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diff --git a/38236.txt b/38236.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bc32624 --- /dev/null +++ b/38236.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7995 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Shireen and her Friends, by Gordon Stables + +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: Shireen and her Friends + Pages from the Life of a Persian Cat + +Author: Gordon Stables + +Illustrator: Harrison Weir + +Release Date: December 6, 2011 [EBook #38236] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHIREEN AND HER FRIENDS *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +Shireen and her Friends +Pages from the Life of a Persian Cat +By Gordon Stables +Illustrations by Harrison Weir +Published by Jarrold and Sons, 10 and 11 Warwick Lane, London EC. + +Shireen and her Friends, by Gordon Stables. + +________________________________________________________________________ + +________________________________________________________________________ +SHIREEN AND HER FRIENDS, BY GORDON STABLES. + +PREFACE. + +DEDICATED TO THE REVIEWER. + +Yes, this little preface is written for the Reviewer and nobody else. +Indeed, the public seldom bother to read prefaces, and small blame to +them. Reading the preface to a book is just like being button-holed by +some loquacious fellow, as you are entering the theatre, who wants to +tell you all about the play you are just going to see. So sure am I of +this, that I had at first thought of writing my preface in ancient +Greek. Of course every reviewer is as well-versed in that beautiful +language as Professor Geddes, or John Stuart Blackie himself. I was +only restrained by remembering that my own Greek might have got just a +trifle mouldy. + +Well, all I want to say in this page is, that there is a deal more truth +in the pages that follow than might at first be imagined. + +Both Shireen and Tom Brandy were real characters, and the incidents and +adventures of their life on board ship were very much as I have told +them. The starling, and Cockie, the cockatoo, were also pets of my own; +and Chammy, the chameleon, is described from the life. She died this +year (1894). + +The story Stamboul tells about his life as a show cat is a sad one, and +alas! it tells but half the truth. Cat shows have done good to the +breed of cats in this country, but it has raised up a swarm of dealers, +that treat poor pussy in a shameful way, and look upon her as simply so +much merchandise. + +In conclusion, I am not going to deny, that while trying to write a +pleasant book as a companion to my last year's "Sable and White," I have +endeavoured now and then to get a little hint slipped in edgeways, +which, if taken by the intelligent reader, may aid in gaining a more +comfortable position in our homesteads for our mutual friend the cat. +If I be successful in this, I shall consider myself quite as good as +that other fellow, you know, who caused two blades of grass to grow +where only one grew before. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Gordon Stables. + +_The Jungle, Twyford, Berks_. + +PREFACE. + +DEDICATED TO THE REVIEWER. + +Yes, this little preface is written for the Reviewer and nobody else. +Indeed, the public seldom bother to read prefaces, and small blame to +them. Reading the preface to a book is just like being button-holed by +some loquacious fellow, as you are entering the theatre, who wants to +tell you all about the play you are just going to see. So sure am I of +this, that I had at first thought of writing my preface in ancient +Greek. Of course every reviewer is as well-versed in that beautiful +language as Professor Geddes, or John Stuart Blackie himself. I was +only restrained by remembering that my own Greek might have got just a +trifle mouldy. + +Well, all I want to say in this page is, that there is a deal more truth +in the pages that follow than might at first be imagined. + +Both Shireen and Tom Brandy were real characters, and the incidents and +adventures of their life on board ship were very much as I have told +them. The starling, and Cockie, the cockatoo, were also pets of my own; +and Chammy, the chameleon, is described from the life. She died this +year (1894). + +The story Stamboul tells about his life as a show cat is a sad one, and +alas! it tells but half the truth. Cat shows have done good to the +breed of cats in this country, but it has raised up a swarm of dealers, +that treat poor pussy in a shameful way, and look upon her as simply so +much merchandise. + +In conclusion, I am not going to deny, that while trying to write a +pleasant book as a companion to my last year's "Sable and White," I have +endeavoured now and then to get a little hint slipped in edgeways, +which, if taken by the intelligent reader, may aid in gaining a more +comfortable position in our homesteads for our mutual friend the cat. +If I be successful in this, I shall consider myself quite as good as +that other fellow, you know, who caused two blades of grass to grow +where only one grew before. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Gordon Stables. + +_The Jungle, Twyford, Berks_. + +DEDICATION. + +SWINBURNE AND THE CAT. + +The following beautiful verses by the poet Swinburne, to whom I have the +honour of dedicating this work, appeared last year in the "Athenaeum." + + To a Cat. + + Stately, kindly, lordly friend, + Condescend + Here to sit by me, and turn + Glorious eyes that smile and burn, + Golden eyes, love's lustrous meed, + On the golden page I read. + + All your wondrous wealth of hair, + Dark and fair, + Silken-shaggy, soft and bright + As the clouds and beams of night, + Pays my reverent hand's caress + Back with friendlier gentleness. + + Dogs may fawn on all and some + As they come; + You, a friend of loftier mind, + Answer friends alone in kind. + Just your foot upon my hand + Softly bids it understand. + + Morning round this silent sweet + Garden-seat + Sheds its wealth of gathering light, + Thrills the gradual clouds with might, + Changes woodland, orchard, heath, + Lawn and garden there beneath. + + Fair and dim they gleamed below: + Now they glow + Peep as even your sunbright eyes, + Fair as even the wakening skies. + Can it not or can it be + Now that you give thanks to see? + + May not you rejoice as I, + Seeing the sky + Change to heaven revealed, and bid + Earth reveal the heaven it hid + All night long from stars and moon, + Now the sun sets all in tune? + + What within you wakes with day + Who can say? + All too little may we tell, + Friends who like each other well, + What might haply, if we might, + Hid us read our lives aright. + + A.C. Swinburne. + +CHAPTER ONE. + +"YOU'RE THE NEW DOG, AREN'T YOU?" + +It was an autumn evening, or rather afternoon, for the sun was still +high over the blue hills of the West. The sky was clear too, and +twilight would last long. + +The trees, however, were already casting longer shadows on the grass, +and the breeze that swayed their brandies, cast, playfully, ever and +anon, handfuls of brown leaves towards the earth. + +Shireen was coming slowly across the road towards Uncle Ben's bungalow. + +Uncle Ben was an old sea captain, and had been in India for some years +of his life. This was the reason why he called his home a bungalow. It +really was a sturdy stone-built cottage, a verandah in front to which in +June and July the roses clung, with two gables embowered in the greenery +of ivy, one of which had a large casement window in it, with steps +leading down to the lawn, where, under the trees in the sweet +summer-time Ben was often to be found smoking a pipe in his grass +hammock. + +The whole place was a sort of arboretum, however, and the very most the +sun could ever do was to shine down upon the grass in patches. Once +inside the railing that surrounded it. Shireen knew she would be safe, +so there was no need to hurry. Besides, it had been raining, and the +road was not only wet, but the water lay here and there in little pools. + +These pools Shireen took care to avoid, for she was a very dainty cat +indeed. Every time she took a step she lifted her paw as high as she +could and shook it. She tried also to elevate that tail of hers so as +to keep it unsoiled, but it was so big and bushy that in this she was +only partially successful. + +The bungalow lay or stood in the outskirts or suburbs of the village, +and not a long way from the sea either, for old Ben would have slept but +poorly could he not have gone to sleep every night--that is every still +night--with the whisper of the waves singing a kind of lullaby to him as +they broke lazily on the yellow sands. But if a breeze blew off the +shore or down from the hills to the nor'ard and cast, then Ben went to +sleep with the half-formed idea in his mind that he was at sea; an idea +that ere long commingled with his dreams. The wind would seem to be +roaring through rigging and shrouds, and not through the oaks and elms +and rustling pine trees; but sail was shortened, the ship was snug, and +it was the mate's watch on deck. What more could any sailor desire? + +Ben had no wife; only a little old woman came and charred for him, and a +tall ungainly Portuguese lad, who had been cook's mate with him on board +the _Alibi_, and could make an excellent curry, officiated as Ben's +factotum and valet. Then there was the cockatoo. Perhaps it may be +said that cockatoos don't count as members of a household, but Cockie +was no ordinary cockatoo, I can assure you. She came originally from +the bush or jungle of Western Australia. Ben used to nod his head at +Cockie in a semi-solemn kind of way when anyone put a question to him +concerning the bird. + +She came into my possession in a queer kind of way. Some of these days +I may tell you the story. Haven't told it to anybody yet except to +Pussy Shireen. Some day?--Yes, some day--perhaps. + +The little old woman who charred for Ben only came once a week, and that +was on a Friday. Then Ben would clear out, get away to the hills, or +off in a boat, with bread and cheese in his coat-tail pocket, and not +come home till evening. + +Fridays were called by this sailor "wash-and-scrub-deck-days," and there +wasn't a deal of comfort in them. Besides, Ben dreaded a woman's +tongue. + +"And old Sally's tongue," he would tell his friends, "is about the +waggingest thing out. Just set the old creature agoing, and she'll go +on without a hitch for a two hours' spell as steady's the trade wind." + +So he was always glad when Sally finished her tea in the kitchen, +received her well-earned two shillings, and took her departure. Then, +and not until then, would Ben sink into his rocking-chair with a sigh of +relief and satisfaction, and light his very largest meerschaum pipe. + +Ben never boasted about Sally, but he was willing enough to talk about +Pedro, or the cockatoo. + +"He is a faithful creature, a faithful creature, and I don't care who +knows it. And the curry he makes! Ah!" It will be noted that Ben +would be alluding thus to Pedro, not to Cockie the cockatoo. "Yes, that +curry, why, the very flavour of it takes ten years off my life at least. +Calls me as regular of a morning as a bo's'n's pipe. Eight bells, and +there I am; clothes all brushed and folded; bath waiting for me; clean +white shirt laid out, and never a button missing off my waistcoat. +Breakfast served nice and comfortable soon's I go down; letters +alongside my plate, and Cockie's cage as sweet as nuts. A faithful +creature indeed, although he isn't much to look at!" + +No. Ben spoke the truth, for certainly Pedro was not much to look at; +not much to admire. He wore the same dress apparently winter and +summer; a very short blue-cloth sailor's jacket, under this a checked +shirt, no necktie, no collar, no waistcoat. The continuations of his +dress downwards did not reach to his low-heeled shoes by inches, so he +always showed a goodly amount of blue-ribbed stocking, but his shoes +were always nicely polished, and his long lean hands were clean. In +complexion Pedro was sallow, almost saffron-hued, and his eyes were like +this jet; while his hair, which was black, of course, was scarcely +half-an-inch long all over, and stood on end like the bristles of a +blacking brush. People used to say that at some period of his life +Pedro must have seen a ghost, and that his hair had never fallen flat +again. + +"But he is good to the birds," Ben would have told you. + +"God's birds, I mean," he would have added. "The birds that cheer us +and charm us in the sweet spring-time, you know, and all the summer +through. + + "`All thro' the sultry hours of June, + From morning blithe to golden noon, + And till the star of evening climbs + The grey-blue zest, a world too soon, + There sings a thrush among the limes.' + +"Ay, and that bird, and our blackbirds with their mellow music, and bold +lilting chaffie and tender-songed cock-robin know Pedro, and when the +winter snows are on the lawn they will almost feed out of his hand. +They know me, too, and they know Cockie, and they know Colonel +Clarkson's cat Shireen." + +And that, reader, is the very cat that is now slowly and wearily +crossing the road towards the good old sailor's bungalow. Shireen, it +will therefore be observed, did not belong to Ben. She was simply an +occasional visitor, for cats very soon find out who loves them and who +does not. + +But Ben's bungalow was not the only place to which Shireen was in the +habit of paying a visit. No, not by very many. Indeed, everybody knew +Shireen, and there were few houses in the village that this strange cat +did not walk into now and then. Very coolly, too; but always with a +little fond cry or expression of friendliness and goodwill to the +inmates. + +She was always welcome, and many a saucerful of creamy milk was put down +to her on these occasions. Not that Shireen paid the visit for sake of +being fed, for often she would not touch the milk-offering. But she had +formed this wandering habit somehow. The fact is, Shireen, like her +owner, the Colonel, was a very far-travelling cat, and cats, like old +soldiers and old sailors who have been here and there in many lands, +find it difficult to settle in one place or one home. + +If ever a cat was a village favourite, this droll puss Shireen was. + +It must not be supposed, however, that she was anybody's cat, for a +cupful of milk, as the saying is. For there were people that Shireen +liked better than others, and some she did not like at all; while there +were men and women that she would fly from, and houses in the village +that she gave a wide berth to. + +Sometimes she would take it into her head to pay a visit to the girls' +school during working hours. The young lady teachers did not object, +because she did not interfere with the duties; but here again she +evinced likes and dislikes. Pretty Matty Loraine, for example, she +quietly ignored, and never responded to her caresses, but to everybody's +astonishment she seemed greatly attached to Emily Stoddart, although +Emily was considered somewhat plain in appearance, and not very clever. +Besides, she had red hair; but she had soft blue eyes, and perhaps +Shireen had found out down in their hidden depths a gentle nature dwelt. + +Everybody said that when Matty grew up she would be very beautiful +indeed, and might possibly marry the squire's son, but a wealthy +marriage was never prophesied for poor Emily. There were stonemasons +and hedgers or ditchers for girls like her. However, prophecies did not +seem to trouble Emily, though the evident preference that Shireen showed +for her pleased her not a little. Perhaps cats are students of human +character, and in very truth they need to be if they are to enjoy life +at all, and give themselves a chance of securing the allotted span of +eighteen or twenty years which Providence has decreed as the extent of +poor persecuted pussy's existence--in this world at all events. + +Singularly enough, Shireen evinced not the slightest fear of dogs. As a +rule, I mean, though every rule has its exceptions. But puss could have +told you the idiosyncrasies of all the dogs in the village downwards, +from the doctor's great good-natured Newfoundland, on whose broad back +all the children in the place had ridden when very young. _He_ wouldn't +touch a cat. He was too noble by far. Nor would the saddler's +bull-dog, ferocious-looking and ugly to a degree though he was; nor +Squire Blythe's mastiff; nor Miss Ponsonby's collie, with his long +shaggy coat, his beautiful face and gentle eyes. + +Whenever a new dog came to the village Shireen set out to meet him and +make friends with him. She would come trotting up to the fresh arrival +with her tail in the air, and purring nearly as loud as a turtle dove, +and some such conversation as the following might be supposed to take +place between the two. + +Shireen (_loquitur_): "Oh, you're the new dog, aren't you? What's your +name, and what's your breed? I'm simply delighted to see a new face!" + +Fresh Arrival (_looking astonished_): "My name is Cracker. My breed is +the Airedale terrier. I come from Yorkshire. I have fought and slain +an otter single-handed. I'm a terrible fellow when I'm put out. My +duty is to kill rats, and--listen--sometimes even _cats_!" + +Shireen (_purring louder than ever_): "Oh, I daresay and, indeed, +Cracker, some cats deserve to be killed. But I'm Shireen. Nobody ever +kills me. What a nice good-natured face you have! Just let me rub my +back against your chest. So--and--so! I'm sure we shall be tremendous +friends, and you might do me a favour if you care to." + +Fresh Arrival: "Is it rats?" + +Shireen: "No, it isn't rats. It is Danger, the butcher's bull-terrier. +He wants killing ever so much. He thinks he can fight any dog, and he +always chases me. But be sure you shake him well up whenever you meet +him. He has one ear slit in two. I managed that for him one day. I'll +sit in a tree and see you open him up, and nobody will be a bit sorry. +Good-bye, you beautiful handsome Cracker. So pleased to have met you. +Just over the way there, in that low-thatched cottage, there is a sick +child, and I am going in to sit and sing to her till she drops off +asleep and forgets her pains and sorrows. Good-bye." + +Shireen, it will be seen, quite disarmed dogs by her coolness and her +perfect friendliness. No dog that ever lived would kill a cat who ran +up to meet him in the street and rubbed her head against his chest. + +This strange pussy had, however, one or two human enemies as well as the +dog Danger. Almost everyone has, and Shireen could be no exception. +But in her case they were either old wives, who looked upon her with +superstitious dread because she was reported to carry a ruby in one of +her teeth, or they were mischievous boys, who threw stones at her from +that nasty little contrivance called a catapult, or cat-a-pelt, as some +horrid boys call it, because they think it was invented to pelt poor +pussies with. + +Shireen, however, had managed hitherto to keep out of their way. She +was very often to be seen in the village street, walking along leisurely +enough, but as soon as that hideous yell was borne along on the breeze, +which told her the boys' school had just been dismissed, pussy increased +her pace and disappeared. + +Shireen knew boys. She knew all their tricks and their manners, and she +could have told you that boys were boys all the wide world over. + +Well, as she is crossing the street to-day, giving a glance up and down +every two or three seconds to make certain the coast was clear, the +rattle of light wheels was heard. + +That was the butcher's cart. + +She listened and looked, one paw in the air. + +Yes, there was Danger himself coming round the corner with his red +tongue lolling out of his open mouth, for though it was autumn the +weather was warm. + +Danger sees pussy almost as soon as she sees him. + +"There's that long-tailed white cat again," he says to himself. "Well, +I'll have her this time right enough. Here goes!" + +And straight along the road he comes rushing with the speed of a +torpedo. + +Shireen doesn't lose her presence of mind. Not a bit of it. She +measures the distance with a glance from Uncle Ben's railing, and +calculates to the tenth part of a second the time it will take her to +reach it. + +She wants to make that dog believe that he is sure of her, so that she +may, in triumph and safety, enjoy his chagrin and disappointment all the +more. + +On he comes, on and on. + +Shireen pretends she doesn't see him. + +He is within two yards of her. Oh! he has caught her! No, he hasn't! +One dart, one dive, and she is safe on the other side of Ben's friendly +railing. + +He--Danger--can't get through. + +Only just his nose, and no more. + +And what a fool he was to stick that between the rails. Shireen springs +round like fire from flint. + +"Fuss! Fut!" + +That blow was beautifully aimed, and poor Danger goes howling off with a +sadly torn nose. + +I say _poor_ Danger, because it really was the fault of that wicked +butcher-boy. Dogs are only what men make them. + +Shireen is not so young as she was once upon a time, but she feels very +youthful now. And very happy too. She stops for a few minutes to dry +herself in a patch of sunshine, then goes galloping off across Ben's +lawn, making pretences that the withered leaves are mice, and whacking +them about in all directions. + +Next moment she has jumped into Ben's hammock. + +"Why, old girl," cries Ben, "you're as playful as a kitten. Who would +think, Shireen, that you were over twenty years of age, and had seen +nearly as much of the world as Uncle Ben himself? Well, sit there and +sing to me. Now, that is real soothing, and I'm not at all sure I won't +go to sleep. For at my time of life, Shireen, it's best to take all out +of life you can get." + +Ben's hand and book drop listlessly on his breast, and while the autumn +wind goes moaning through the pine trees overhead, keeping up a kind of +sibilant bass to Shireen's song, while his pet cockatoo nods on his +perch near by, the ancient mariner dozes--and dreams. + +CHAPTER TWO. + +OLD FRIENDS AROUND THE FIRE. + + "The day is done, and the darkness + Falls from the wings of night, + As a feather is wafted downward + From an eagle in its flight; + + "But the night shall be filled with music, + And the cares that infest the day, + Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs, + And as silently steal away." + +No cares had Colonel Clarkson to trouble him. So everyone would have +told round the village or in the parish. It was then nearly the autumn +of life with the Colonel, but really and truly he seemed to be growing +old gracefully. Nor did he allow the little worries of life to +interfere in the least with the calm enjoyment of his placid existence. + +He had been a busy man in his younger days. But that was years ago. He +had fought in the Crimea, he had waved his sword on Persian plains, and +on Afghanistan heights, and he had gone through all the horrors of the +Indian Mutiny. He had even been side by side with brave Havelock in the +rush for the Residency up that long street of death and fire where brave +Neill fell. Yet concerning these and his many other adventures he was +seldom very communicative, albeit there were times when his friend Uncle +Ben succeeded in drawing him out, and then his stories were well worth +listening to. + +The Colonel was like many brave soldiers, a somewhat shy man, and +certainly kept himself personally very much in the background when +describing a battle or the storming of a trench against fearful odds. +That he had not kept himself in the background on the real field of +fight was evident enough from the medals he had won but seldom if ever +wore. And one of these was the Victoria Cross. + +When the Colonel did suffer himself to be drawn out, as