are of such a surpassingly beautiful colour?" + +"It is natural to our family," she said, tossing her pretty ears. "My +mother was the Royal Crimson Dog at the Court of the King of India." + +I bowed with deep respect and withdrew, for I heard them calling me at +home. + +The next day I looked for my beautiful pink-coloured lady, but I looked +in vain. Instead, a dog of a bright sky-blue, with a yellow ribbon round +its neck, sat in the sun on the dyer's doorstep. Yet, could I be +mistaken? That nose, those ears, that feathery tail, those bright and +beaming eyes! + +I went across. She received me with some embarrassment, which +disappeared as I talked gaily of milk and guinea pigs, and the habits of +the cats'-meat man. Before we parted I said-- + +"You have changed your dress." + +"Yes," she said, "it's so common and vulgar to wear always one colour." + +"But I thought"--I hesitated--"that your mother was the Royal Crimson +Dog at the Court of----" + +"So she was," replied the lady promptly, "but my father was the +well-known sky-blue terrier at the Crystal Palace Dog Show. I resemble +both my parents." + +I retired, fascinated by her high breeding and graceful explanations. +Through my dreams that night wandered a long procession of blue and +crimson dogs. + +The next day, when I hurried to keep the appointment she had been good +enough to make with me, I found her a deep purple. Again I concealed my +surprise, while we talked of subjects of common interest, of dog-collars +and chains and kennels, of biscuits, bones, and the outrage of the +muzzling order; and at last I said-- + +"You have changed your dress again. Your mother was the Royal----" + +"Oh, don't," she said, "it's so tiresome to keep repeating things. My +father was red and my mother was blue, and I myself, as you see, am +purple. Don't you know that crimson and blue make purple? Any child with +a shilling box of paints could have told you that." + +I thanked her, and came away. Purple seemed to me the most beautiful +colour in the world. + +But the next day she was green--as green as grass. After the customary +exchange of civilities, I remarked firmly-- + +"Blue and crimson may make purple, but----" + +"But green is my favourite colour," she said briskly. "I suppose a dog +is not to be bound down by the prejudices of its parents?" + +I went away very sadly, and, as I went, I noticed that there were some +curtains in the dyer's window of exactly the same tint as my friend's +dress. The next day she was gone. + +I sought her in vain. The day after, a French poodle appeared on the +dyer's doorstep, dressed in stripes of orange and scarlet. I went boldly +across to him. + +"Good morning, old man; how do you come to be that colour?" I said. + +"They dye me so," he answered gloomily. "It's a dreadful lot for a dog +that respects himself." + +I never saw Bessie but once again. She seemed then to be living with a +tinsmith, and her colour was a gingery white. + +I hope I am too much of a gentleman to taunt any lady in misfortune, but +I couldn't help saying-- + +"Why don't you wear any of your beautiful coloured dresses now?" + +She answered me curtly, for she saw that she had ceased to charm. + +"I gave up wearing my pretty dresses," she said, "because silly people +asked me so many questions about them." + +As usual, I accepted her explanations in silence; but, when I see the +poodle opposite, in his varying glories of blue, and green, and orange, +and purple, I can't help thinking that perhaps my fair Bessie did not +always speak the truth. + + + +The Vain Setter + + +OURS is one of the most ancient and noble families in the land, and I +contend that family pride is an exalted sentiment. I still hold to this +belief, in spite of all the sufferings that it has brought upon me. + +My father, whose ancestor came over with the Conqueror, has taken prizes +at many a county show; and my mother, the handsomest of her sex, took +one prize, and would have taken more, but for the unfortunate accident +of having her tail cut off in a door. + +I early determined to be worthy of my high breeding and undoubted +descent. A setter should have long, silky ears. I made my brother pull +mine gently for an hour at a time. In order to lengthen them, I combed +their fringes with my paws. + +My father's brow is lofty and narrow. The unfortunate accident which +removed my mother from public life, suggested to me a way of cultivating +our most famous family characteristic. I used to place my head between +the doorpost and the door, while my brother leaned gently against the +latter, so as to press my skull to the requisite shape. My legs, I knew, +ought to be straight. I never indulged in any of those field-sports, to +which my brother early turned a light-hearted attention; for I knew +that undue exercise tends to curve