Sailor Ben +phrased it, he never told his stories excitedly, but in low calm tones, +and in earnest conversational English, that carried conviction of the +truthfulness of every item of his narrative to the hearts of his +listeners. + +And who would these listeners be? I must tell you that, and having done +so I shall have introduced you to most of the personalities who figure +in this biography. + +The listeners then may, indeed they must be, divided into two groups. +The first group was composed of human beings, the second of what I am +loth indeed to call the lower animals. It is mere conventionality on my +part to do so, for the creatures God has permitted us to domesticate, +and who are such faithful and trustworthy servants, are oftentimes quite +as interesting in a way as many of their masters--men. + +On that very autumnal evening on which Shireen paid her visit to Uncle +Ben's bungalow, and made it so hot for the butcher's dog, our two groups +were all together around the fire at the Colonel's Castle, as the old +soldier's house was generally called, and Castle it once had been in +reality. + +On this particular evening after Ben had finished his pipe and drank the +tea that Pedro had brought him, he had smoothed pussy once more, and +said:--"I think now, Shireen, we'll take a walk to the Castle and see +your master. By that time gloaming will be falling, and it will be what +my dear friend the Colonel calls the `Children's Hour.'" + +"Meow!" said puss, as if she knew all about it, and quite understood +every word that Uncle Ben said when he repeated Longfellow's dreamy +lines: + + "Between the dark and the daylight, + When the night is beginning to lower, + Comes a pause in the day's occupations, + That is known as the Children's Hour. + + "I hear in the chamber above me + The patter of little feet, + The sound of a door that is opened, + And voices soft and sweet." + +People who had met Uncle Ben this evening walking along towards the +Colonel's Castle, were not a bit astonished to see Shireen trotting +contentedly beside him, her tail in the air and head erect; nor to see +his wonderful cockatoo balancing himself uneasily on his shoulder, and +giving vent now and then to a war-whoop that would have scared a +Comanche Indian, and certainly frightened the dogs. + +Uncle Ben's cockatoo was as often on his shoulder as anywhere else, and +the bird was a frequent visitor at the old Castle, only he insisted on +remaining on his master's shoulder all the time he stayed there, +generally taking stock of things around him; sometimes making a remark +or two of his own, or allaying his feelings with a little dance or a +song. + +Well, Ben was one of Colonel Clarkson's listeners to-night. But there +were three others, namely, the Colonel's wife, a lady who was still +strangely interestingly pleasing to behold, although she was evidently +not English. People called her beautiful. She must have been many +years younger than her husband, all owing to the fact that women age +sooner than men. On the swaying, sighing trees outside yonder, the +leaves had assumed their autumn tints. There were autumn tints on +Colonel Clarkson's hair as well, but the tints on both were beautiful. +Tom, a handsome boy of some eight years of age, sat on his aunt's knee, +his head nestling on her shoulder, but his eyes on his soldier uncle. +On this uncle's knee sat a fairy fragile little maiden, the boy's +sister, and some two years his senior. They were orphans, and the +Castle was now their home. These then were the human group. + +The other group were altogether on the skin hearthrug in front of the +fire--a group of undergraduates let me term them. + +The members of this group were far indeed from uninteresting, each in +his or her own way. But their individualisms must develop themselves as +the story goes on, only I want you to be introduced to them here at +once. + +Shireen you already know. She is seated on a footstool, singing low to +herself, and gazing somewhat pensively into the fire. + +She is not the only cat in the group, however. There is a much younger +one stretched on the rug. A short-haired tabby. + +And seated on top of her, busily preening his feathers very much to his +own satisfaction, is Dick. Now Dick is a starling, and it may surprise +some to learn that he is on terms the most friendly with both cats, and +that far from seeking to harm him, they would at any hour of the day +risk their lives in protecting him. + +The particular trait in Dick's character, judging from his every look +and movement, is consummate _chic_ and independence. + +But there are two dogs here also, both characters in their way. + +One is a white Pomeranian. He is sitting as near as he can get to his +master's knee, for his love for Colonel Clarkson knows neither bounds +nor limits. + +The other dog is the drollest, daftest, wildest little rascal you could +conceive. He is an iron-grey, hard-haired Scotch terrier. He comes of +a race of dogs that are simply indomitable, that know no such thing as +fear, who will, single-handed, face and fight either fox, badger, or +otter, and if vanquished, know at least how to die. + +There is an old-world look in that doggie's face which is wonderful to +behold, and a depth of wisdom in his dark eyes that is unfathomable. +Warlock, for that is his name, is cheek-by-jowl with that young tabby +cat, for curiously enough, the two are inseparables. Almost every day +they go out by themselves to the fields and banks and woods, to hunt +together, and even at night they come trotting home side by side. + +So that is all my group of undergraduates--no, stay a moment. There is +yet another, and in one way he or she is the drollest of the crew. In +yonder far-off corner there, but not a great way from the fire, a branch +of wood has been fixed in a block to keep it upright, and on one limb of +this artificial tree is stretched at length a large chameleon. Chammy, +as he is called, is very wide awake, and evidently enjoying the warmth +of the fire, for hand after hand he extends, time about at intervals of +about a minute to woo the welcome blaze. + +And what a fire that is too! Pray do not let such a thing as a grate +arise up before your mind's eye at my mention of the word fire. The +idea of a tall ungainly grate would utterly dispel all ideas of romance. + +This is a low fire, a fire of logs and coals and peat, all beautifully, +artistically, and thoughtfully arranged with the art that conceals art. +A fire that to sit in front of on a winter's evening would be an +entertainment in itself; a fire that would make the oldest and loneliest +man feel he had good company; a fire that laughs and talks to one; that +speaks to the very soul itself, while it warms the very heart, and that +carries the thought away back to pleasant scenes in past life, or +merrily forward to a hopeful future; verily a fire to be thankful for, +especially if wild winds are careering round the house, and moaning in +the old-fashioned chimney, while we think of sailors far at sea. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Colonel Clarkson finishes his story, and stretches out his hand to find +his pipe. Lizzie snuggles up closer to his chest, and pats his cheek +with her fingers. + +"God brought you safely back, didn't he, dearest?" she says. + +Uncle Clarkson kisses her brow for answer. + +Ben clears his throat and is about to speak. But he seems to think +better of it, and commences to refill his pipe instead, smiling to +himself as he does so. + +But bold little Tom holds up his hand, and says grimly-- + +"Uncle Clarkson, when I'm a big big man I'll be a sodser (soldier), and +tut (cut) off black men's heads by the store (score)!" + +Ben laughs, but shakes a finger at Tom. + +"Poor dear Cockie!" says the cockatoo, in a mournfully lugubrious tone. + +"Eh? Eh?" cries the starling, briskly looking up from his perch on top +of the tabby. "Eh? What is it? What d'ye say? Tse, tse, tse." + +Vee-Vee, the Pomeranian, changes his position and faces Shireen. + +He looks at her for a minute, then leans his head on her footstool, but +his eyes are still fixed upon her. + +Shireen was Vee-Vee's foster mother. Six years ago he came to the +Castle, being then a mere dossil of cotton wool apparently, with a black +dot for a nose and two black dots for eyes, so that Lizzie called him a +little snow dog. Well, the little snow dog was only a fortnight old, +and it happened just then that Shireen had had kittens, the whole of +which had died. No they had _not_ been drowned, for Colonel Clarkson +was too humane a man to think of depriving the pussy of all her family +at once. But, I repeat, they died. + +Then Shireen had taken pity on Vee-Vee, the little snow dog. + +"You're an orphan," she said, or seemed to say, for it is all the same +thing. "You're an orphan, and a miserable little mite at that; well, I +have oceans of milk, so I shall rear you if you are so inclined." + +The little snow dog was so inclined, and Shireen took him over at once, +and till this day, next to his dear master, Vee-Vee loved his foster +mother. + +"Just look," said Mrs Clarkson, "how fondly Vee-Vee is gazing at his +foster mother!" + +"Oh," cried Lizzie, "I know what Vee-Vee wants. He wants her to tell +him a story." + +"Ah! indeed," said Colonel Clarkson, "she well may tell her friends a +story, for few cats have had a more adventurous life than she." + +Shireen patted Vee-Vee on the nose with her paw, but the nails were +sheathed, then she proceeded to tell her strange story. + +Cats and all the lower animals, or undergraduates, have a language of +their own, you know, but I have made myself master of it, and I shall +try to translate what Shireen said. Only I must take a new chapter to +it. + +CHAPTER THREE. + +"OH! KILL ME QUICK AND PUT ME OUT OF PAIN." + +The story of my life? Was that what you asked me for, my little foster +son? I see Warlock pricking one ear. He is going to listen too, is he? + +Ah! well, my friends, my life has been a very long and a very eventful +one, for I have travelled very far and seen much, and you all know I am +getting old. Dick is laughing and chuckling to himself. Of course, he +thinks that I am centuries old, but that is only because he himself is +so young. + +Chammy, the chameleon, looks down at Shireen with one of his droll eyes, +while he watches a fly on the ceiling with the other. He holds up a +hand, too, opening and shutting it as he remarks-- + +"Don't give yourself airs about your age, Shireen. Look at me. It is a +hundred years yesterday since I came to life again." + +"Came to life again, Chammy," says Warlock, winking to Dick. "Why, what +are you telling us?" + +"The truth," said the chameleon. "One thousand one hundred years ago +yesterday--and it doesn't seem very long to look back to--after a good +dinner on butterflies I retired into the hollow of a young banian tree +in an African forest to have a nap. I had dined heartily, and I slept +long, so long that the tree grew up over me. And it grew and grew and +grew for a thousand years till it became the most wonderful tree in all +the forest. But one day it was rent in twain by a lightning flash, +and--I awoke and crawled out and found a moth and swallowed it." + +"Tse, tse, tse!" said Dick. + +"We can't be expected to swallow your story though, Chammy," said +Warlock. + +Chammy did not reply, for the fly had come down from the ceiling, and +settling in front of the chameleon began to wash its face. + +Chammy turned both eyes in towards his nose, and focused the fly, then +his mouth slowly opened, and presently out darted a long round tongue, +more like a slug than anything else, and the fly never finished washing +its face. + +Well, as I was saying, continued Shireen, when interrupted by our dear +and excessively old friend Chammy, I am getting on! Twenty years, you +know, children, is a long, long life for a cat, if not for a chameleon, +and oh! what ups and downs I have seen in that time! + +My very earliest recollections take me back to scenes in beautiful +Persia, "the land of the lion and the sun." + +"Some day," said Dick, the starling, making pretence to bathe himself in +tabby's glittering fur--"some day I mean to fly there. None of you +fellows have wings, so you can't do that sort of thing. It would take +poor old dummy yonder fully another thousand years to wriggle that +length. Better he should go to sleep again in an old log of wood!" + +"Yes," continued Dick, while Shireen sat thoughtfully washing her face +and gazing at the fire. "I shall go to Persia. I had quite a long talk +the other day with the cuckoo about it. He says that Persia in the +South is no end of a nice place, with flies and things to be found all +throughout the winter. He says he wouldn't come here at all if it +wasn't that there is less danger in this country in summer-time to his +eggs, and the climate is more bracing for the mother and the young. The +Mother Cuckoo, you must remember, is very delicate, and wouldn't think +of rearing her own family, so she employs a nurse, or maybe three or +four nurses; and the more fools they, _I_ say, for accepting the +situation, for they toil away all the best part of the summer, leaving +their own little families to starve and never get a thank-you for their +pains. But Mother Cuckoo is a knowing old bird; she finds a nest nicely +hidden--it may be a robin's, it may be a tit-lark's, or a water +wagtail's--and then a conversation begins at once. + +"`Nice little place you've got here,' says Mother Cuckoo to the little +bird, smiling all down both sides of her head as she speaks, for you +know, Warlock, you couldn't make a cuckoo's mouth much bigger without +cutting her head off. `Nice little place!' + +"`Yes,' says the little bird, feeling much flattered. + +"`And such a cosy warm well-lined nest!' + +"`Yes,' says the little bird again, `my husband and I did that.' + +"`How clever. And the nest is so well hidden!' + +"`Oh, yes, that is the best of it. There are no cats about, and wicked +schoolboys would never think of looking here for a nest.' + +"`It isn't a very large nest!' + +"`Oh, it is big enough for our little family.' + +"`Let me see,' says Mother Cuckoo, `you have three eggs laid already. +How clever of you!' + +"`Yes, and I'm going to lay another.' + +"`Your husband's from home to-day, isn't he?' + +"`He has gone to the woods for a certain kind of beetle that I've set my +heart upon.' + +"`Oh, dear!' says sly Mother Cuckoo, `I do feel so faint; all over of a +tremble. Do, like a dear little mite, go and find my husband. He is in +the copse down by the miller's pond. I'll sit here and keep your eggs +warm till you return.' + +"But the little bird never finds Father Cuckoo, and when she comes back, +lo! old Mother Cuckoo has gone, but the sly bird has left an egg bigger +and different from any in the nest. And that egg seems to throw a +glamour over the little bird; she feels compelled to hatch it, and to +rear the little one when it comes out to the neglect of her own family, +for the young cuckoo is such a powerful eater that it takes both the +little bird and her husband all their time to gather insects for it and +stuff them down its gaping throat, and--" + +"Now, Dick," cried Warlock, "if you're quite done we would like to hear +Shireen's story; you may fly to Persia with the cuckoos in August if you +like, and--" + +"And perhaps never come home again," said Tabby; "don't you go, Dick, +don't you go." + +From all I can recollect of Persia, said Shireen, it is a very beautiful +country in summer-time, although away high up in the mountain fastnesses +of the North, terrible snowstorms sometimes blow, and here dwell tribes +and clans of wild Persian Highlanders that are at war with all the +world. + +Yet, strange to say, these wild men are kind to their cats, and pussy in +these regions is looked upon as quite one of the family. + +But it was not in these wilds that I first saw the light of day, or any +other light, children, but far away in what my mother called the sunny +South. + +"Much game there, mother?" asked Warlock, pricking both his ears. + +"I'll come to that presently, Warlock, you mustn't interrupt, you know." + +My very earliest recollections then, you must know, are all centred in +my mother. This is only natural. Besides, my mother was very beautiful +indeed. My little brother and I--we were both born at the same time-- +disagreed about many matters connected with domestic life and family +arrangements, but we were both of the same opinion concerning mother's +beauty. I was very young when I first opened my eyes, but I have only +to close them again now, and mother rises up before me in all her +loveliness. White were the snows that capped the jagged hills of the +Zarda Koo, no snows could be whiter, but more spotless still, I thought, +was the coat of my dam. Blue were the rifts between the clouds in the +autumn, but bluer and brighter my mother's eyes. Then every movement +she made was graceful and easy. Was it any wonder that brother and I +loved her, or that we sometimes fought for the best place in her arms? + +Looking back through the long vista of years, I cannot help thinking +that perhaps my mother loved my brother better than me. I am sure she +spent more time in licking him, but then I may be wrong, for I was +restless, and would at any time rather have romped with mother's tail +than submitted to her caresses when they took the shape of licking my +face and ears with her tongue. Besides, brother had a black spot on his +brow, which mother thought she would succeed in licking off. So she +would lick and lick and lick until she fell back tired and exhausted on +the cushion of crimson silk that formed our bed. + +I did not know then the value that human beings attached to a cushion +like this. Nor the value of anything around me. + +Everything, brother and I believed, belonged to mother, the whole +universe, as far as we had yet seen it, belonged to her, and the slaves +that came softly stealing across the thick carpets and placed mother's +food before her in dishes of solid gold and silver, were, in our +opinion, if we thought about the matter at all, only creatures of common +clay that lived and moved and had their beings merely to minister to +mother's wants and needs. + +I am much wiser now, children, and I can tell you that the splendid +apartments where mother lived when we were very young, were furnished +with splendour and elegance, unknown to this land of cloudy skies and +misty rain. + +That silk cushion, children, on which mother lay, was richly embroidered +with threads of gold, and tasselled with pearls and precious stones. +The room itself was lofty, and hung everywhere with curtains of rarest +value. Great punkahs, moved by invisible hands, depended from the roof, +and, waving to and fro, kept us cool. Costly vases and musical +instruments stood here and there, and couches of pale-blue silk and +silver were ranged along the walls. There was a dim religious light +throughout, and from an arched window we could catch glimpses of gardens +filled with lovely flowers and fruit, and watered by cool fountains that +threw their snow-white spray far up against the blue of the sky. And +everywhere the air was laden with the rich and rare odour of orange and +citron blooms. + +Then on the soft Persian carpets, I was afterwards told, my brother and +I used to play with rubies as large as marbles. + +"Something to eat?" said Dick, thoughtfully. + +"No, Dick, a ruby is nothing to eat, but it is something held so sacred +by human beings, that one such precious stone would buy all the fine +things a man could use in a long, long lifetime." + +Now, some weeks after brother and I opened our eyes, we learned to lap +milk. It was difficult to do this at first, though we wanted to, +because our eyes were not yet strong enough to judge distances, and +sometimes when we thought we were licking the milk we were only lapping +the air; then when we put our heads further down our noses went into the +silver saucer up to the eyes, and we thought we were drowned, and sprang +up and sneezed. + +While trying one day to lap some milk, we noticed that mother was +singing to a very pretty human being, who sat cross-legged upon a low +ottoman. Mother was singing, and she was also rubbing her head +backwards and forwards against this lovely human creature's bare arm. +Brother and I sat back and looked up in astonishment, although looking +up made our heads so light that we nearly tumbled. + +"Oh! aren't they funny, funny, funny?" cried a voice. It was that of +the beautiful human being. + +The words only sounded to us like rippling music then, music such as the +birds in their golden cages made, and the spray of the fountain +splashing down and falling into its marble basin. But mother afterwards +translated the language to us. + +Day after day now this human being sat there cross-legged on the +ottoman, and we soon began to like her as much as mother did. + +She was very young and very beautiful, her little mouth was a rosebud, +her eyes were very large, but jetty black, not blue like mother's. She +was dressed in robes of flowing silk of many colours, and when she +walked, glittering chains of gold and precious stones jangled and rang. +Beside her often stood a tall and powerful man-human, as dark as night, +with fierce red eyes, white flashing teeth, and a girdle around his +waist, from which hung an ugly half-moon knife. Brother and I were much +afraid of this man-human. He was an ogre, and we ran backwards, raised +our hair, and spat aloud at him when he came near us. But the young and +lovely lady was not at all afraid of the ogre, but used to play with his +knife and tease him. + +Mother told us then that we must love the beautiful girl. She was our +mistress and our queen. + +Well, this would not have made brother and me love the queen one little +bit, for we did not want any queen but mother. But the queen was so +fond and so gentle, and used to smooth us so tenderly with her white and +taper fingers, which were all bedecked with rings and sparkling stones, +that we came to love her as much in time as mother seemed to do. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +One day we had an adventure that I shall never forget. + +Far, in through the open window, sprang a splendid lion-looking cat, +just like mother, only bigger and bolder. He advanced to where we all +lay with a fond and loving cry; but mother sprang up in a rage. All her +hair was raised from end to end, her back was arched, and her eyes +flashed like glowing lights. + +Brother and I got up and tried to follow her example, but we both +tumbled over on the cushion and lay there in most inglorious attitudes. + +"Mrrrak, mrr--mrr--mrrk!" That is what father said. Yes, Warlock, I +must tell you at once this lion-like cat was our father. + +At first mother advanced to meet him growling like a volcano, but he +threw himself on his back and behaved in a fashion altogether so +ridiculous, and with so many droll attitudes of blandishment, that +mother finally softened, all her hair flowed backwards again, and she +began to sing. Then she ran back to the cushion and picked my brother +up, and, throwing herself on her back, held him high in her arms for +father to admire. + +"Mrr--wrr--wrr--wurruk!" cried father, and gently tapped brother on the +back. + +This so pleased mother that she jumped up and ran round and round the +room. Then she came back and slapped father with a gloved hand. Then +father slapped her and sent her flying half-way across the room. In a +moment she sprang up and leapt on top of him, and the two rolled over +and over on the carpet in mimic warfare, but so like a real battle was +it, that for some time brother and I were very much afraid indeed. + +Well, father came nearly every day after this, and he nearly always +brought a little bird, warm but dead, and perhaps, with a little spot of +blood on its breast. I'm afraid it was sometimes a bulbul, or +nightingale, and more than once it was a canary. + +But it did not matter to mother one whit. She ate it, feathers and all, +except the tail and the wings, growling awfully all the time she was +devouring it. Meanwhile father stood aside and seemed so pleased that +he did not know what to do with himself. + +When she had finished the bird, brother and I had the wings and tail to +play with, and we pretended to be mother, and growled like little wild +beasts. Then mother would sit down and wash her face. As soon as she +had done so she jumped merrily off the cushion and slapped father, and +then the fun began. + +One day father came into the room looking much more like a lion than +ever, and he had something in his mouth. + +He was growling, too, and I think mother was half afraid of him. But he +came right up to the spot where brother and I were playing with our +ruby, and placed a strange and weird-looking creature down right in +front of us. + +We had never seen such a little animal before. It wasn't a bird, for it +had no wings, only feet, and fur as soft as mother's, but dark in +colour. It lay on its side, and, dreadfully frightened though we were, +brother and I both put up our backs and spat and growled most bravely. + +The little vision in fur, which I now know to have been a harmless +mouse, lay on its side quite paralysed with fear, but father stretched +out his gloved hand and pushed it. Then it jumped up and ran away. + +Oh, what a fright brother and I got when we saw that the wild mouse was +alive! And how brave we thought father was when he sprang after it and +brought it back. + +But we soon regained our courage, and father and mother stood aside to +see us play with it. Whenever it escaped they brought it back. + +At last the poor little morsel, all wet and bedraggled, stood up on its +hind legs in front of father, and wagged its two wee naked hands in +front of its nose. Mother told me afterwards what it was saying. + +"Oh, kill me please," it pleaded. "Kill me quick and put me out of +pain." + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +"YOU MUST HAVE A NAME, MY LOVELY FLOWER." + +Hitherto, continued Shireen, shifting her position on the footstool to +one of greater comfort, hitherto, my children, the life of brother and +myself had been all indoors. We knew of no other world than that +bounded by the four walls of the room around us, and it never occurred +to me to wonder where our lion-like father obtained the birds which he +never forgot to bring mother daily. + + _A propos_ of Shireen's father bringing the mother pussy the birds, I + have a little anecdote to tell that is not without its humorous side. + Some years ago I possessed a very large and handsome half-Persian + white Tom, whom the children called Jujube. This cat, being allowed + to roam the world at the freedom of his own will, formed an attachment + with a neighbour's lady-cat, and married her. I was not invited to + the marriage, so do not know when it took place, nor what speeches + were made at the wedding-breakfast. However, in course of time, Mrs + G--'s cat was about to have kittens, and, not having any knowledge of + how cats should be treated under such circumstances, she rather + cruelly turned her out of doors. It happened at this time that Mrs + G--had also twenty-one young chickens. And now they began to + disappear at the rate of one every day, and so on for nineteen days. + Her cat had also disappeared, and could not be found. But on the + nineteenth day the mystery was explained, for walking in my orchard I + happened to look between two tall hedges, and there, on a nest of dry + leaves was the mother cat, with five beautiful kittens. Poor Ju had + brought her here, had made the warm nest for her, and gone every day + back to her old home and brought her a chicken. Ju had evidently + reasoned that although Mrs G--had turned her out, she ought to be + well-fed at the expense of her mistress. Hence, the robbery of the + chicken-roost. + +He did not come in through the curtained doorway that led out into the +orangery with its fountains and its flowers, but leapt down from a +window that was too high for us to reach. + +One day, the door leading into the garden was left open, and mother, +discovering this, determined to take us out. + +If I should live to be as old as Chammy yonder, my children, I shall +never forget that morning. We followed mother timidly, fearfully, and +on rather shaky legs I must admit, for we were not yet very strong. + +And every time a leaf fell, or went fluttering past us we started and +trembled, nay, I am not sure we did not even start at our own shadows in +the strong sunlight. + +We gathered a little more confidence at last, but everything was so new +and so strange and so unaccountable that it seemed like walking in a +dream. I looked up for a moment at the sun, but quickly withdrew my +gaze; then all was suddenly dark around me. I thought the earth had +opened and swallowed us all up, and mewed in terror. But things soon +became light once more, mother licked the top of my head, and on we +went, now with more confidence. + +There were birds singing here, and flitting to and fro through the spray +of the gurgling fountains; light and colour and beauty were everywhere. +Then the air was strong and fresh and balmy, and, oh, so delightfully +warm, that we soon felt perfectly at home, and bold enough even to chase +the fluttering leaves. + +But for all this we would not venture far away from mother. And when at +last we were tired of romping, and our beautiful mother went trotting +back into the room again, we were all glad enough to follow. What with +the exceeding brightness of the sun out of doors, we could not see +anything at all when we went inside. Night seemed to have descended and +enveloped us all in its darksome folds. But mother, wiser than we, led +us back to our cushion, and no sooner did we lie down than we fell into +a sound and dreamless slumber. + +So ended our first outing. + +It became a regular thing now, however, this walk in the garden, and +seeing we enjoyed it so much, our mistress and queen, whom the tall, +black, red-eyed savage called Beebee, took us out to revel among the +sunshine and the flowers every day; and every day brother and I seemed +to grow stronger and bigger. + +I began to love Beebee very much too, and it was she who named me +Shireen. + +Yes, Warlock, it is a strange name, and so would yours appear to the +people of Persia. + +But one day, Beebee took me on her lap, and told me why she had named me +Shireen. "You must have a name, my lovely flower," she said, in her +sweet child voice, "so it shall be Shireen. For know ye, that this was +the name held by the wife of a very great king and lord of Persia, who +lived ages and ages and ages ago, when this lovely land was even greater +than it is now." + +I fear, my children, that I did not pay very much heed to all Beebee was +telling me, for I was very much taken up with a string of pearls and +rubies that she wore around her beautiful arm just above the elbow, and +all the time she was speaking, I was chewing at it. But mother listened +and told me the tale of the Queen Shireen over again when we were all by +ourselves. + +"I remember it," said a voice which wasn't Warlock's. It was a voice +that seemed to come from the clouds, and a strange, sepulchral tone it +had. "Yes, I remember it. Just wait till I get down the chimney." + +To say that every member of that circle of old friends round the fire +was startled would be a poor way of describing the general +consternation. + +A strange voice coming down the chimney! A weird, sepulchral voice! +And the owner of that voice was going to follow it. He, she, or it, was +coming down the chimney! + +Would the lights burn blue when the ghostly thing--the dread apparition +appeared? + +"Eh? eh?" cried the starling. "What is it? What is it? Tse, tse, +tse!" [These were favourite expressions of my starling.] + +Tabby's hair stood on end from tail to crown. Vee-Vee's hair would have +followed suit, only a Pomeranian's hair is always on end, and fright +even couldn't fix it a bit higher. Shireen herself, being slightly +imbued with superstition, confessed afterwards that she felt a trifle +uneasy as she gazed at the chimney and waited. + +The only really brave individual in the whole circle was Warlock. There +was nothing belonging to this world, or even to a much worse world than +ours, that could have frightened Warlock. So he sprang up, faced the +fire, and barked. + +"Don't be alarmed, any of you," said the voice in the chimney. "It's +only me. I'm coming down to tell you the story of Shireen, Queen of +Persia. Bless you, I remember her. It's only a matter of a thousand +and a half years--" + +Here the creature was seized apparently with a fit of coughing, and next +moment he, she, or it, landed all in a heap close to Shireen's +footstool. + +It was only Chammy after all, and everybody felt so relieved. + +"I daresay," he explained, "I've changed colour a bit. Nothing unusual +in a chameleon changing colour, is there, Shireen, my furry dear?" + +"No, Chammy, and you really have changed colour. Why, you are as black +as a sweep. Whatever made you creep up the chimney?" + +I may observe here, parenthetically, that Chammy was sometimes found in +the queerest places. You see, he had the run of the room, and made +strange use of it at times. + +Once, for example, he disappeared for a whole week, and was found at +last hiding behind a large cobweb in Colonel Clarkson's study. The +Colonel was a humane sort of man, you must know, and this particular +cobweb belonged to his pet spider, and was never touched. Oh, no, +Chammy had not eaten the spider; Chammy knew better than that. The fact +is, he had been studying that pet spider for weeks perhaps before he +carried his scheme into execution. + +I notice he must have said to himself, "That that big spider never wants +plenty of flies, and that she repairs her web, after it has been broken +by a blue-bottle fly, overnight, and has it nice and new and fresh next +morning fit for another day's sport. Well, why should she have all the +blue-bottles? The blue-bottles are as much mine as hers. Now, _I_ +can't build a web and catch them, but I can sit snugly enough near hers, +and when a blue-bottle comes I can just touch him off. That sort of +life will suit me far better than catching my own flies, for I'm not so +young as I used to be a thousand years ago." + +Another time Chammy had been away a whole month, after partaking of +about five-and-twenty mealworms. The Colonel felt sure he would never +see his droll favourite again; but one day he told the servant to put a +little fire in his study, and half an hour after that, Chammy was found +sitting on the fender, holding up his fingers and palms to woo the +welcome blaze. + +In the sweet summer-time, Chammy was taken out of doors and allowed to +crawl on a grizzled old apple tree that grew near to the study window. +This used to please Chammy very much, and he stalked flies with unerring +skill, and had plenty of exercise at the same time. The strange point +of the story is this: the tree was for the most part grey and gnarled, +so was Chammy, and a fly would often alight right in front of him. Out +would go Chammy's tongue, slowly and steadily at first, then--pop! and +the fly would wonder where in all the world he had got to. But there +were large patches of green moss on the apple tree, and Chammy dearly +loved these because they were warm and soft for his feet; but when +resting on one, he took the precaution to change colour to a beautiful +sea-green, and so the flies got licked in just the same. Well, one +evening, when Colonel Clarkson went to fetch Chammy in, he couldn't find +him high nor low; he looked on the grey and gnarled parts of the tree, +and he carefully examined the patches of moss, and he even focussed his +lorgnettes and scanned the tree up and down; but no Chammy was to be +seen, green or grey. So the Colonel put up his glasses with a sigh, +saying to himself, "Some vagrant cat has no doubt taken my poor pet +away." + +Weeks flew by, and one evening while the kindly old soldier sat alone +with his wife in the drawing-room, both very still, because they were +reading and the children were away in the woods, lo! the cottage piano +in the corner suddenly began to play. + +Colonel Clarkson looked at his wife and his wife looked at the Colonel. +Both, I think, were a little frightened, for when they glanced towards +the piano there was nobody there. + +But the ghostly music continued. It was strange, it was unaccountable +and wonderful! The music was all on the descending scale, and chords +were struck chiefly fifths. But the keys of the piano did not move, and +the notes sounded far away. Presently the performance was concluded +with a series of groans emitted by the bass strings. + +"I have it," the Colonel cried, "it is Chammy. Dear old Chammy." + +Me jumped up and opened the instrument wide, and there sure enough was +the chameleon. He had been asleep in there for three weeks or more, and +had awakened hungry and lively--poor Chammy. + +"Whatever made you get up the chimney, Chammy?" said Shireen again. + +"Just to find a cosy corner," replied the chameleon, "for lor', bless +your pretty face, Shireen, now that the days are getting shorter, my +poor old toes do be that wondrous cold sometimes, you wouldn't believe." + +"But you wanted to hear the story of Queen Shireen, didn't you?" + +"Yes, Chammy, if you won't take long to tell it." + +"Oh, not more'n a hundred years or so. Time is nothing to me, you +know." + +But time was a good deal to these old friends around the fire, so it +ended after all in Chammy climbing up into his perch again, and +apparently going to sleep there, with his droll eyes open, and Shireen +herself having to tell the story. + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +CHOSROES AND HIS QUEEN SHIREEN. + +Though Chammy talks about having been up in those days, said Shireen, +when everybody was once more comfortably settled in his place, I don't +really believe it, you know. For I think Chammy falls asleep and dreams +things. Besides, Queen Shireen lived far longer ago than one thousand +years. More nearly thirteen hundred years ago, my dear mistress Beebee +told me. [Chosroes Parveez commenced his second reign Anno Domini 591.] + +"You must know, dear Shireen," Beebee said as she smoothed my back and +brow, "that in olden times Persia was a far grander country, and far +more rich and warlike than it is now, and old King Chosroes the First, +the grandfather of Shireen's husband, reigned for fifty years in Persia, +his wonderful palace being at Ctesiphon." + +"Tse, tse, tse!" interrupted Dick. + +Yes, Dick, said Shireen, I daresay you find that a hard word to +remember. Well, the acts of Chosroes during the closing years of his +long life are wonderful, for he not only expelled the Turkish hordes +that had deigned to cross the Persian frontiers, but led an army against +the greatest fortress that the Romans had in the south-east, and after +tremendous fighting, that lasted for nearly six months, he captured it, +and compelled the enemy to pay an indemnity of forty thousand pieces of +gold. + +I relate this story with conscious pride, my children, because, +remember, I am a soldier's cat. + +Well, Warlock, I daresay there were no Scotch terriers in those days, +for while Persia was in the height of its glory, Britain was inhabited +by a race, or rather many races, who knew very little indeed of +civilisation. Don't be angry, Warlock. Well, children, the old king +was succeeded by his son, Hormazd, who celebrated his coronation by +putting all his brothers to death. This was certainly not very humane, +but it was the common practice in those days, and it probably saved the +reigning king's life, for poisoned cups and daggers were much used in +olden times as an easy way of securing accession to estates and thrones. + +[The author begs to say that he believes Shireen may be wrong about the +Scotch terriers, for in a hotel in Surrey there is a beautiful engraving +of a picture by one of the old masters--he can't say which old master-- +called "Noah alighting from the Ark." Well, Noah is surrounded by his +family, and accompanied by two Scotch collie dogs, good enough to win a +prize anywhere. Question: If there were Scotch collies, why not Scotch +terriers?] + +Nevertheless this new king was tolerant of Christianity, and this itself +speaks in his favour. However, he committed one mistake, and this cost +him his throne; for one of his greatest generals happening to lose a +battle, as any general might once in a way, he degraded him by sending +him the dress and the distaff of an old woman. "Wear these, general," +was the message that accompanied the gift. "Give up war now and take to +spinning." + +Now this general was the hero of a hundred fights, so he now swore +revenge, and marched with an army against the king's capital. This was +the beginning of the end of Hormazd's reign. The end itself soon came, +and a terrible one it was. The army that Hormazd sent against the +general mutinied. Then the maternal uncle of Chosroes, the son of the +king, arose and threw Hormazd into prison. A prison in those days was a +vile and slimy dark dungeon, alive with vermin of every description. It +was soon darker still for poor Hormazd, because men came at night and +blinded him with red-hot wires. Death was surely a relief to him after +this. And it soon came. He was murdered, and his son reigned in his +stead. + +It has been said that Chosroes the Second had had some hand in his +father's death, but Beebee, my mistress, did not believe this, neither +must we. We should be charitable. Besides, I don't think that if +Chosroes had given orders for his father's execution, that he would have +condemned his uncle to death as soon as he mounted the throne. + +But Chosroes the Second became a very great king, or shah, though in the +end, very unfortunate. + +For my own part, continued Shireen after a little pause, I would rather +have been a cat than a king in those days. It does seem very sad that +although Chosroes the Second was a great conqueror, and expelled the +fighting power of Rome from both Asia and Africa, that although he +elevated his own country to perhaps the highest rank it had ever held, +he should have lived to see Persia ruined. He himself was thrown into +prison. Oh! the pity of it, children; and his favourite sons and +daughters brought in and murdered before his face. + +Shireen, his queen, was the one only wife he had ever loved. + +And what a fearful fall was his! Remember that he was a very great +king, a very mighty conqueror, and his whole story reads like one of the +grandest of old romances. It is too long for a poor pussy cat like me +to tell, but I heard my master only yesterday say to Lizzie and Tom, +that they must read histories like that of Persia in the days of its +glory, if they would really enjoy chivalry and romance combined, and +Lizzie says she is sure she will, and Tom too, when they get a little +older. + +But Chosroes was at the height of his glory after he had cowed and +conquered the proud Romans, depriving them of every foot of territory +won by their legions under Caesar and Pompey and many others. + +And nothing could exceed the splendour of his court and palace at +Ctesiphon, nor the extent of his wealth and riches. + +The Persians do not turn night into day. They live naturally, go to bed +early and get up while the morning is still in its pristine beauty; and +this healthful practice was in fashion even in the days of Chosroes the +Second. And it was at sunrise, in his splendid pavilion, that this king +and conqueror gave audience. From Arabia, from Egypt, from Mesopotamia, +from Armenia, yea, from east and west, and north and south, flocked +couriers to these audiences. And there the king would be to receive +them, and at his side the beautiful and virtuous Shireen; while around +him were gathered in robes of state his generals, his wise men, and his +nobles of every rank, all proud of their great lord and master, yet +trembling at every word he uttered; while each minute there sped from +the gates of the magnificent palace swift horsemen, bearing to every +nook of his vast dominions the commands of this mighty king. + +But the luxury of this palace, the art displayed, the carvings, mosaics, +the draperies, the ornamentation of every summer or winter room or +saloon, and the voluptuous splendour and comfort, what tongue could +describe? + +Some notion of the extent of the palace and its magical surroundings may +be gathered from the fact that three thousand ladies-in-waiting lived in +or around the vast and luxurious fort, and that these had twelve +thousand hand-maidens to wait upon them. But the stables must have been +a marvellous show. Fancy, Warlock, twelve thousand white camels, a +thousand lordly elephants, and fifty thousand horses, asses, and mules. + +"Tse, tse, tse!" from Dick once more. + +"You well may marvel, Dick darling." + +But alas! and alas! the tide took a turn, and all the glory of Chosroes +ended in gloomy tragedy. + +The fortunes of Rome were at the lowest ebb in 617 A.D. The warriors of +Persia were actually within a mile--of water--of the capital, and +Herodius, the emperor, had already sent away his family and his +treasures, and was himself preparing to fly, when, instigated by his +people and their patriarch, he took a solemn oath to do or die for Rome. + + "And when can men die better, + Than in facing fearful odds, + For the ashes of their fathers, + And the country of their Gods?" + +The Persians were getting ready their fleet to cross that silvery +streak. The Romans, had a fleet. That fleet was the beginning of the +salvation of Rome and the overthrow of mighty Chosroes. Herodius sailed +on Easter Monday 622 A.D. for the Gulf of Issus, with the remains of his +shattered army, and the great general and hero, Shahr Barz, made haste +to annihilate the Romans and their emperor. But these fought with all +the energy and fury of despair, and the Persians were beaten. + +Down, down, down went Chosroes now. His own people at last revolted +against him, and he was thrown into a vile dungeon called the Dungeon of +Darkness. Bread and water was his only fare, and even the officers of +his guard spat upon and reviled him. He was led forth at last, suffered +every indignity, and was tortured to death. + +His only consolation in his terrible imprisonment in that dark and +loathsome dungeon, was the thought that his beautiful Queen Shireen was +dead. + +Nay, she was not dead, she had gone before. For Shireen was not only a +beautiful and good woman, but a Christian in every sense of the word. + +But although so many hundreds of years have fled since then, far away in +the palatial homes of Persia, and in the humbler houses of her sons and +daughters, bards and minstrels sing to this day of the deeds of the +hero-king, bold Chosroes, and of the love he bore for sweet Shireen. + +CHAPTER SIX. + +"NA, LASS," SAID CRACKER, "I'LL NO DRINK THE LITTLE 'UN'S MILK." + +But it is time, said Shireen, that I should return in the home of my +dear mistress, the beautiful young Beebee, and the events of my own +early days. It may be thought a descent from the heroic, and yet I +don't know, Warlock; for you know a cat, or even a Scotch terrier, may +show real heroism at times. + +I do not want to boast, but I must tell you, children, that I once had a +terrible encounter with a wild lion in the forest, and that I came off +victorious. Oh, dear me, I should not have nerve enough for so awful an +adventure now, but then I knew not what fear was. + +My lovely mistress then used to