the legs. + +My tail was my special care. Regardless of comfort, I twisted myself +into the shape of a capital O, and, holding the end of my tail gently, +but firmly, in my teeth, I stretched myself and it. + +So much pains devoted to such a noble object could not be thrown away. I +became the handsomest setter in the three counties. + +My brother, in the meantime, grew expert in the coarse sporting +exercises to which he devoted his energies. He had no pride. He tramped +the mud of the fields; he tore his ears in bramble bushes; and I have +seen him so far lose all sense of our family's dignity as to grovel at +the feet of his master, and raise one of his paws, to indicate that +birds were near--common birds; I believe they are called partridges. + +"You might as well," I said to him bitterly--"you might as well have +been born a pointer." + +"Why not?" he said. "I know a pointer," he went on, laughing in his +merry, careless way--"I know a pointer who lives at the Pines Farm. A +capital fellow he is." + +"My dear boy," I said, "just come and squeeze my head in the door a +little, will you? and let me tell you that for one of our family to +associate with a pointer is social ruin--common, coarse, smooth-coated +persons, related, I should suppose, to the vulgar plum-pudding dog." + +My brother only laughed; but he was a good-natured fellow, and pinched +my head in the door until my forehead could stand the strain no longer. + +I was sent to the Crystal Palace Dog Show; and, as I looked round on the +hundreds of dogs of all families and nationalities, I breathed a sigh +of contentment, and blessed the fate that had made me, in this England +of ours, a well-born English setter. My brother was not at the Show, of +course; but I think even he would have admired me if he could have seen +how far superior I was to all about me. Of course, I took the first +prize. My mission was fulfilled: my family pride was satisfied. The +judges unanimously pronounced me to be the most perfect and beautiful +sporting dog in the whole Show. My master, wild with delight, patted my +silky forehead, and then turned aside to talk with a stout gentleman in +gaiters. + +I thought of what my life would be--one long, joyous round of shows, +applause, pats on the head from a grateful master, delicious food and +first prizes. + +But my master's base nature--his ancestors came over with George and +the Hanoverians--struck all my hopes to the ground. I woke from my +dream of triumph to find myself sold to the stout man in gaiters. + +I never saw my brother again. I was never able to tell my fond and +doting mother that I, like her, had taken a prize. I was never able to +chat with my father over a bone, comparing with him experiences of the +show bench. The stout, gaitered man took me away into a far country. + +The next morning he took me out into the fields, and looked at me from +time to time, as if he expected me to do something. Unwilling to +disappoint him, I sat down and began my usual exercise for lengthening +my tail. He at once struck me violently. We went a little farther, and I +noticed that he looked more and more displeased; but I could not imagine +what it could be that so distressed him. Presently one of those common +partridge birds had the impertinence to fly out close to me. I caught it +at once, and looked round for applause. There only came another shower +of blows. + +"What's the good of your taking prizes," he said, "if you're such an +idiot in the field?--might as well have a greyhound." + +"I wish you had," I said under my breath. + +I spent a week in torment, and then it occurred to me that this +low-born, gaitered person would have been better pleased with my +brother. So I tried to recall the tricks with which my brother had +particularly aggravated me; and, the next time I smelt a partridge, I +lay down, as I had seen my brother do, and lifted a foolish foot. I was +rewarded with a pat and encouragement. + +I have now sunk entirely to my brother's level. My master pronounces me +to be a most excellent sporting dog. But I shall never forget the blows +and angry words that were necessary to make me renounce my ideal of what +a setter should be; and deep in my heart I still cherish, with +passionate devotion, my views on duty, and my honourable family pride. + + + Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. + Edinburgh & London + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pussy and Doggy Tales, by Edith Nesbit + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUSSY AND DOGGY TALES *** + +***** This file should be named 27190.txt or 27190.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/1/9/27190/ + +Produced by Suzanne Lybarger and Emmy. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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