take me out into the woods with her. +She rode upon a charming milk-white steed, with tail and mane dyed +crimson, and was attended by many armed horsemen. I used to sit in +front of her on the saddle. + +But one day a bird on a bough that bent very low over us attracted my +attention, while Shireen stopped her horse, and was talking to one of +her armed attendants. + +I sprang at once into the tree to seize the bird, that I might take it +home in triumph to my mother. Alas! I not only missed my bird, but I +lost my mistress. + +For when I descended the bough again no one was there. The whole +cavalcade had ridden on. What should I do? I ran hither and thither, +mewing and crying in terror and anguish, but no one came near me. Had I +been an older cat I might easily have found my way back. But I was then +only four months old, and knew not what to do, or which way to turn. + +I descended to the ground, however, and did the best thing perhaps that +I could have done. I sat down on the greensward and determined to wait. +My mistress, I felt sure, would send back for me as soon as she missed +me. + +But, as ill-luck would have it, a small nut fell from a tree close to my +nose. I jumped to my feet in a moment. What a game I did have to be +sure with that nut! My mistress, my mother, every creature in the world +was forgotten in the mad excitement of that merry game. I played and +played till the shades of evening fell around me, then tired, exhausted, +and hungry, yet not knowing where to look for food, I threw myself down +under a bush and went fast asleep. + +I awoke at last, though how long I had slept I could not tell, nor could +I tell my whereabouts, for in my mad merry game I must have gone miles +away from the spot where I had been lost. I was lost now, indeed! And +I was also dreadfully frightened, for the forest all around me resounded +with the cries and the roaring of wild beasts. I had heard my mother +speak of these, and how terrible they all were, and how quickly they +could cranch the life out of the biggest cat that ever lived. But, +strange to say, I was not a bit afraid. + +The moon was shining as bright as day, so I got up and determined I +would try to find my way out of the awful forest. Luck favoured me for +once. Not that my situation was changed much for the better, for I now +found myself in a broad or treeless waste; but the awful noise of the +wild beasts no longer confused me, and I thought I would soon be home. + +That plain was wider far than I had any idea of, and when the moon went +down at last, after walking some distance further, I once more lay down +to sleep. It was grey dawn when I awoke, and found I was not far from +another forest. This I entered. But I had not gone far when a loud +peal of thunder seemed to shake the earth to its very foundation, and I +thought for a moment that the trees were going to fall upon me and crush +my life out. I looked up, and lo! instead of thunder I found that the +awful sound proceeded from a monster cat with eyes like yellow fire, and +great teeth as thick as my tail. + +I knew it was a lion, so I determined to slay him where he stood, and +advanced towards him with this bold intent. + +I arched my back to make myself look as terrible as possible, and my +hair standing all on end made me look double the size. Then I growled, +but not _quite_ so loud as the lion. The lion had lain down for a +spring, but I am sure he had never seen the like of me before. + +On I marched, half sideways. + +The lion looked droll and puzzled. + +I was within a yard of him now, still walking half sideways, with arched +back and one foot in the air. I did this for effect. + +"Fuss-ss! Fut! Sphut!" + +I jumped directly at his face. But I never got near him. With a yell +of terror he sprang high in the air, then made off into the dark depths +of the forest as fast as his four legs could carry him. + +My adventure was over, for I saw him no more; but oh, joy! half-an-hour +after this, just as the beautiful sun was rising, red and rosy, over the +wooded hills, something as white as snow came feathering along towards +me. It was my own dear blue-eyed mother, and in two hours' time I was +safely home again and on my little mistress's lap. + +The days and weeks flew by, oh, so quickly at my Persian home, and when +I look back to them now it is with some degree of regret that I did not +then realise my happiness. It is ever thus, and even mankind himself +laments the loss of his youth. The days of the young are golden, their +pathway leads over the soft sward; there are flowers at _every_ side and +trees nod green above; beyond is the azure sky, and the young think that +storms will never arise, that their path will ay be smooth, that the +trees will never be stripped of their foliage, nor the bright flowers +cease to blow. Alas! and alas! for the dreams of youth. + +Well, my youth or my kittenhood came to an end. And I think it came all +at once. I was in the garden one day all by myself, when suddenly I was +confronted with a monster brown rat of a breed that grows larger in +Persia, they tell me, than anywhere else in the world. + +Will you believe me, children, when I tell you that I felt more afraid +of that rat than I had been of the lion? The awful beast did not even +run away, and I knew it would be a battle to the bitter end. + +"Only you, is it?" he said. "Fiss! I'm not afraid of a kitten. Your +father killed my brother, and I mean to be revenged on you. Fiss!" + +Then the fight began. How long it lasted I do not know. But in the end +I was conqueror. What mattered it that I was bitten all about the face +and feet, or my beautiful white coat bedabbled with blood! + +Oh, that was a proud moment when I rushed in to my mother's presence +dragging my dead enemy across the mosaic floor. He was far too big to +lift and carry. + +I came in growling, feeling _every_ inch a heroine. Nor would I permit +my brother to touch my rat. My mother seemed very proud of me now, and +as soon as the slave came and carried away the trophy of my triumph, +mother commenced to clean my coat and bathe my wounds with her soft warm +tongue. I was soon well, but felt another being now, and would have +been quite ashamed to play any longer with my mother. I even deserted +the cushion on which I had slept so long, and slept higher up on an +ottoman. + +I now attached myself more and more to my young mistress Beebee, and I +became her favourite and her pet. I was almost constantly by her side +during the day, except when on the warpath slaying huge rats, and I +always occupied her lovely sleeping apartment at night. + +But young though she was, Beebee was never idle. And her story which +she told me one day, weeping bitterly, was, I thought, a very sad one. + +"My own Shireen," she said, "you see how hard at work they keep me. For +to me, Shireen, study is indeed the hardest of work. But my teachers +seldom leave me. I have a European lady to teach me English. This is +the best of it, and oh, how I wish I were English, and free; as it is, I +am but a slave. But this dear lady is good to me, and gives me lovely +fairy-tale books to read in her own language; but yet these I must hide +from the fierce-eyed eunuchs who guard me night and day. I am also +taught music, the piano, and the zither, and I am taught to sing. Then +a scion of the prophet--that old, old man with the long dyed beard, and +the cloak of camel's hair--teaches me Sanscrit and the higher branches +of the Persian, so that my poor little head is turned, and my night is +often passed in weeping and dreaming. + +"I have no mother, my sweet Shireen. Look at these pearls and rubies +and amethysts; I would give them all, all to have a mother, if only for +a month." + +I purred and sung to Beebee, but she would not be comforted. + +"I tell my story to you, Shireen, though you are only a cat. But I must +speak to some one who loves me, else I soon would die." + +Here her tears fell faster and faster. + +"And oh, Shireen, I have not told you the worst. + +"It is this, Shireen. Those beautiful English books tell me that in +England a man has someone to love and care for him, someone whose lot in +life is the same as his; that someone is his life. But here in Persia-- +oh! Shireen, Shireen--if one is as I am, the daughter of a noble, and +if she is beautiful and clever, her lot is indeed a hard one. She is +sold--yes, sold is the right name, to the Shah. + +"My father is cold-hearted and cruel. I seldom see him. He is ever, +ever at Court, and when in the hunting season he brings a party to this +lovely castle I am hidden away. And why, think you, Shireen? It is +because when I grow older and cleverer in a few years' time I shall go +in state to the Shah. My prince will never come, as he always does, in +beautiful English books; he will never come to bear me away. I shall be +but one of a thousand, and spend a life like a bulbul in a golden cage. + +"I have no one that loves me but you, Shireen. And now, lest they take +you from me, I am going to mark you. Oh, my beautiful cat, it will not +hurt. The magician himself will insert a tiny ruby in one of your +teeth, Shireen; then if they take you away because I love you so, and +bring me another cat like you, I can say, `No, no, this is not Shireen; +give me back Shireen.' And no peace will they have until you are +restored." + +Well, children, the magician took me from Beebee, and he put me into a +deep trance, and in one of my teeth he drilled a hole and inserted a +tiny ruby. + +That ruby is there now, and ever will remain. + +"Just look at that happy group, Mrs Clarkson," said Uncle Ben, "and +that wonderful cat in the midst of them. Wouldn't you think she had +been, or _is_ talking to them?" + +"Well," said Mrs Clarkson, "I shouldn't really wonder if animals that +are so much together day after day as these are, have a sort of language +of their own." + +"A kind of animal Volapuk," said the Colonel laughing. "Well, it may +be, you know, but I am of opinion, and have long been so, that animals +have souls. Oh, surely God never meant affection and love such as +theirs, and truth and faithfulness to rot in the ground." + +"Well, I can't say, you know," said Uncle Ben. + +"There is my cockatoo here." + +"Oh, pardon me for interrupting you, my sailor friend, but a cockatoo +hasn't half the sense and sagacity a cat has." + +"Poor Cockie wants to go to bed!"--This from the bird on Ben's shoulder. + +"Hear that?" cried Ben laughing. + +"When you can make your cat give utterances to such a sensible remark as +that, I'll--but, my dear soldier, it is eleven o'clock, and Tom and +Lizzie, poor little dears, have both dropped off to sleep. Good night!" + +"Good-night! Good-night!" shrieked the cockatoo in a voice that waked +the children at once. "Good-night. Cockie's off. Cockie's off." + +And away went the sailor. + +But next morning Shireen had an adventure that very nearly put a stop to +her story-telling for ever. + +She had gone off after breakfast for a ramble in the green fields and +through the village. It happened to be Saturday, so there was no school +to-day, and just as she was coming out of the cottage where the sick +child was, and promising herself a nap in Uncle Ben's hammock, who +should she see coming up the street with her little brother in a tall +perambulator, but her favourite schoolgirl, Emily Stoddart. + +Up marched Shireen with her tail in the air. + +"Oh, you dear lovely pussy!" cried Emily, lifting her up and placing her +in the perambulator, when she at once commenced to sing, greatly to the +delight of the child. + +And away went Emily wheeling them both. + +"Oh, dear, what shall we do, Shireen?" cried Emily next moment, trying +to hide pussy with a shawl. "Here comes the butcher's awful dog." + +The bull-terrier made straight for the perambulator. + +"Come down out o' there at once," he seemed to cry. "I've got you now. +You'll be a dead 'un in half-a-minute more." + +"You won't? Then here goes." + +The bull-terrier--and he was no small weight either--made a spring for +the perambulator. Emily made a spring to save the child. Danger had no +intention, however, of harming a hair in that child's head. It was the +cat Shireen he was after; the cat, the cat, and no one else. + +The child swayed to one side to save himself, and next moment down went +his carriage. Down went cat and carriage, the child and Emily, and the +bull-terrier, all mixed up in one confused heap. + +Shireen was the first to extricate herself and to bolt for her life, but +Danger was the next, and it did not seem that poor pussy's span of +existence was at that moment worth an hour's purchase. + +For a cat to permit herself to be caught by a dog while running away is +the worst possible policy for the cat, because the pursuer gets her by +the brick and the spine is broken. Shireen knew this, and she also knew +there was no way of escape handy, no railing to run through, no doorway +to enter, no tree to climb, so she determined to sell her life dearly. + +Round she turned, and the blow she caught that dog staggered him for a +little, and the blood ran over his face. + +All in vain though. He came on now with redoubled ferocity, and down +went poor Shireen. + +Emily screamed and flew to her assistance. + +But in two seconds more a true hero came to the rescue. This was none +other save Cracker himself, the large Airedale terrier. + +"Here, lad!" cried Cracker, or seemed to cry in good broad honest +Yorkshire English. "What's tha' doin' wi' t'ould cat?" + +He did not give the butcher's dog time to reply, but, seizing him by the +back of the neck, shook him as if he had been a rat. + +Never in his life before had Danger received so severe a chastisement. +In three minutes' time he was running down the street on three legs, and +all covered with blood and dust. + +Shireen quietly reseated herself in the baby's carriage, and Emily +didn't know what to do with perfect joy. She got Cracker round the neck +and positively hugged him. + +"Oh, you dear good noble dog," she cried. "Here, you must have a drop +of milk." + +She took the child's bottle, poured a little into her hand, and held it +out to Cracker. + +But Cracker only shook his head. + +"Na, lass, na," he said. "I'll come and see thee now and then, but-- +I'll no drink the little 'un's milk." + +A rougher-looking and more unkempt tyke than Cracker you might have +wandered a long way without meeting. Yet he hid under that towsy +exterior of his a kind and generous heart. And from that day Emily, he, +and Shireen were the best of friends. + +Cracker would meet the girl in the street and walk up, laughing all over +apparently, and shaking his thick stub of a docked tail till it seemed +to retaliate and shake the dog. + +"How's things this mornin', Emily?" he seemed to say. "And how's the +little 'un? You haven't got t'ould cat to-day then. Well, good-bye. +I'm just off." + +And away he would trot. + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +BEEBEE'S FATE IS SEALED. + +It was a day or two after, that Shireen once more met her friends, but +this time it was on the sunny lawn in front of Uncle Ben's bungalow. + +They were all there except Chammy the chameleon. No one knew for the +present where he was. He had eaten an extra supply of mealworms and +flies the day before, and forthwith disappeared. In a fortnight's time +perhaps, he might be found in the fold of a curtain, or behind the +ventilator in the Colonel's study, or he might be brought up from the +cellar in a scuttle of coals, or tumble out of a bag of flour when the +cook went to make a dumpling, for no one could ever say for certain +where Chammy might or might not be. + +But on this particular afternoon Colonel Clarkson and Uncle Ben were +drinking iced sherbet, and smoking their pipes in peace at a little +wicker table under the shadow of the great chestnut tree. + +Warlock and Tabby had just come back from a long ramble in the woods, +and thrown themselves down beside Shireen and her foster son, Vee-Vee, +the Pomeranian, Cockie, and Dick, the starling, were bandying words +together on the gowany lawn. [The gowan is the mountain daisy.] + +It would have been very difficult indeed for a stranger to have told +whether they were quarrelling or not. + +One thing is certain, they were each of them trotting out all the words +in their somewhat limited vocabulary for the other's benefit, no matter +whether they were relevant or not. + +Dick was much more active than Cockie, and ran round and round him on +the lawn, pausing occasionally to thrust his beak into the ground, and +opening it out like a pair of compasses, peep into the hole to see if a +worm were at home. + +I have said that Dick kept running round and round Cockie. He certainly +described a circle about two yards from the cockatoo--he knew better +than to come any nearer, for the big bird had a punishing beak--but +seeing that Cockie in the centre went wheeling about, and always faced +Dick, it becomes a question whether Dick actually did go round him. +What do you think? + +And all the while the two kept talking. + +Not that their conversation was very edifying. I shall give you a +sample. + +_Dick_.--(After swallowing a worm six inches long.) "Tse, tse, tse, tse! +Pretty Dick! Pr-r-r-etty Dick!" + +_Cockie_.--"Pretty Cockie!" + +_Dick_.--"Dick's a darling starling, master's pretty pet." + +_Cockie_.--"Poo-oor Cockie!" + +_Dick_.--"Eh? Eh? What is it? What d'ye say? Tse, tse, tse! You +rr-r-rascal!" + +_Cockie_.--"Cockie wants to go to bed!" + +_Dick_.--"You r-rascal! Sugar, snails, and sop! What is it, you +r-rascal? Whew, whew, whew!" (whistling). + +_Cockie_ (singing).--"Lal de lal, de dal, de dal." + +_Dick_ (talking very fast).--"Dick's a darling! Dick's a starling! +Dick's a master's pretty pet, sugar, snails, and pretty sop; you +r-r-rascal!" + +Dick now hauls out an extra long worm. Cockie shrieks as if he had seen +a snake. Dick, frightened out of his wits, lets go the worm, and flies +off to perch on the tabby cat's glossy back, and commences--a favourite +trick of his--to go through the motions of having a bath. + +"Well, Mother Shireen," says Warlock. + +"Well, children, so you've got back?" + +"Oh, Mother Shireen, what a day we've been having!" says Tabby. + +"Yes," cries Warlock, "it's been an out and outer." + +"You haven't been naughty, I hope?" + +"Oh, no, that is not particularly. But I chased Mother Maver's old grey +cat, though I didn't mean to have done so; but what does she always want +to spit at me for I want to know? And I jumped at Farmer Dobbs' game +cock, and nearly had him by the tail. Oh, didn't he skraigh just! and +didn't the chickens fly! And then old Farmer Dobbs flew at me with the +garden rake. But I don't care, for his cock once struck me on the head +with his foot and made a hole in it. Then Tab and I went to the woods. +It is fine fun being in the woods. We found a wild bees' hive. Honey +is so nice, though Tab doesn't care for it. But I soon had the combs +out, and I'm afraid I killed all the bees. Twenty settled on my back, +then I rolled over and over with my heels in the air, and that settled +them. We went to the weasel's nest, but the weasel must have seen us +coming. Weasels are wily, you know. But Tab killed a wild pigeon, and +I killed a mole. We tried to get a rabbit, but couldn't. Then we spent +a whole hour trying to catch a water rat, but they are wily like the +weasels, and the door of their house is deep down under the water. Tab +isn't much good in the water, but you can't beat her in a tree. Some +day we are going to ask Cracker to come with us to the water-rat's bank, +and we'll sink a mine, and then see if the rats can make fools of Tab +and me. On our way back, we passed old Farmer Dobbs' place again, and +then we had it out." + +"Had what out?" said Vee-Vee. + +"Why the game cock's tail. He was in a field with his hens, and said +something cheeky to us as we passed, and I went for him. He flew up +into a tree, but Tab soon had him down out of that. Tab is simply a +treat in a tree. Then I grabbed him by the tail, and, oh, didn't the +feathers fly just! You _would_ have laughed. We left in rather a +hurry, because old Farmer Dobbs went in to get his gun. We shan't go +Farmer Dobbs' way again for a whole fortnight. But come, Shireen, tell +us a little more of your story. You left yourself at Beebee's beautiful +palace in Persia." + +Yes, said Shireen, and soon after that ruby had been placed in my tooth, +an event occurred that altered the whole course of my life, and of poor +Beebee's too. + +I do not know how old Beebee was at this time, but I think she must have +been about twelve, and she appeared to me to get more and more beautiful +every day. + +Now, never during all my lifetime had I seen Beebee's father, and I was +now over six months old; but one day great preparations were being made +at the palace, slaves and servants were running about everywhere, and +the lovely saloons were decorated with flowers, and hung round with many +coloured lamps. I was not therefore surprised to be told by Beebee that +her father was about to pay a visit to his home, previous to +accompanying the Shah on a long journey to Europe, and over to England +itself. + +"Oh, how much I should like to go," she sighed, "and if I did, you too, +my sweet Shireen, should accompany me." + +Then one forenoon the father arrived in great state, with many camels +and horses, and even accompanied by several elephants. With him came +many other great men and dignitaries of the court, and they feasted for +many days together. But all this time my poor little mistress was +confined to her apartments. + +One day--this was his only visit--Beebee's father came to see her. + +He was indeed a noble-looking man, and splendidly dressed in silken +robes of many colours, and a cloak of camel's hair, from under which +peeped out a richly-jewelled sword-hilt. On his head was a gilded +turban; on his feet were beautiful sandals. + +Beebee ran to meet him, and stood before him with downcast eyes. She +was prepared to rush into his arms and be embraced, but he only smiled +and coldly took her hand. + +Then he sank into an ottoman with graceful ease, whilst she remained +standing by his side. + +"My daughter grows taller, and she grows beautiful. She has a happy +future before her. I have come to say farewell for a time. I have a +long journey, and many long voyages before me. Beebee will see me when +I return." + +Then she dropped on her knees before him, and clasping her hands as if +in prayer, held them up towards him. + +"My father," she began. + +He was frowning. + +"My father is the most noble and handsome man in all the world. His +sword is the sharpest sword in Persia. The arm that wields it is the +strongest in all the wide dominions of the mighty Shah. If my father +had enemies they would flee before him. But this is impossible, for all +who see my father love him, and the Shah himself delights to bask in the +sunshine of his smile." + +"My daughter speaks truly," he said, relenting a little, "she speaks the +white, pure truth; but what would she of me?" + +"Oh, my father, you have but one little daughter, and she wants to love +you dearly. She would be more in your presence. Beebee wants to see +the world. Take her with you to Europe, to England. She would fain see +England. She--" + +"Bah!" he interrupted. "Who hath put such foolish notions in your head? +Have you not an English teacher? She can tell you all you desire to +know. My daughter knows not what she asks." + +"Oh, my father!" + +"Silence, child! Silence! You are intended for the court of the Shah. +The touch of unbelieving fingers, nay, even the glance of a foreigner's +eye would defile my daughter's caste. No longer then would she be fit +to stand before the king of kings, our great lord and master, the Shah." + +"Father, father, I will not be bride to the Shah!" + +"What! This to me?" + +He sprang up as he spoke, and I trembled lest he should strike my little +mistress to the earth. He towered above her, as the poplar tree towers +above the linden. + +But he only strode to the arched and curtained doorway. He turned round +as he went out, holding the drapery in his left hand. + +"Adieu!" he said. "Adieu! My daughter must obey me, or--" + +"Or what, father?" + +Once more her hands were extended pleadingly, prayerfully towards him. + +"She _dies_!" + +The drapery fell. Beebee's father had gone, and she had thrown herself +on the ottoman cushions to weep. + +I walked softly towards her, I sung to her; I licked her little white +fingers. Then she ceased to weep. + +"Oh, Shireen! Shireen!" she cried, "this is a bitter, bitter day to me. +And I wanted to love father so. I could love him so. I have no +mother. I--" + +She threw herself down once more, and sobbed aloud. + +I felt that I could have suffered anything to comfort and solace my +beautiful mistress. + +But what could I do? + +I was only a cat. + +Poor Beebee, she fell asleep there at last, and the red sunset clouds +were in the sky before she awoke once more. + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +LIFE IN A TURRET HIGH.--STRANGE ADVENTURE IN THE FOREST. + +Beebee's father was gone, and peace and quiet reigned once more in the +palace. But the poor child fell ill. Now the house or palace where +Beebee lived was a somewhat lonesome one, and many, many miles from the +town, though not a great way from the village. It stood on elevated +ground, surrounded by splendid gardens, in which grew the rarest of +tropical fruits and flowers. Away behind it was the everlasting forest, +and behind that the snow-capped mountains, raising their jagged summits +into the blue ethereal sky. + +But from the turrets high, away to the west, glimpses of the sea could +be had, and almost every evening Beebee and I went up to see the sunset. +It was glorious, Beebee said, to look upon the ocean at any time, but +to behold it lit up with the reflections of the gold and the crimson +clouds, was like having a glimpse of Paradise. + +A physician was now sent for from the distant town, and his words to +Beebee were words of wisdom. + +"It is not medicine I will give my fair young patient," he said. "It is +not medicine that she needs. It is the soul that is sick, not the body. +But if the body is strengthened the soul will become calm. My patient +grieves for an absent father, perhaps." + +Beebee sighed, and the tears stole into her eyes. + +"She must seek for surcease of sorrow every day in the forest," +continued the physician. "Let her go with armed attendants, for wild +beasts are many, deep in the dark woodland recesses." + +Then Beebee smiled through her tears. + +"In the turret high," she said, "one can catch glimpses of the +ever-changing sea." + +"Yes, yes, my patient may go there often." + +"I would sleep there." + +"Good. My patient shall. So now adieu! I will come again." + +"You are wise and good," said Beebee innocently. "I shall pray for +you." + +"Ah! then," he replied, "all good fortune will attend me. If one so +young and guileless prays for poor me, the gods will not forget me. +Adieu!" + +"Adieu!" + +Miss Morgan entered softly when the physician went away. She was +Beebee's English teacher. Beebee flew to meet her, and told her all the +doctor had said. + +"It is what he likewise told me," said Miss Morgan, "and your studies +are to be interrupted for a time. Your teacher of Sanscrit shall come +no more for months. You will have a long holiday, and I am to read you +books that will amuse instead of instructing you." + +"And I am to have a chamber in the turret?" + +"Yes, dear, it is already being draped." + +"Oh! now indeed I begin to feel well and happy." + +And in the exuberance of her joy Beebee hung around Miss Morgan's neck +and danced up and down like a little child. + +It was very pleasant up there in that turret, high above the swaying +trees. + +Although so high above everything the room was by no means a small one. +Like those below, too, it was beautifully draped and tapestried, and the +floor was of mosaics, crimson and blue and yellow, while the cushions +that surrounded the walls were soft and delightful. + +And all around the broad balcony the autumn roses clustered and clung, +while the sweet odour of orange blossoms was wafted up from the gardens +below. It was like new life to Beebee to dwell up in this turret high. +There was so much to be seen that would never have been visible in the +lower rooms. + +The trees in themselves were a study, and that too, a very beautiful +one. Probably no country in the world has more lovely woods than those +of Persia. Here they were in all shapes; some on cliff tops, looking +like noble pillared temples encanopied with dark masses of foliage; some +like waves of the great rolling ocean itself; some like clouds of living +green; while trees near at hand were seen to be hung and festooned with +wild flowers, rich and rare, with which the sward itself was patched, +and painted, and parterred. And every flower seemed to have a specially +coloured moth or butterfly, or swift-winged dragon fly, that flew or +floated or darted in the sunshine above it. And every bush seemed to +contain a bird, the music of their voices as they answered each other in +love songs, being, Beebee told me, ravishing to the ear, though I fear +that I, being but a cat, and a young one, did not sufficiently +appreciate the melody, and viewed the songsters themselves more from an +epicurean and edible point of view than any other. Some of the birds +were most lovely, and brighter in wing than the rainbow, that in more +gloomy weather hung over the distant woodlands. + +Strange as it may seem to you, Tabby, and to you, Mr Warlock, the birds +around my Persian home were very tame indeed. The reason for this is +not far to seek. They were neither hunted nor worried, and even the +peasantry, in the mud villages, looked upon them as sacred, and their +songs as God-gifts. + + "God's poets, hid in foliage green, + Singing endless songs, themselves unseen; + May we not dream God sends them there, + Mellow angels of the air?" + +No, they were not hunted and killed, nor were their nests robbed and +rent in pieces by village rustics, and so they were tame, and seemed to +love the people among whom they dwelt. + +All night long the bulbuls sang, and at daybreak Beebee and I were +awakened from our slumbers by the murmuring music of little +bronze-winged pigeons that sat on our turret balcony. And at any hour +of the day if Beebee went out upon the balcony and waved a dainty +handkerchief towards the woods, birds of all kinds came flocking around +her, sat on the balcony rail, alighted on her head, on her shapely white +arms, and even fed from her open palm. + +Yes, I confess that my instinct did at times whisper to me that I should +seize upon one of these lovely birds and bear it away into some quiet +corner and munch it and eat it, feathers and all. + +But the very heinousness of such a crime used to make me shudder and +draw further back into the turret chamber. Kill Beebee's birds! How +terrible! As dreadful as if Tabby yonder were to slay poor droll Dick, +of whom we are each and all so fond. + +But even birds of prey used to hover high above the turret at times, and +wait until Beebee threw pieces of bread towards them. Then down they +would swoop as swift as arrows, and the tit-bits had not time to reach +the ground before they were seized and borne away to the woods. + +The woods, and the birds, and the wild flowers, these alone would have +rendered our turret life an ideal one. But there was the sky also, a +never-ending, ever-changing source of delight to Beebee. + +We were up here in the clouds almost, for so high was the turret that +often we could see little fleecy cloudlets resting over the trees in the +valley far beneath. The sunrises in the east, where mountain rose o'er +mountain, and hills on hills, till they hid their snowy heads in the +heavens, were indescribably grand and gorgeous. Long, long before the +sun itself uprose, and while the shadows of night still rested in +valleys and glens, those snow-covered peaks, all jagged and toothed, +were lighted up with the most delicate shades of pink and crimson, with +ethereal shadows of pearly blue. Downwards and downwards the light and +colour would creep, till the forests seemed to swim in a purple haze; +then bars and fleeces of cloud grew before our eyes from grey to bronze, +and from bronze to lake and gold, and presently the sun's red disc +shimmered over the horizon and it was day; and the whole woods awakened +at once into a burst of joyous bird-music and melody. + +The sunsets used to be equally lovely. + +Beebee would watch the sea all day long almost. It never was lacking in +charm for her, whether grey under clouds of pearl, or bright blue under +a cloudless sky, or dark with trailing thunderstorms, it was always the +sea; and when a ship appeared, she would clap her tiny hands for very +joy, and run to procure her lorgnettes, that she might even see the +sailors as they walked to and fro across the decks, or leant listlessly +over the bulwarks. + +"Some day, some day," she would cry, "some day, dear Shireen, you and I +will be on the ocean, and then, oh! then, at last, I shall be free. I +have been by its banks, Shireen, and have heard the music of its waters. +But it has a secret, a secret that it tells only to those who brave its +dangers. + + "`Wouldst thou, the helmsman answered, + Learn the secrets of the sea? + Only those who brave its dangers, + Comprehend its mystery.' + +"But," she added, still quoting the American bard:-- + + "`Ah! what pleasant visions haunt me + As I gaze upon the sea! + All the old romantic legends, + All my dreams come back to me. + + "`Sails of silk and ropes of sendal, + Such as gleam in ancient lore; + And the singing of the sailors, + And the answers from the shore. + + "`Till my soul is filled with longing + For the secret of the sea; + And the heart of that great ocean + Sends a thrilling pulse through me.'" + +Yet beautiful though the sunsets used to be they seemed ever to throw a +shadow of melancholy over Beebee's heart, and whether Miss Morgan was in +the room or not, she would sit at the balcony casement in dreamy silence +long after the glory of the clouds had left them, and the shades of +night were falling over sea and land. + +Then the stars would glimmer out, and their light appeared always to +make her happy once more. The evening star was her especial favourite, +not because it is the star of love, but because she called it and +thought it her mother's eye. + +She would make her governess repeat to her, often over and over again, +Longfellow's beautiful lines to this star:-- + + "Just above yon sandy bar, + As the day grows fainter and dimmer, + Lonely and lovely a single star + Lights the air with a dusty glimmer. + + "Into the ocean faint and far, + Falls the trail of its golden splendour; + And the gleam of that single star, + Is ever refulgent, soft, and tender." + +Yes, I think Beebee loved that star better even than she loved the moon +that in silver radiance used to shine softly, dreamily down on the woods +and wilds. + +My children, continued Shireen after a pause, I dwell longer on these +pleasant scenes than perhaps I ought to; for, ah! me, this was the +happiest part of my existence, and now that I am old and know I must +soon sleep beneath the daisies, the thought of my ideal life then cheers +my heart and banishes sadness far away. + +But a change came. You must know then, Warlock, that Beebee did not +neglect the advice the good physician had given her, and that every day +she rode out into the woods and into the forests, always with a retinue +of armed servants. + +Why such a retinue, did you ask, Warlock? Well, I think there were two +reasons. One was that the eunuch, who was Beebee's special guardian, +had received from her father strict injunctions never to let her beyond +his ken; another was that the country some distance from the palace was +infested by roving banditti, and that these robbers were sometimes in +the pay of dissolute nobles, and would think but little of attacking a +cavalcade, if they thought themselves strong enough to overpower it, and +bearing away with them a young lady as prisoner. + +But Beebee had not the slightest fear for herself. Her father was bold +and brave to a fault. The daughter was brave without being bold. She +bore but little good-will now, however, to that fierce-eyed black +guardian of hers, and when out in the forest she was mischievous enough +to give him many a fright. Beebee, you must know, was a great favourite +with all her father's retainers, and she used to bribe the chief groom +sometimes to saddle for her a very fleet horse, and to let Jazr the +black eunuch have but a sorry one. Then she would touch her horse with +her spurs of gold when far away in the forest, and laughingly calling to +Jazr to follow, soon out-distance all her pursuers. + +She would hide from them, and then ride home another way, and it would +be eventide before Jazr abandoned the search and came back disconsolate, +to be told that Beebee had been home hours and hours before. + +It was during one of these wild rides that Beebee had the strange +adventure I am now going to describe to you. + +I myself was with her that day, and so was Miss Morgan. This lady did +not love Jazr a whit more than did Beebee. + +Miss Morgan had an exceedingly fleet horse that day, but somehow Jazr's +nag had gone lame, and Beebee rode on ahead, quickly followed by Miss +Morgan, and both were soon far beyond the fear of any pursuit. + +Instead, however, of riding homewards to-day as usual, it pleased +Beebee's fancy to turn her horse's head towards the hills. + +The poor child seemed to exult in her newly-acquired freedom. Why +should she be watched and guarded as if she were a prisoner and a thief? +she asked Miss Morgan. + +"Why indeed?" answered that lady. + +"Daughters are not so treated in Merrie England, are they, dear +teacher?" + +"Oh, no, Beebee, my pupil. There they have much freedom, and are looked +upon as in every way the equals of man!" + +"How I long to see England," said Beebee. + +Then she bent down to me and patted my head. + +"Some day, Shireen," she said, "some day. Ah! I know my freedom will +come! Perhaps my prince may come. In all pretty stories and +fairy-tales a prince always comes." + +She laughed lightly as she spurred on her horse, Miss Morgan following +close to her heels. + +But little did Beebee know that her prince had already come, and that he +was at the present moment in this very forest. + +"Is it not time we returned?" said Miss Morgan, after they had ridden +some distance farther. "The priest's house in the wood that we passed +nearly half-an-hour ago is the last in the forest. The mountains come +soon now. Behold, Beebee, the pathway is already winding upwards. +Farther on we may come upon the den of a wild beast, or even worse, the +haunts of some evil men!" + +Beebee was accustomed to be guided by her governess in everything, so +she now reined up her steed, and both stopped short, and permitted the +horses to help themselves to a few mouthfuls of the long tender grass +that grew abundantly all around them. + +The silence in this part of the dark wild forest was a silence that the +heart could feel. Except for the occasional throbbing notes of a bulbul +in the distance, no sound of any kind fell upon their ears for a time. + +Suddenly, however, from an adjoining thicket came a sound that caused +the hearts of both young ladies to beat faster as they listened +breathlessly. + +Twice or thrice it was repeated. + +"What can it be, Miss Morgan?" said Beebee, turning a shade paler. "It +sounds like someone moaning in pain or dying agony." + +"Nay, nay, dear pupil," answered Miss Morgan, "we must not think that. +It is in all probability but the mournful croodling of some wood pigeon. +Hark, there it is again." + +Once more they listened. + +There could be no mistake about it now, for not only was this moaning +repeated, but after it a voice was heard calling feebly for help. + +"Oh, sister," cried Beebee, now thoroughly alarmed, "it is some poor +wounded man. We cannot leave him. We must fly to his assistance!" + +Without adding another word Beebee pushed the branches aside and urged +on her steed towards the spot from which the sounds proceeded. + +Miss Morgan followed close behind. + +And soon they came to a kind of green grassy glade in the forest, which, +from the trampled condition of the sward, gave evidence that a fearful +struggle had taken place there but very recently. + +One man lay face downwards on the ground, and it was easy to see he +would never need help again. + +But the other, evidently an Englishman, sat half up leaning on one +elbow, his other hand pressed against his side, and blood trickling over +his fingers. + +Beebee quickly alighted from her horse and tied the bridle to a tree. + +She was a Persian, it is true, but she had a woman's heart, and here was +a fellow-creature in pain and probably dying. She did not even notice +that her veil had fallen down as she quickly rushed towards the stranger +and knelt pityingly at his side. + +CHAPTER NINE. + +THE ADVENTURE IN THE FOREST. + +"You are wounded, poor stranger," cried Beebee compassionately. "Are +you much hurt?" + +She spoke in English. + +"I fear I am a little," was the faint reply. "They have attacked and +robbed me, and they have slain my faithful servant, and, indeed, they +left me here for dead." + +"But pray," he continued, "save yourselves, young ladies. The bandits +may quickly come again." + +This was no time for false modesty. The poor fellow was bleeding to +death. But Miss Morgan had that which no English man or woman should be +without. She possessed a little skill in surgery. + +So with her own handkerchief, and that of Beebee's, she quickly +staunched the bleeding, then commanded her patient to lie flat upon the +grass in order to lessen the force of the circulation. + +"And now," said Beebee, "what are we to do? We cannot take this poor +stranger to the palace. Jazr would kill him, and father would kill me." + +Here Beebee blushingly restored her veil to its place. + +"But," she continued, "we cannot leave him thus to perish here in the +wilderness. I have it, dear governess. Ride back quickly, and at once, +to the house of the priest, and cause him to send immediately his +servants with a litter. At the priest's house the stranger will be +safe, and the good priest himself will be well rewarded." + +"But, Beebee, my dear pupil, will you not be afraid?" + +"No, no, no," cried Beebee, and at that moment I thought my little +mistress looked all a queen. She spoke to Miss Morgan impatiently, +almost imperiously. + +"Go immediately," she cried, "ride as hard as you safely can. Do not +fear for me. I shall be safe until you return." + +Next minute Miss Morgan mounted her horse and quickly disappeared. + +The stranger seemed slightly better now, that he was no longer losing +blood, and would have tried to sit up in order to talk, but Beebee held +up a warning finger. + +"You must rest," she said. "Miss Morgan would be displeased were you to +sit up." + +He obeyed as if he had been a child. + +Although pale and sickly-looking with the loss of blood, very handsome +indeed was this stranger, dark brown hair cut short, a dark moustache, +well-chiselled features, and beautiful eyes, quite as blue as mine, +Warlock. + +"You have saved my life," he murmured. "May I ask whom I have to thank, +and who is Miss Morgan?" + +"I am the only daughter of an officer of the Shah," said Beebee. "I +have no mother. I may say I have no father. He--he is travelling now +to Europe with our great king. Miss Morgan is the dearest friend I have +on earth; an English lady who came to me as a companion, and to teach me +your beautiful language." + +"You speak it well, Miss--" + +"They simply call me Beebee." + +"May God bless and keep you, Beebee, for ever and ay. You have to-day +saved my life, and I feel very grateful. A soldier should ever be ready +to die. But if he is doomed to be slain he should fall in battle, with +his back to the field and his feet to the foe, and not by the hand of +wretched bandits, who stab men to death for a few handfuls of gold." + +"You are a soldier then? But you wear no uniform? You carry no arms?" + +The wounded officer smiled feebly. + +"I have been travelling for my health in your lovely country. It is not +usual for British soldiers to wear uniforms or carry swords when not on +duty." + +"And your name, brave soldier?" + +"How know you I am brave?" + +"You must be brave," said Beebee innocently and naively, "because you +are handsome, nay, even as beautiful as my father. Yes, you are brave, +Mr--" + +"My name is Edgar." + +"It is a strange name, but somewhat musical. Edgar, I shall often think +of you. I may even dream of you, but I shall dream of you and think of +you as you must appear in battle leading on your men to storm a breach. +But now, talk no longer lest you faint with weakness." + +"One question more, lady. You are going to have me taken to the house +of a priest. But where do you yourself dwell?" + +"Oh, many miles from here." + +"But will you never come to see me? My wounds may take many weeks to +heal." + +"I do not know." + +Beebee's eyes were downcast now. She was petting and smoothing my head, +Warlock. + +"I shall die if you do not come sometimes to see me." + +"I shall send Miss Morgan, she is English." + +"I will die if you do not accompany her." + +"Then you must live. Oh, I would not have you die on any account. Now, +be still. See, I have a little book of English poems. This is `The +Lady of the Lake.' I will read to you." + +Beebee sat herself innocently down on the grass close beside the wounded +stranger, and in her sweet musical young voice commenced to read that +romantic and spirited poem, while Edgar listened, his eyes on her face, +or on the portion of it visible. + +She read on and on and on, and the time flew quietly, quickly past. + +Presently, however, her quick ears detected the sound of horses' hoofs, +soft though their footfall was upon the long greensward. + +"They come," she cried, rising, and just at that moment the boughs were +dashed aside, and Miss Morgan entered the glade, speedily followed by +four or five men bearing a litter. The priest himself was with them. + +"Ah!" he said in French, "one poor fellow has had his _coup de grace_. +He has gone, I trust, to a better world than this; but you, Monsieur--" + +Me bent down and felt Edgar's pulse, long and anxiously. + +A finely-formed man was this French Catholic priest. Very tall, brown +with the sun, and bearded. + +"You will live," he said. "You have youth and strength, and you shall +have rest and quiet. All will combine to restore you." + +"Thank Heaven," said Beebee. + +She was bending down over me, and I noticed that she was weeping. I +licked her hand, and she then took me up and embraced me. + +Very gently indeed was the wounded stranger placed on that litter of +soft green boughs and borne away, to the priest's house. + +This house was on the edge of the forest, built on a green brae-land at +the head of a bushy dell or glen, adown which went a silver thread of a +river winding in and winding out among its green banks, and forming many +a rapid and cascade ere it finally disappeared and rolled on in its +search for the sea. + +Edgar was surprised at the comfort and even elegance of everything about +the French Catholic priest's house, and that evening, as the good man +sat by his bedside, he took occasion to express his wonderment in as +delicate language as he could command. + +"You think it strange that I should dwell here almost alone. Ah! but, +dear sir, I have a mission. I fill a niche. I think I even do good, +and have taught souls to find Christ. The present Shah is tolerant of +religions not his own, else would I soon be banished. + +"You were surprised also, dear young sir," he continued, "at the +deftness with which I bound up your wound and dressed your bruises, but +I was not always a priest. I was a surgeon. But I loved and I lost. +Oh, it is a common story enough. Then I joined the priesthood and came +here an exile, and almost a hermit, to cure souls and bodies. Yes, many +seek my assistance, and I never refuse it. But, believe me, my dear +sir, I can be just, as well as generous, and the scoundrels who attacked +you and so basely murdered your servant shall not go unpunished. And +now, my friend, go to sleep. You have nothing to do but get well." + +Edgar was in a burning fever next day nevertheless, and for nearly two +weeks lay in bed hovering betwixt death and life. + +When he recovered sufficiently to look about him, one beautiful +afternoon, the evening sunshine stealing in through his window and +falling on a bouquet of flowers beside him on the table, the first face +he recognised was that of Miss Morgan. + +She sat not far off, quietly embroidering a piece of work. + +Seeing him awake and sensible, she approached his pillow smiling, and +held something to his lips, which he swallowed without a murmur. + +"How good you have been, dear Miss Morgan!" he murmured. "You have been +near to me all the time. No, I have not been quite insensible. And +Beebee, was she not here also?" + +"She was. Sometimes. I myself have only come to see you now and then. +We--we had a difficulty in getting away." + +"How good! How good! But the difficulty?" + +"It is in the fact," said Miss Morgan mournfully, "that my sweet young +friend and pupil is sold to the Shah." + +"Sold to the Shah!" cried Edgar. "She, a mere child, so beautiful, so +winning! Oh, Miss Morgan, I have dreamt of her every hour, and indeed-- +I--I--have got to love her. And she is gone. Oh, how horrible!" + +"Nay, nay, you misunderstand me somewhat. Beebee has not gone. She is +but promised to the Sultan or King. When she comes of age, or rather +when she is two years older, then--she will be a slave indeed. Oh, I +assure you, sir, it breaks my heart to lose her." + +At this moment the door quietly opened, and Beebee herself entered, +followed by the priest-physician. She started slightly when she noticed +that Edgar was now awake and sensible. + +He held out his hand. It was a very thin and a very white one. + +"I know all, Beebee," he said. "I cannot thank you enough for your +kindness, and you have come to me at great risk too. I understand what +that risk has been, and I understand also Persian laws and Persian +fathers. You have risked your honour and your life." + +"I could not help coming," said Beebee innocently, "because I thought +you would die. But now, we must part. We must never meet again. It is +fate." + +"Must it, indeed, be so?" said Edgar gloomily. + +"Indeed, I fear it must," put in Miss Morgan. + +"And I," said Edgar. "I--am a soldier. I must try not to repine. But +I cannot bear to think that we shall never meet again. I will pray that +it may be otherwise, and that there may be happy days yet in store for +you, Beebee--may I even say for _us_." + +He paused for a moment. + +Beebee was silent, and weeping quietly as women-folks do, Warlock. + +I had jumped up on the couch where poor Edgar lay, and was rubbing my +head against his shoulder. + +"This cat, Beebee," continued Edgar, "is she very dear to you?" + +"She is a friend. Poor Shireen! Sometimes when I am solitary and alone +her affection and kindness is a great solace to me. But she is very +young." + +She had drawn closer to the couch, and was patting my head. + +"I think she loves me," she added. + +"I think," said Edgar, touching her hand lightly, "this puss, Shireen, +is a medium. Else how could you have read my thoughts?" + +"Shireen is yours." + +"But I dare not deprive you of a friend so good and beautiful." + +"Nay, nay, do not speak thus. She will be a soldier's cat." + +"On one condition only shall I accept the gift, Beebee." + +"And that condition?" + +"That I may be permitted to bring her back to you at some future time. +Within two years, Beebee?" + +Once more he touched her hand. + +"Two years," she said, as if speaking to herself. "I will be dead ere +then." + +"Nay, nay, nay," he cried, almost fiercely, "for the wrong that your +parents would do you must never be accomplished." + +"Speak no more, sir. Speak no more, Edgar." + +"Adieu, Edgar. Adieu, Shireen." + +"Adieu!" + +Then they led her weeping away. + +Did I ever see my sweet mistress again? Was that what you asked me, +Warlock? Well, I will tell you another day. For see, my master is +getting up to go. No, Vee-Vee, I do not want your convoy. Go home with +master, and you, too, Dick and Warlock. + +"Well, good afternoon, old friend," said Colonel Clarkson, shaking hands +with Uncle Ben. "You'll come up to-morrow evening to the Castle, won't +you?" + +"That will I. Ha, your old puss is off then." + +"Yes," said the Colonel. "She has queer ways altogether. She is going +now on a round of visits. I do wish she were not so old. We shall all +miss poor Shireen when she dies. Good-day." + +Dick at once flew on to his master's shoulder. Tabby cocked her tail +and trotted along by his side, and the dogs followed. + +It may seem strange to some readers that a starling should become so +tame, but I wish the reader to remember that Dick is a study from the +real life, and not a bird of the author's imagination. + +The road homewards was about two miles in all. During the walk Dick +kept on his master's shoulder until about half-way to the castle. They +were then between two hedges, and just beyond was a field of turnips. +Among these Dick knew right well he would find some of his favourite +tit-bits, so without saying, by your leave, to his master, he flew off +over the hedge. + +Colonel Clarkson waited a reasonable time, but as Dick did not reappear, +he bent down towards the Tabby cat and smoothed her. + +"Go, find," he said. + +In a moment the cat was off through the hedge. + +The Colonel listened with an amused smile on his face. He knew right +well what would happen. + +Then he heard Dick's voice, and knew that pussy had found the truant. + +"Eh? Eh? What is it?" These are his very words. "Tse, tse, tse! +Sugar and snails! You r-r-rascal!" + +Then back flew Dick to his master. Tabby herself appeared next minute, +and the journey was resumed without further incident or adventure. + +Meanwhile, where was Shireen? + +When Shireen left Uncle Ben's bungalow, she kept along inside the +railing for some time. It was about the hour at which the butcher's dog +came out for his evening run, and Shireen knew right well he would be +revenged on her if he possibly could, so she was determined not to give +him the chance. But the coast was clear, and soon she was in the +village. She trotted into the blacksmith's shop, and he had a very +kindly greeting for her, Shireen was very fond of spending half-an-hour +with the blacksmith. Cats like pleasant people, and he was always +laughing or singing, and often beating time to his song with the hammer +on a red-hot horse-shoe, while the yellow sparks flew in all directions. +Besides, there was always a nice fire here, and an air of comfort in +the place--to Shireen's way of thinking. She was a high-bred cat, it is +true, and a cat of ancient lineage, as we know, but she was not at all +aristocratic in the choice of her friends. + +Shireen left the blacksmith at last, and went to see the sick child. It +is strange, but true as well as strange, that cats never fail to +sympathise with human beings in grief or suffering. + +But little Tom Richards was better to-night, and sitting up in his chair +by the fireside. He was delighted when Shireen came in, and made his +mother place a saucer of milk down for her, and puss drank a little just +to please the boy. + +Then she permitted him to nurse her for quite a long time. Tom, child +though he was, quite appreciated the value of this compliment; for +although Shireen would permit a child to take her up, and even to pull +her about and tease her, no grown-up person, with the exception of the +Colonel and his wife, must dare to handle her. + +But Shireen jumped down at last, and begged Tommy's mother to open the +door to her. + +"Oh, don't let pussy go yet!" pleaded the boy. + +"I must, dear, I must," said his mother, "else she may not come again." + +This was very true, for cats cannot bear restraint of any kind. If they +are to be truly happy they must be allowed to go and come as they +please. + +Before going home Shireen had still another fireside to visit. And this +was Emily's. + +A very humble hearth indeed; but poor Emily's eyes sparkled with joy +when Shireen came trotting in. + +"Oh, Shireen dear, is it you?" she cried. "Oh, you beautiful good puss, +and I haven't seen you since Cracker nearly killed the butcher's dog. +Look, pussy, here is Cracker." + +Yes, there was Cracker, sure enough, and the dog and cat at once +exchanged courtesies. Had you seen them lying together in front of the +fire a few minutes after this, reader, you would never again have made +use of that silly phrase--a cat and dog life. Cats and dogs, if brought +up together, _do_ agree. It is mankind that causes them to be enemies. +A dog is far too noble an animal to touch a cat, unless he has been +trained to look upon her as vermin. + +"You see, I'm very busy to-night, Shireen," said Emily. "Mending +stockings for father. But baby is asleep, and so I have all the evening +to myself, for I have already done my lessons." + +Poor Emily! her life was a somewhat hard one. Her mother had died but +recently, and her father, who was only a labouring man, had been left +all alone with Emily and her baby sister. All day long the child was +taken care of by a neighbour, but as soon as school was dismissed Emily +went for her, and then her work, indeed, began. Board Schools, as a +rule, are a benefit to the nation, but there are cases when compulsory +attendance falls heavy on children and parents too. + +Emily's father was sitting on the other side of the fire smoking his +humble clay. + +He bent down and stroked the cat. + +"Ay, pussy," he said, "Emily _is_ very busy, and the Lord Himself knows +what I should do without her. The Lord be thankit for a good kind +daughter." + +So Shireen sat there nodding and singing by the fire, until she sang +herself asleep. But when Emily arose at last, she asked to go, and her +request was immediately granted. + +"Good-night, pussy," said Emily. "Mind to come again." + +And while pussy went trotting homewards through the darkness of a +starless autumn night, Emily went in to prepare her father's supper. + +No, it is true, Emily was not a very good-looking girl, but she had a +right kind heart of her own. And this is even better than beauty. + +CHAPTER TEN. + +WE SAILED AWAY TO THE SOUTH. + +Well, children, said Shireen, a few nights after, when she and her +friends were once more all around the low and cheerful fire, the Colonel +as usual in his place by the table, and Uncle Ben, cockatoo on shoulder, +in an easy-chair. Well, children, here we are as cosy as cosy can be; +and when I see you all beside me, and the fire blinking and burning so +cheerily, I feel so happy all over that I can hardly express myself, +even in song. + +"But hear how the wind is howling to-night!" said Tabby, looking towards +the window. + +"Tse, tse, tse!" said Dick, as if much impressed. + +Warlock simply sat on one end, looking thoughtfully into the fire. Wind +or weather did not trouble Warlock much, he was as much at home among +the heather on a wild winter's day with the snow two feet deep, and +clouds of ice-dust blowing, as he was among the wild flowers in dingle, +dell, or forest, when summer was in its prime. + +The truth is, Warlock was one of Scotland's own dogs, and these you +know, are as hardy as the hills. + +It was concerning this same doggie, Warlock, that the author once wrote +the following lines. They were in answer to a Highland friend, who +enquired through the medium of a well-known journal, if he knew the +Aberdeen terrier. The verses are truly descriptive of this brave breed +of dog, whether they possess any other merit or not is very little +matter. + + Warlock. + + I ken the Terrier o' the North, + I ken the towsy tyke; + Ye'll search frae Tweed to Sussex shore, + But never find his like. + + For pluck and pith, and jaws and teeth, + And hair like heather cowes [stems]; + Wi' body lang and low, and strang, + At hame on cairns [heaps of stone and rubbish] and knowes. + + He'll face a foumart [polecat], draw a brock [badger], + Kill rats and whitterits [weasels] by the score; + He'll bang tod-lowrie [the fox] frae his hole, + Or fight him at his door. + + He'll range for days and ne'er be tired, + O'er mountain, moor, or fell; + Fair-play, I think, the dear wee chap + Would fecht the deil himsel'. + + And yet beneath his rugged coat, + A heart beats warm and true; + He'll help to herd the sheep and kye, + And mind the lammies [young lambs] too. + + Then see him at the ingle side, + Wi' bairnies round him laughin'; + Was ever dog sae pleased as he, + Sae fond o' fun and daffin? [Joking] + + But gie's your han', my Hielan man, + In troth! we manna sever; + Then here's to Scotia's best o' dogs, + Our towsy [rough and unkempt in coat] tyke for ever. + +On this particular evening Warlock's boots were somewhat muddy. Tabby's +had also been the same, though she had taken pains to clean them before +coming to the fireside. The muddiness of their boots, however, only +pointed to the fact that the two friends had enjoyed a rare day's sport +in the woods, or by the water's side. + +Well, said Shireen, as to the wind, I do not dislike hearing it, when I +am indoors, nor hearing the rain rattling against the window panes +either. I always think the fire burns brighter on a night like this. +Besides, the howling and howthering of the storm carries my thoughts +back to the golden days of my youth, and to the events of my life at +sea. + +Shireen paused for a moment with one snow-white paw raised thoughtfully +in the air. + +"Warlock," she said, next minute, "what do you see in the fire?" + +"Me?" said Warlock, rousing himself out of his reverie. + +"Me, Shireen? Oh, I see a water-rat's hole down under the banks of a +dark brown stream, and I can see the water rats pop in and out. There, +look, I see one now standing on end at the other side of the bank, +rubbing the water out of his eyes with the back of his knuckles, the +better to look over at me and Tabby." + +"What do you see, Mother Shireen?" said Vee-Vee. + +I see a ship, my son, tossing hither and thither on the far-off Indian +Ocean. I see the waves breaking in snowy spray, high, high against her +jet-black sides. I see the racing waves curling their angry crests as +they roll on towards the rugged horizon. I see dark storm clouds +sweeping swift across the sky, with rifts of blue between, through which +pours now and then a glint of sunshine. + +"Mother Shireen, you were on that ship?" said Tabby, "tell us." + +Yes, Tabby, I was on that ship. And dear master too. Last evening I +told you how my sweet little mistress Beebee, had given me away to the +wounded officer before she bade him adieu. + +I was vexed to lose her. I would, I thought, never, never see my old +home again; never more lie on summer evenings on the turret balcony, +watching with Beebee the sunlight and shade chasing each other across +the dreamy woods, and the birds wheeling far beneath us in giddy flight. +When Beebee had really gone, I scarce could believe that we were +parted. I could not realise my loss at first. I went to the door and +mewed, I jumped up into the window-sill, and examined the fastening of +the jalousies. + +"Shireen, come to me. Come, puss, come." + +I looked quickly around, and my eyes fell on the face of the soldier +Edgar. + +He looked wan and worn and old. Though but little more than +six-and-twenty, and that is young for a man, he appeared to me in his +grief and loneliness to be about sixty. + +My heart went out to him at once. Oh, Tabby, I do believe that if human +beings would only bear in mind, how sickness or helplessness in one of +their race appeals to us poor cats, and how we love the feeble, the ill, +and the old, as well as dear children, they would often be kinder to us. +But this is a digression. + +I jumped down from the window, and with a fond cry leapt up on the couch +where soldier Edgar lay. + +I was singing now. + +I have often observed that the song of a cat seems to soothe a human +being's soul and calm his nerves, continued Shireen. Well, I had a duty +to perform to this poor sick soldier, and I was determined to do it. + +What is duty, did you ask, Warlock? Well, it is a word I have borrowed +from the human race. It means the doing of that which you have been +told off to do, and that it is your business to do. Strangely enough +human beings usually want to be preached at before they can tackle their +duty--if I may be excused for talking sailor fashion--while we cats and +dogs, yes, and birds, Dick, feel impelled to duty by our own instincts +only. But I had already become fond of soldier Edgar, because I knew my +mistress liked him. + +"Shireen," he said, smoothing me but smiling, "you must not mourn too +much for your mistress. She is not gone quite away, because she dwells +here in my heart, Shireen. So we will often think of her together. I +will love you for her sake, and you will love me for her sake. That is +mutuality, pussy, so there! Now sit by me and sing, and I will sleep +and awake calm and refreshed. I want to get better soon now, Shireen, +because I intend coming back here again if possible, and take Beebee +your mistress away. I want to save her from a fearful doom." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +I hardly know how the time passed after this for a month, during which +time new master and I lived in the house of the priest. + +But by this time master was strong and well again. Then came the day of +parting. + +The priest rode with us a very long way through the forest, and told us +which way was the nearest to the city. Then we said--Farewell. + +But the priest's last words as he held Edgar's hand were these: "If it +be in my power to prevent it, my friend, depend upon it Beebee shall +never enter the palace of the Shah!" + +"May Heaven bless you," said the soldier. He said no more. I do not +think he could have done so had he tried, for tears seemed to rise and +choke him. + +Well, the next thing I distinctly remember, is being taken on board a +man-o'-war ship from a boat that left the Apollo Bunder at Bombay. + +I had one regret just then, for my thoughts reverted to Beebee in her +turret chamber. I imagined her sitting there all alone with Miss +Morgan, and gazing dreamily over the sea, the sea she so longed to float +upon. + +But once on board the ship I had little time to think very much, at +first at all events. Everything was very new and very strange to me; +and it would take me some time to get up to the ropes, you know, +Warlock. + +"Oh!" said Warlock, "we dogs don't bother about ropes. When we come to +a new home or house we just settle down there. All we want to know is +where the door is." + +Ah! Warlock, yes, that I know is true. But think how different a dog's +life is from that of a poor cat. We cats have got to be wise, Warlock, +and we've got to be wily, for though we have not got the brand of Cain +upon our brows, still almost everybody who meets us wants to kill us. + +It was on this very subject that only last Sunday I was conversing with +the parson's big tom-cat. + +"I'm so much used to travelling now, Tom," I said, "having had a spell +of over twenty years of it, that I don't mind where I go; but if I were +not a travelling cat I should feel very much from home in a new house, +not knowing the outs and ins of it, the upstairs and the down, and where +to get food, where to watch for mice, and the drains to run into when +the school children come past; or the trees to run up when the butcher's +dog comes round the corner." + +"Well, for many reasons," said Tom in answer, "I like dogs well enough. +But I wouldn't like to be a dog, mind you, Shireen. Now look at me for +example. I am the parson's cat to be sure, and being a parson's cat +people might think I was under some restrictions. Not a bit of it, +Shireen. I'm my own master. + +"Now, look for example, at the Saint Bernard dog Dumpling--an honest +contented great fellow he is--but bless you, Shireen, he isn't free. +But I am. Dumpling can't do what he pleases--I can. I can go to bed +when I like, rise when I like, and eat and drink when, where, and what I +choose. Dumpling _can't_. Really, Shireen, my old friend, I can +forgive Dumpling for chasing me into the apple tree last Sunday, when I +think of the dull life a dog leads, and how few are his joys compared to +mine. Poor Dumpling needs the servants to wait upon him. He can't walk +a couple of miles by himself and be sure of finding his way back, or +sure of not getting into a row, getting stolen, or some other accident +equally ridiculous. + +"The other day, Shireen, if you'll take my word for it, Dumpling +actually sat on the doorstep for two hours in the pouring, pitiless rain +till his great shaggy coat was soaked to the skin, because, forsooth, he +didn't know how to get the door opened. Would a cat have done that? +No, a cat would have walked politely up to the first kind-faced +passenger that came along and asked him to be good enough to ring the +bell, and the thing would have been done. Could Dumpling unlatch a door +or catch a mouse? Not to save his life. Could he climb a tree and +examine a sparrow's nest? Not he. Could he find his way home over the +tiles on a dark night? A pretty figure he would cut if he were only +going to try. No, Shireen, dogs have their uses, but they're not in the +same standard with cats." + +Well, Warlock, mind these are Tom's views and not mine: but as I was +telling you all, I found myself safe on board the _Venom_ at last, and +that same afternoon we sailed away to the south. + +Master being still somewhat of an invalid, the doctor had given him and +me the use of his cabin, he himself sleeping at night inside a canvas +screen on the main deck. + +The _Venom_, I must tell you, wasn't a very large ship, and she was +engaged in what fighting human-sailors called the suppression of the +slave trade. Not that I meant to trouble my head very much about any +such nonsense, only in one way it appealed to us; it would make our +passage down to the far-off Cape of Good Hope and so home to England a +very much longer one. + +"You see," the captain said to my soldier Edgar on the quarter-deck the +first day, "we are awfully glad to have you with us, but we can't hurry +even on your account." + +"I wouldn't wish you to do so, Captain Beecroft. The long voyage will +do me a wonderful deal of good; besides I don't really long to be home. +I'd rather be back in Persia again." + +The captain looked at him somewhat searchingly and smiled. + +I was walking up and down with the pair of them, with my tail in the air +and looking very contented and pleased, because the sun was shining so +brightly, and the ocean, which I could catch peeps at through the +port-holes, was as blue as _lapis lazuli_. + +"I say," said the captain, "did you lose your heart out there?" + +"I did," was the reply. "Oh, I am ten years older than Beebee, and +perhaps more, and nothing may ever come of it. Put, sir, she saved my +life." + +"Do you see this cat?" he continued, taking me up in his arms. "Well, +this is Shireen. The girl who so bravely saved my life gave Shireen to +me." + +"Wait a minute," said Captain Beecroft. "Come into my cabin here. Now +sit down and just tell me all the story." + +Edgar did so, and I think that from that moment these two men were fast +friends. + +My master also showed the captain the beautiful little ruby that was set +in my tooth. + +"A strange notion!" said the latter. + +"It is not an uncommon one among eastern ladies," said the soldier. +"Anyhow," he added, "I should always know Shireen again if I happened to +lose her, and she returned even ten years after." + +Somehow, my children, those words, simple though they were, had an +ominous ring in them, and I thought of them long, long after, in far +less happy times. + +Well, Warlock, after I had been a few days at sea, I determined to get +up to the ropes. I must see everything there was to be seen, for as far +as I had yet noticed, there was nothing to be very greatly afraid of. + +But I resolved to make my first excursion round the ship by night. + +So soon after sunset I went quietly upstairs, and immediately found +myself under the stars on deck. + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +SHIP'S CAT ON BOARD THE "VENOM." + +As soon as I got on deck I began to glance eagerly about me. + +The moon was shining very brightly, and the waves all the way to the +horizon were stippled with light, while the bright stars were reflected +and multiplied in the water like a myriad of diamonds. + +There was a breeze blowing just then, so there was no need for the +present to keep steam up, as a sailor calls it. + +Steam is not nice on board ship, Warlock. There is a terrible noise, +and everywhere the ship is shaken. You cannot help fancying you are +inside a mill all the time, with such a multitude of wheels rattling +round and round, that it quite bewilders one. + +But to-night there was hardly a hush on deck, except now and then the +trampling of the sailors' feet, or a song borne aft from the forecastle. + +I was not a ship's cat yet, you know, Warlock, and so didn't know the +names of things. But I soon found a guide, or rather the guide found +me. I was standing on the quarter-deck, as it is called, looking about +me in a very uncertain kind of way, when I heard soft footsteps stealing +up behind me, and, looking round, was rather startled to see standing +there in the moonlight, which made him look double the size, an immense +black Thomas cat, with yellow fiery eyes. + +I was going to bolt down the stairs again at once, and ask my master to +come and shoot him, but there was a sort of music in his voice which +appealed to me the moment he spoke. + +"Oh, you lovely, angelic pussy princess," he said; "be not afraid, I +pray you. Hurry not away, for if you leave the deck the moon will cease +to shine, and the stars will lose their radiance." + +He advanced stealthily towards me as he spoke, singing aloud. But I +sprang upon the skylight at once, raised my back and growled, as much +probably in terror as in anger. + +"Come but one step nearer," I cried, "and I will leap into the foaming +sea." + +"Dear princess," he said, "I would rather lose my life. I would rather +throw my body to the sharks than any ill should happen to a hair of your +head." + +"See," he continued, jumping on the top of a kind of wooden fence, which +sailors call the bulwarks, that ran round, what I then called the lid +(deck) of the ship. "See! speak the word, and I shall rid you for ever +of my hateful presence!" + +I was very much afraid then. + +I did not want to see this Thomas cat drowned before my eyes, for +although he was very black, I could not help noticing that he was +comely. + +"Oh," I cried, "come down from off that fearful fence and I will forgive +you, perhaps even take you into favour." + +Well, Warlock, strange though it may appear, in three minutes' time this +Thomas cat and I were as good friends as if we had known each other for +years. + +"You are very lovely," he said. "Strange how extremes meet, for I have +been told that I am quite ugly. Your coat is snow-white, mine is like +the raven's wing. Your fur is long and soft and silky, my hair is short +and rough, and there are brown holes burned in it here and there, where +sailors have dropped the ashes from their pipes. You are doubtless as +spotless in character as you are in coat; but--well, Shireen, the cook +has sometimes hinted to me that as far as my ethics are concerned I--I +am not strictly honest. Sometimes the cook has hinted that to me by +word of mouth, at other times, Shireen, with a wooden ladle." + +"But come," he added, "let me show you round the ship." + +"May I ask your name," I said; "you already know mine?" + +"My name is Tom." + +"A very uncommon name, I daresay." + +"Well--yaas. But there _are_ a few English cats of that name, as you +may yet find out. My last name is Brandy. Tom Brandy, [Tom Brandy is a +sketch from the life] there you have it all complete. Sounds nice, +doesn't it?" + +"It does, indeed. Has it any meaning attached to it?" + +"Well, then, it has. Brandy is a kind of fluid that some sailors +swallow when they go on shore. They have often tried to make me take +some, but I never would with my free will. It turns men into fiends, +Shireen. For in a short time after they swallow it they appear to be +excellent fellows, and they sing songs and shake hands, and vow to each +other vows of undying love and affection. But soon after that they +quarrel and fight most fiercely, and often take each other's lives, as I +have known them to do in the camps among the miners out in Australia, +where I was born." + +"Oh, have you been in a real mine, Tom?" + +"Yes, I first opened my eyes at the diggings." + +"Oh, how lovely! Was it at Golconda. I have heard Beebee, my mistress, +read about Golconda in a book. And were there rubies and diamonds and +amethysts all lying about, and gold and silver?" + +"Not much of that, Shireen. My bed was a grimy old coat, belonging to +one of the miners. My home was a wet and dark slimy hole, and the +miners were not very romantic. They were as rough as rough could be. +Any sailor you see here would look like a prince beside a miner. But +though as rough as any of them, my master, a tall red man, with a long +red beard, was kind-hearted, and for his sake I stayed in camp longer +than I would otherwise have done. + +"When I was old enough to catch my first rat the miners crowded round +me, and said they would baptise me in _aguardiente_; that was the fiery +stuff they were drinking, and so they did. Some of it got into my eyes +and hurt them very much. That is how I was called Tom Brandy. + +"Another day, when I was grown up, they forced some spoonfuls of brandy +and water down my throat, and by-and-bye I seemed to get out of my mind. +I walked round the camp and challenged every other he cat in the place, +and fought almost as bad as a miner. + +"I was always death on dogs, Shireen, but that night there wasn't a dog +anywhere about that I did not try to swallow alive, for I believed +myself to be as big as an elephant. My master found me at last, and +kindly took me home and laid me on his old coat in the corner, and I +soon fell sound asleep, but, oh, Shireen, when I awoke next day my head +and eyes were fit to burst with pain. + +"Then, by-and-bye, there came a parson to our camp, and my master would +walk miles to hear the preaching, and I always went with him. When +there were many dogs about master used to lead me with a string, but he +never chained me up in his house, as some miners did with their big +cats. It is cruel to chain a dog even, but much more cruel to chain a +cat. + +"Well, master was what they call a rolling stone; one of the sort that +don't gather moss, you know. So he often changed camp. It took us two +days and nights sometimes to get to the new camp, and I travelled all +the way in an old gin case. + +"Poor master!" + +"Did he die?" said I. + +"Well, it was like this. Often and often on lovely moonlit nights, +Shireen, master and I would sit in the door of the hut where he lived +out among the bush and scrub, and he would speak to me of his far-off +home in England, and of his young wife and children that he was trying +to dig gold for. + +"`It is that,' he told me once, `which makes me so restless, Tom. I +want to get money. I want to get home to them, pussy, and I'll take you +with me and we'll be so happy.' + +"And he would smooth my head and sing to me of the happy time that was +coming when we should get home with wealth and riches. + + "`When the wild wintry wind + Idly raves round our dwelling, + And the roar of the linn + On the night breeze is swelling; + So merrily we'll sing, + As the storm rattles o'er us, + Till the dear shieling [a cottage] ring + With the light lilting chorus.'" + +"But, ah! Shireen, that happy time never came, for one sad night, at +the stores, a quarrel arose about something, and next moment the noise +of pistol-shooting rang out high above the din of voices. + +"There was a moment or two of intense stillness, and my master fell back +into the arms of a friend. + +"`Oh, my dear wife and bairns!' That was all master had breath to say +before his death-blood rose and choked him. + +"They told me I nearly went wild with grief, that I jumped upon his +breast and cried and howled. Well, perhaps I did. I forget most of +what happened. Only I know they buried him next day, and I sat on the +grave for days, refusing to leave it. Then I wandered off to Melbourne. +I thought if I could only get home and find master's wife, and +children, I might be a comfort to them. But this was impossible. + +"Well, I stayed for some months in Melbourne, just a waif and a stray, +you know, begging my bread from door to door. Then the _Venom_, the +very ship we are now on, Shireen, lay in, and when walking one night +near the docks, a sailor came singing along the street. He looked so +good and so brown and so jolly that my heart went out to him at once, +and I spoke to him. + +"`Hullo!' he cried, `what a fine lump of a cat. Why, you _are_ thin +though, Tom.'" + +"How did he know your name?" said I. + +"Oh, just guessed it, I suppose. + +"`How thin you are!' he says. `Well, on board you goes with me, and you +shall be our ship's cat, and if any man Jack bullies you, why they'll +have to fight Bill Bobstay.' And that is how I came to be a ship's cat, +my lovely Shireen." + +"Nobody objected to your being on board, I suppose," said I. + +"Well, I don't know, for you see, next day was Sunday, and seeing they +were rigging up a church on the main deck, I went and sat down by the +parson very demure-like, as I had sat beside poor master in the miners' +camp. + +"Then, after church, the first lieutenant asked the men, who brought the +cat on board. But of course nobody knew. + +"`Throw him overboard,' cried the lieutenant. + +"`No, no,' said the captain. `That will never do, Mr Jones. The poor +cat is welcome to his bite and sup as long as he likes to stop with us, +whoever brought him on board.' + +"Then a man in the ranks saluted. + +"`Did you want to say anything?' said Captain Beecroft. + +"`Well, sir,' said the man, `I wouldn't like any of my pals to be blamed +for a-bringing of Tom from shore, 'cause _I_ did, and you may flog me if +you like.' + +"`No, no, my man, instead of flogging you I'll forgive you. I like my +men to be bold and outspoken just as you are.' + +"And from that day to this, three long years, Shireen, I've been ship's +cat to the saucy _Venom_, and, what is more, I like it. + +"Now, if you please, I'll take you forward, and you can see the men's +quarters." + +"What are those three trees growing on the lid of the ship for, Tom?" I +asked. + +"Those are not trees, Shireen," he answered; "those are what they call +ship's masts, and you must not say the lid of the ship, but the deck." + +"Thank you, Tom. And are those sheets hung up yonder to dry, Tom?" + +"Oh, no, those are the ship's sails. They carry the vessel along before +the wind when the steam isn't up. Look down into that hole, Shireen. +Take care you don't fall. Do you see all those clear glittering shafts +and cranks and things? Well, those are the engines. Keep well away +from them when they begin to move, else you might tumble in and be +killed in a moment." + +"How strange and terrible!" I said. + +Well, children, Tom took me everywhere all over the ship, and even +introduced me to the men. + +"My eyes, Bill," said one man, "here's a beauty. Did you ever see the +like of her before? White's the snow; long coat and eyes like a +forget-me-not. Stand well back, Bill. Don't smoke over her. She +belongs to that soldier officer, and I'll warrant he wouldn't like a +hole burned in that beautiful jacket she wears." + +But oh, children, for many weeks I thought ship-life was about the most +awkward thing out, for when it isn't blowing enough to send the vessel +on through the water, then, you know, they start the mill and the +rattling wheels, and your poor life is nearly shaken out of you, while +the blacks keep falling all about, and if a lady has a white coat like +mine, why--why it won't bear thinking about. And if it does blow, +Warlock, well, then it is too awkward for anything, and sometimes it was +about all Tom Brandy could do to hang out, although his claws were +sharper and stronger far than mine. + +But long before we reached the city of Zanzibar I was, I think, quite as +good a ship's cat as Tom Brandy himself. + +I'll never forget, however, the first day Tom took me aloft. + +We went as far as the maintop, and there we sat together talking for +quite an hour. + +"Hullo!" said Tom at last, "there goes eight bells and the bugle for +dinner; come on, Shireen." + +Tom began to go down at once, but lo! when I looked over my heart grew +faint and my head felt giddy, and I wouldn't have ventured after Tom for +anything. + +"No, no, Tom," I cried, "save yourself. Never mind me." + +"Why, there is no danger," he answered. "Only you mustn't try it head +first as if you were coming out of a tree, but hand after hand, thus." + +And Tom soon disappeared. + +I sat there till the shades of evening began to fall. Tom, however, +hadn't quite forgotten me, for he brought me up the breast of a chicken. + +After I had partaken of it: "Will you try to come down now, Shireen?" he +said. + +"No, Tom," I replied. "I shall end my days up here. I--" + +I said no more. For at that moment a rough red face appeared over the +top. + +It was the honest sailor-man who had brought Tom Brandy on board, and he +soon solved the difficulty by taking me down under his arm. + +But I gained confidence after this, and was soon able to run up even to +the top-gallant crosstrees, and come down again feet first, and hand +after hand, just like Tom Brandy himself. + +I'll never forget the first day I heard the guns go off. Tom told me it +was nothing. That we were merely chasing a slave-ship, and that the +moment she lay to our brave sailors would board her, and very soon make +an end of the Arabs. + +Tom and I had crept into the largest gun that day, having found the +tompion out. She was called a bow-chaser, whatever that may be, and she +stood on a pivot away forward. The sun had been fearfully hot that +forenoon, but Tom came aft to the quarter-deck, where I was lying +panting, with my mouth open. + +"Very hot, isn't it?" said Tom. + +"I feel roasting," I replied. + +"Well, follow me," he said. "I know where it is dark and cool enough +for anything. The tompion is out of the 56-pounder." + +"Whatever do you mean? What is a tompion, Tom? And what is a +56-pounder?" + +"Come on and see, Shireen." + +Then we went to the gun. + +"Follow your leader," cried Tom, and in he crawled and soon was lost to +view. + +"But why, Tom?" I cried; "it must be dirty as well as dark. I'm afraid +of soiling my coat." + +Tom looked out of the gun to laugh. + +"Oh, Shireen!" he said, "the idea of a Royal Navy gun being dirty. I +wonder what the gunner would say if you told him?" + +So, half ashamed of myself, I jumped in. It was delightfully nice and +cool, and so my companion and I fell sound asleep. + +I was awakened before Tom by a voice. "Can't load the bow-chaser, sir. +Cats have both gone to sleep in it, and I can't get 'em out." + +"Stick in a fuse," cried the lieutenant, "and rouse them out." + +Immediately after there was a rang-bang let off behind us, and Tom and I +were blown clean out of the gun. + +We weren't hurt, Warlock, for we both alighted on our feet; but, my blue +eyes! I did get a scare. + +Tom said that was nothing. He often went to sleep in the gun, and, as +to being blown out with a fuse, it didn't even singe one, and was +quicker than walking. + +But when the battle began in earnest, and the first gun went off, I +bolted aft with my tail like a bottle-brush, and dived down below. + +I tore in through the wardroom, and did not consider myself safe until I +got into my master's bed. + +The battle didn't last long. Tom told me it was only a small slaver. +But she was captured, and towed astern, and Tom said there was some talk +of hanging one or two of the Arabs, but I didn't know anything about +this. I was very pleased the fight was over. + +Three slaves were brought on board. One was a little boy, with no more +clothes on than a mermaid. And he was so black, children, that when he +crawled up and put his arms round my neck, I quite expected to see a +black ring round me next time I looked in the glass. + +But the blackness didn't come off. + +Strangely enough, this poor little black child and I grew very great +friends indeed. + +I think that by this time, however, there wasn't an officer or man in +the ship, fore or aft, that didn't love me very much. + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +OLD SHIPMATES. + +Tom and I, continued Shireen, weren't the only pets on board the +_Venom_. There was a monkey though, and a very large one he was. When +he stood up he was as big as a second-class boy. The sailors had +dressed him as a marine, and given him a wooden gun, and taught him to +shake hands and salute. His name was Joe; but I'm sure he wasn't happy, +I often saw tears in his eyes, or thought I did. Perhaps he had been +taken from his home, far away in the beautiful forests of Africa, and +had left a wife and children behind him. + +We had a mongoose too--a sly old grey creature that the men petted. But +Tom never took to him, and used sometimes to whack him when nobody was +looking. + +We had a large chameleon just like Chammy,--and I wonder where Chammy +is--our ship's chameleon lived in an old coffee-pot that was turned down +on its side like a kennel in the corner of the doctor's cabin. He was +chained to this just like a doggie, and used to catch little cockroaches +and hammer-legged flies for himself all day. + +In another part of the doctor's cabin was a lizard four feet long, that +looked terribly fierce and dangerous, he was also secured with a chain. +In a hatbox, in the doctor's cabin, lived a beautiful bronze-winged +pigeon, who purred like a cat. Tom said he must be awfully good to eat, +but he wouldn't venture into the cabin for anything, owing to the dragon +that was chained in the corner. + +We had in the wardroom a grey parrot with a red tail that he was very +proud of. And all the week through the parrot was allowed to go on deck +if he liked, but not on Sundays, because once when he came to church in +the middle of the service he set everybody laughing by calling the +parson "Old Boots." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The sailors now began to teach me tricks, and seeing that it pleased +them very much, I tried to learn my lessons as quickly as possible. + +On fine evenings then at smoking time, the men would call me forward, +and a ring would be formed near to the winch and between the bows. + +Jumping backwards and forwards over a stick, or over a man's clasped +hands, was nothing. Heigho! my dear children, this happened twenty +years ago, although I remember it as if it were but yesterday. Well, I +was supple and strong, and lithe of limb in those dear days, being +little more than a kitten, and a man could hardly hold a stick so high +that I couldn't spring over it. + +As soon as I was fairly well accomplished at this work, a piece of iron +wire, bent in a half hoop, was used instead of the stick, and every +night the sailor who was teaching me brought the two ends of the wire +nearer and nearer, until at last it was a whole hoop and nothing else. + +Next he covered the hoop half over with paper, leaving just a hole, but +I was determined not to be beaten, and through I went. + +One evening, to my surprise, the hoop was all covered with thin paper; +nevertheless, when the man spoke kindly to me, and asked me to leap, +through I went, and my education in leaping was supposed to be complete. + +This man was afterwards called aft to the quarter-deck, and there, to +the delight and amusement of the officers, and the envy of the mongoose, +who couldn't jump a bit, I went through the whole performance, and was +applauded sky-high. + +"Pussy," said my master laughing, as he took me and fondled me in his +arms, "I never knew before that you were a play actor." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +There were no rats on board the _Venom_, so Tom and I had an idle time +of it. When Tom first came on board ship in Australia, there had been a +large number of these nasty creatures in the vessel. They used to eat +everything, and sometimes they got into the men's hammocks for warmth, +and slept with them all throughout the watch-in. Put Tom cleared the +ship by degrees. + +"That must have been fine fun," said Warlock; "but it must have been +dull times for Tom and you--no rats, no sport." + +"But," added wise, wee Warlock, with a sigh, "it will be as bad in this +country, Tabby, before long." + +"_Yes_," said Tabby. + +"What I would propose if I were in Parliament," said Warlock, "would be +this. We have a close season for birds, and even for seals, so we ought +to have a close season for rats also." + +"Bravo! Bravo! tse, tse, tse!" cried Dick. + +"Then if we had a close season for rats, though the farmers might +grumble a bit, Tabby and I would have sport, and it is everybody for +himself in this world. But, dear Mother Shireen, we are interrupting +the easy flow of your narrative. Pray go on." + +Yes, Warlock, and I think if you wait for sport till a close season for +rats becomes the law of the land, you'll be pretty old and stiff before +you get it. But on board the saucy _Venom_, although Tom and I scorned +to catch cockroaches like the big ape and the mongoose, we had fine fun +at night fishing. + +"Fishing?" cried Tabby. "Why, whatever did you catch, Mother Shireen? +Sharks?" + +No, my dear, nor whales either, though a shark once nearly caught me. +No, we caught flying fish, Tom and I. + +"Tse, tse, tse!" from Dick. + +I observe that Dick is much surprised. Perhaps he thinks I am becoming +foolish in my old age. Not a bit of it, Dick. Tom taught me how to +catch the flying fish, and I soon became a very apt pupil indeed. And +easy work it was. You see, flying fish instead of being chased by +dolphins, though they sometimes may be, or by sharks either, are +generally out in shoals, looking for their own food, and they fly, +Warlock, just for the fun of the thing. + +"For sport like?" said Warlock. + +Yes, Warlock, for sport. + +Well, they always will fly to a light, and so all Tom and I had to do +was to sit on the top of the bulwarks and look down. The starlight, +flashing in our eyes, soon attracted the attention of the fish, and they +jumped over our heads, and danced a jig on the deck behind us. + +Then Tom and I went and had a very nice little supper, and there was +always more than we could eat, so the men on watch had some too. + +"Well, that is good," said Tabby. "I've tried my hand at trout fishing, +but I never heard of flying-fish catching like that before." + +"Trout fishing," said Shireen, "is what I should call mere bottom +fishing." + +"Yes, and you do go to the bottom too, with a plump." + +Shireen laughed. + +"It may be all very well for short-haired Tabbies like you, my dear," +she remarked. "But, la! to get my jacket wet would entirely spoil it; +besides, you know, I'm not so young as you. If I got wet I should be +laid up with the rheumatics for a month to a dead certainty. Heigho! it +might be a _dead_ certainty too, though that, children, is only my +little joke. But tell us Tabby, how you got on fishing." + +Tabby sat up for a moment, and Dick flew off her back, crying,-- + +"I say, I say, what is it? you r-r-rascal!" + +"Well," said Tabby, "it wasn't with me that the catching of trout +originated, nor with Warlock either. It happened thus. In a cottage +near the forest, a year or two ago, there came an old maiden lady to +live, who was very fond indeed of cats. She had three altogether, and +she very wisely permitted them to roam about at the freedom of their own +will. Two of her cats were ladies, the other was a fine red fellow, of +the name of Joe. + +"The gamekeepers said that Joe was a noted thief, and that he caught +their birds and their leverets also, and that they would shoot him on +sight. When the old lady heard this, she went straight to the keepers' +huts by the forest edge. Joe was trotting by her side, but as soon as +they were within fifty yards of the cottages, Joe got up on his +mistress's shoulder. She was a strong old lady, and armed with a +two-horse power umbrella in one hand, and a big book in the other. + +"`Do you see this cat?' said Miss Simmonds to the head keeper. + +"`Can't help seeing him, miss,' he answered, `besides, we know him; he +kills our birds and our leverets too, and we've seen him take a grilse +out of the river!' + +"`Well, that is a pity; I just called to say that I was sorry, and that +I will do my best to keep Joe at home, though this is difficult +sometimes with a tom-cat, you know. But if he kills a bird or a +leveret, you must let me know the amount of damage, and I'll pay. But,' +she added, `you must not take the law into your own hands and shoot my +cat.' + +"`Nonsense, miss!' cried the keeper, pointing to a board on which was +printed: + +"Trespassers will be Prosecuted." + +"Dogs will be Shot." + +"`That's the way we serves dogs, miss, and it isn't likely we'll trouble +about sparing a cat.' + +"Then Miss Simmonds stuck her big umbrella ferule down in the turf, and +took the big book from under her arm. + +"`Listen,' she said. `Ahem! _Corner_ versus _Champneys_. 2 Marsh, 584. +A gamekeeper has no right to kill a dog for following game, even +although the owner of the dog has received notice that trespassing dogs +will be shot. In such a case as this, the shooter must pay the full +price of the animal shot.' + +"`Didn't know that before,' said the keeper. `But, begging your pardon, +miss, cats are not dogs.' + +"`The same law holds good, sir.' + +"`Cats can be trapped, miss.' + +"`Listen again,' said Miss Simmonds. `_Townsend_ versus _Withan_. In +this case it was ruled that the defendant was answerable to the +plaintiff for injuries sustained by his cat and dog in a trap, although +he had no intention of injuring plaintiff, and meant only to catch foxes +and vermin.' + +"`Poison, miss, is a quiet way of getting rid of cats. I'll try that.' + +"Once again, Miss Simmonds turned over the pages of her book, and proved +to the satisfaction of even those surly keepers, that the putting down +of poisoned flesh in a field laid the perpetrator under a penalty of 10 +pounds. + +"Well, although Miss Simmonds laid down the law to those men, she did +not part from them in an unfriendly way, and something bright and yellow +passed from her hand to that of the keeper. + +"But in future Miss Simmonds restricted Joe's liberty somewhat. + +"Well, one day, Warlock and I were sitting by the burn [a small stream +or rivulet is so called in Scotland] somewhat disconsolately, for we +hadn't had very much sport that day, only a few field mice and a mole, +when I heard a cat mew softly within a few yards of me. + +"I looked quickly round, and Warlock pricked up his ears, and prepared +for instant combat. + +"It was Joe. + +"And very handsome he looked. I lost my heart to him at once. + +"`Shall I give him a fit?' said Warlock. + +"`No, no,' I cried hastily; `that is Joe.' + +"`I'm a little afraid of your dog, miss,' said Joe. `Will he bite?' + +"`Oh, no, sir,' I hastened to say. + +"Then Joe advanced. + +"All three soon got talking in quite a neighbourly kind of way, and the +conversation naturally enough turned upon sport. + +"`We haven't done much this forenoon,' I said. + +"`Ah! then why don't you catch trout?' + +"Just at that moment fire seemed to flash from Joe's yellow eyes. His +nose was turned towards the stream; he was crouching low with his tail +all a-quiver. Next minute he had left the bank and disappeared with a +splash in the water. + +"I was thunderstruck. So was Warlock. But Joe crept up the bank again +almost directly, with a beautiful crimson-dotted yellow trout in his +mouth. + +"This he placed at my feet as a love-offering. Then he shook himself +once or twice, and seemed quite pleased to see me enjoy the trout, the +head and tail of which I gave to Warlock. + +"`Delightful, isn't it?' he said. + +"`Delicious!' I replied. + +"`I've been a fisherman for over five years. You see, my late master +had always been a disciple of Walton's, and when only a kitten I used to +sit and sing beside him, when packing his luncheon for the river's side. +I jumped up when he took down rod and basket, and would trot off with +him all the way to the river. How eagerly I used to watch the skimming +fly, and my master can make a lovely cast, and I couldn't help being all +of a tremble, and squaring my mouth, and emitting little screams of +delight, when a fish rose to nibble; then when one was caught and thrown +on the bank, nothing could prevent my jumping on it and killing it with +blows of my paw. I did not put a tooth in it because master always fed +me well, and I knew there was luncheon in the basket for me as well as +for him. + +"`But I soon learned to catch fish myself, and now I not only spring on +them as you saw me do just now, but where the stream is shallow, I fish +as I have seen schoolboys do; for lying down on the bank I stretch my +paw far in under it, and very often hand out a trout.' + +"`How clever!' I said. + +"`It is wonderful!' said Warlock. + +"`Well,' said Joe, `you can do the same.' + +"`Can I?' asked Warlock. + +"`No,' said Joe smiling. `You're only a dog, you know, but you can sit +on a hillock, and watch and warn us if you see any fiend-boys coming +along with catapults.' + +"So, as Joe's late master had been a disciple of Walton's, I became a +disciple of Joe's. I think, Shireen, that I have proved a very apt +pupil, though not quite as good yet as Joe. For Joe takes to the water +like an Irish spaniel, and he told me that he often caught eels and also +water rats. + +"My fishing lessons have been an advantage to me and to Warlock too, +because previously I used to be rather afraid of the water, and more +than once when Warlock and I were out hunting, and he swam over a +stream, I had to go miles up or down till I found a bridge. But now I +leap in just as Warlock does, and swim to the other side." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Shireen got up and stretched herself now. + +"I'll go on with my story another night," she said. + +Then she jumped upon Colonel Clarkson's knee. + +"How fond that cat seems to be of you," said Ben. + +"Ah! yes, poor Shireen! She dearly loves both me and my wife. As for +Lizzie and Tom, well, she adores them. But Tom here is such a good lad, +and never pulls her about, for I have told him that pussy is very old, +and, heigho! I daresay we'll miss her some of these days." + +"But we can lift Tabby, can't we, uncle?" said Lizzie. + +"Well, I do think Tabby rather likes being teased just a very little, +and I'm sure she would stand from you, Lizzie, treatment she would soon +resent if Uncle Ben or I were going to resort to it." + +"Getting late," said Uncle Ben, starting up. "But," he added, "somehow +when the wind roars as it does to-night, and takes my thoughts away back +to the stormy ocean, I cannot help talking." + +"Won't Cockie get wet?" said Mrs Clarkson. "Hadn't you better leave +him here to-night?" + +"Bless your innocence, my dear Mrs Clarkson, the bird would break his +heart." + +"Coakie wants to go home!" cried the cockatoo. + +It will be observed that the bird called himself _Coakie_, not Cockie. + +But Ben produced a big red handkerchief, and simply tied Cockie up as if +he had been a bundle of collars going to the wash. + +He placed the bundle under his arm, bade everybody good-night, then +walked boldly forth into darkness and storm. + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + +"AWAY, LIFEBOAT'S CREW!" + +The house where the Clarksons dwelt, with the two dear little orphans +Lizzie and Tom, and to which Uncle Ben so often found his way, was a +fine old place. It stood high on a great green brae, not far from the +forest and sea, and had been at one time a real castle, for our friends +only occupied the more modern portion of it. All the rest was in ruins, +or nearly so. + +It was within sound of the roar of a cataract, which could be heard ever +and ay in drowsy monotony, except on stormy nights, when the wild wind, +sweeping through the tall dark pine trees that grew on a beetling cliff +top behind the ruin, quite drowned even the voice of the linn. + +It was a rare old house and ruin for cats and children to play about; +for there was not only quite a jungle of cover for birds of every sort, +but the ivy itself that covered some of the sturdy grey walls gave berth +and bield to more than one brown owl. + +It was perhaps the noise made by the owls that gave rise to the notion, +ripe enough among the peasantry, that the old Castle was haunted. + +Lizzie and her brother both believed in this ghost. They made +themselves believe, in fact, because it was romantic so to do. + +There were fine old-fashioned walled-in gardens and lawns to play in +besides, so that on the whole it was a kind of ideal place. + +There was one peculiarity about the lawn that I should tell you of. The +Colonel would not have it kept closely shaven, he loved to see the +daisies growing thereon, and many a pink, crimson, or yellow nodding +wild flower as well. + +So all the summer long it was beautiful, and even in autumn too. + +Lizzie and Tom were such gentle children, that none of the creatures of +nature which visited the lawn, seemed to be one whit afraid of them. In +fact, they--the children--were part and parcel of all that was beautiful +in nature around them. + +The mavises sang to them nearly all the year through, sometimes even in +snow time. So did cock-robin, because he was always fed, even in +summer. Lizzie and Tom knew where his nest was in a bank of wild roses, +and robin appeared rather pleased than otherwise to have them come +quietly round and take a peep at his yellow-throated gaping gorblings of +youngsters. + +"It takes me all my time," cock-robin told Lizzie, "and all my wife's +time too, to feed them. Oh, they do eat and eat and eat to be sure. It +is just stuff, stuff, stuff all day long; one beetle down the other come +on, so that I haven't time to sing a song to you. But wait till winter +comes, and the youngsters are up and away, and won't I just sing!" + +There was a saucy rascal of a blackbird that used to run about on the +lawn gathering food, quite close to the children. When Shireen, Tabby, +and the rest were there the blackbird used to come even closer, in order +that he might nod his head and scold the cats. + +But Dick would cry "Eh? Eh? What d'ye say? What is it? You +r-r-rascal!" and sometimes even fly down to offer him battle. + +There was no song more sweet in the summer evenings however, than +blackie's. + +The owl kept his song till midnight, and a very dreary one it was! + +But strangely enough, some may think it, yet it is nevertheless most +true, wild pigeons built their nests in the pine trees, close to the +wall in which the owls had theirs. These pigeons knew, though +gamekeepers don't, that these owls lived on young rats and mice and not +upon birds. + +Squirrels used to run about the lawn with their long brown beautiful +tails behind them, early in the morning; and they built in trees also. + +Then there was a white-breasted weasel, that would often come quite +close up to Lizzie and Tom, and stand on one end to look at what they +were doing. + +On this particular year, autumn lingered long on the hills and forests +and fields all around the children's beautiful home. It was, Uncle Ben +said, a real Indian summer, so soft and warm and mellow, that neither he +nor the Colonel ever cared to be much indoors. + +"Well," said Warlock, one afternoon out on the Colonel's lawn, while +Lizzie and Tom sat at some distance making a garland of gowans for the +dogs' necks, and the old sailor and soldier sat in their straw chairs, +peacefully smoking and yarning--"Well, Shireen, although I have never +been to sea myself, considering that the land and the lovely hills and +woods are good enough for me, I dearly like to hear about it, so just +heave round with your yarn, as Uncle Ben yonder says." + +"Yes, with pleasure," said Shireen. "Let me see though, where did I +leave off?" + +"Why you left yourself sitting on the bulwark of the old _Venom_, +catching flying fish." + +Oh, yes, so I did, Warlock. My memory is just getting a little fickle +now, while yours is supple and green. Well, the voyage south was +continued, slowly though, because we kept in towards the green-wooded +coast, you know, in order to hunt for slave-ships. And several times +Tom Brandy and I had to be blown out of the gun with a fuze before the +men could load it. I always knew what was going to happen when this +took place, and ran aft right speedily and got down below to my master's +bed; because do what I might, I could never reconcile myself to the +noise of those terrible guns. + +Master I could see, much to my joy, was getting better and stronger +every day. But he often spoke to me about my mistress Beebee, and +always said that he would, at all risks, prevent her from being sold to +the Shah. + +One day he went so far as to say, "Dear pussy Shireen, your mistress is +much too good and too beautiful for a fellow like the Shah. Let him be +content with the slaves he has. He is only a savage himself, at the +best, and rather than he should have your sweet mistress, I will go back +to Persia and carry her away." + +My life on board the _Venom_ was now a most happy and pleasant one; but +often and often, Warlock, I dreamt that I was back again in the land of +the lion and the sun, in beautiful Persia, and that I was sitting as of +old in the turret balcony, with my darling mistress. Then I would awake +and find myself far away on the dark blue sea. + +No, I should not say dark blue sea, because the Indian Ocean is more +lovely far than turquoisine. + +Tom Brandy and I would sit for hours on the bulwarks, which I used to +call a fence, looking at the sea. The flying fish knew far better than +to come on board the vessel during the day, but there always was +something or other to be seen in the ocean. At times, especially on +calm days, it would be a shoal of silvery whitebait. And such a shoal! +Oh, Tabby, it would have made your mouth water to look upon it. We +could see first far ahead of us, a dark patch upon the bright blue +water, and when we came nearer, that part of the sea would be all +a-quiver, as if it were raining hard there and nowhere else. But soon +the shoal opened out in all its beauty of silvery life and loveliness. +I'm not a post, only a Persian cat, else I could describe it better. + +"Oh, rats!" cried Warlock, "never mind the poetry." + +Another sight we used to see would be a shoal of dolphins. + +"Chasing the whitebait, I suppose?" This from Warlock. + +"I didn't say so, Warlock." + +But very prettily they used to come along on the top of the water. They +would be so far away at first that they looked like tiny black ticks on +the horizon, but soon they were near enough to us, and we saw that they +were monsters. Oh, a hundred times as large as you, Warlock, or all of +us put together. They came up head first, and went down head first, +just skylarking and playing and skipping like lambs on the leas. And +the water all around them was lashed into foam. Wasn't I afraid, did +you ask me, Vee-Vee? No, not a bit, because Tom told me they were as +harmless as cows. + +But, my children, there were creatures in that deep sea of turquoisine +that were very far indeed from being harmless. These were the sharks. + +There were always one or two down there that the doctor led. They used +to know the doctor, and floated alongside the ship, while he threw down +pieces of fat to them, and sometimes a ham bone. + +The doctor said those tigers of the ocean used to swallow whatever was +thrown overboard, even if it were only an empty medicine bottle. + +Sometimes they looked very lovingly at the doctor, and this officer +would tell me they were asking him to throw over a cat for them to +swallow. They said they had never eaten cat, but felt sure that it must +taste very nice indeed. + +But little did we think that one day we would be in danger of our lives +from those awful monsters. + +Only it wasn't by day, but by night, and a clear and beautiful night it +was too, with the moon shining as brightly almost as it used to shine +over the woods around my Persian home. + +Tom and I had been sitting on the bulwarks as usual, expecting a flying +fish to come on board. But they could see us too distinctly, so they +kept away. + +There was very little wind that night, just enough to fill the sails, +and carry us along about five knots an hour. + +It was a few minutes past midnight, and the watch had been changed, and +stillness reigned everywhere. I think I must have fallen asleep and +been dreaming, for I started in fright when one bell was struck loudly +and clearly. + +I started so that I missed my balance, and fell with a plash into the +sea. Next moment Tom Brandy uttered a plaintive howl and dashed in +after me. I am sure that the poor fellow had no idea of trying to save +my life, he only wished to share my fate. + +I heard a shout just after Tom came down. For a man in the watch, +hearing the plash in the water, immediately concluded that someone had +fallen in, and raised the alarm. + +"Man overboard! Away, lifeboat's crew!" + +The shout was taken up and repeated fore and aft, down below and on deck +as well. + +Then something came rushing down into the sea from the stern of the +ship, and fell into the water with a strange hollow ring. + +The officer of the watch had let go the lifebuoy, but so quickly that he +had forgotten to light it. His neglect to do so probably saved our +lives. + +The lifebuoy is made of two empty copper balls, with an arm of wood +between. From this rises a short mast, on the top of which a beacon +burns. Now had this been lit, Tom and I would have burned our paws when +we scrambled up the little mast. + +I never knew I could swim till then, but I can assure you, Warlock, it +didn't take Tom Brandy and I long to reach that lifebuoy, and there we +clung till the boat came. + +It was not long, perhaps, till the boat did arrive, but to me it seemed +like a hundred years, for the sea all around us appeared to be alive +with awful sharks. Tom told me afterwards my eyes must have multiplied +their numbers, and that there were only just the doctor's two tame ones. + +Well, Warlock, tame or not tame, they wanted to tear Tom and me to +pieces, and were terribly disappointed when the men took us on board and +the boat went rushing back to the _Venom_ with us rescued pussies. + +When the captain heard of what he called the gallant rescue, he ordered +the mainbrace to be spliced, and so the men all had a glass of grog for +saving our lives. + +But next day the seaman who had struck the bell which so startled me, +informed the boatswain that he was positive both cats did not fall off +the bulwarks, but that I only had missed my hold and tumbled into the +sea. He looked quickly towards the bows he said, and for a second or +two saw Tom Brandy there safe enough. Then he heard his cry, and saw +him deliberately spring into the sea after me. + +The boatswain told all this to the men and also to the officers, and +after that Tom became indeed a hero on board the ship. My master spoke +of presenting him with a handsome collar of solid silver. The armourer +said if my master Edgar would let him have the silver, he would very +soon make it and engrave it also; he received a large silver spoon, and +so heartily did he work, that in less than a week Tom was wearing his +collar. + +But, children, continued Shireen thoughtfully, although Tom Brandy +looked somewhat dignified in his silver collar, it is rather a risky +ornament for a pussy to wear. For a cat friend of mine in the country +being presented with a lovely morocco leather collar by his own +mistress, who thought a great deal of him, disappeared soon after in the +most mysterious way. A whole week passed by and poor Clyde didn't +appear. Then one day a boy rang the door bell, and asked to see Clyde's +mistress. He thought he had found the missing cat he said. + +"Where, my dear boy, where?" cried Mrs L-- + +"Up in a tree, far down in the wood, ma'am." + +"And why didn't you bring him? I'll go with you, and we must get him, +and I will pay you well." + +"Can you climb trees?" she added. + +"Like a squirrel," he said boldly. + +The tree was soon found, and up swarmed the boy. + +"It is Clyde right enough!" he shouted down; "but she's been and gone +and hung herself." + +"Oh, poor pussy! Is she dead?" + +By this time the lad was coming down the tree with pussy under his +jacket. + +"Never a dead is she, ma'am, but awfully thin." + +She was indeed thin, and a miserable time she must have spent. A branch +of the tree had got caught in the collar, and there the poor cat was +hung up by the neck, and but for the boy, who perhaps had been +birds'-nesting, she would have been slowly starved to death. + +That's the worst of a dandy collar. But nothing ever happened to Tom +Brandy on board the ship. + +Well, in due course the _Venom_ arrived safely in port, and was paid +off. And I assure you, dear children, the day I parted from Tom Brandy +I was very sorry indeed. But, you see, he wasn't my master's cat, and +so couldn't go with us. + +Indeed Captain Beecroft had taken a real fancy for Tom, and being like +many sailors, just a little superstitious, he thought that if he parted +with pussy, all his good luck would go also, so he determined to stick +to him. + +Arrived on shore, we, that is my dear master and I, went to Yorkshire to +live for a time with an aunt of his, about the only relative he had +alive. + +Mrs Clifford was an exceedingly nice old lady, and very fond of cats, +as every nice old lady is, you know, Warlock. She took quite a fancy to +me at once, and I had the run of the house and gardens, and a fine +old-fashioned place it was. There were several other cats here and dogs +too, but we lived like a happy family just as we all do here. + +"Now, pussy Shireen," said master to me one evening, "I don't know what +I shall do. I think more and more about your beautiful mistress that +the Shah is going to claim, every day of my life; and I think, too, of +the vow I made to protect her from the terrible fate that awaits her. +But oh, pussy, I'm almost in a fix, for I must tell aunt about Beebee, +and, very nice though she is, I do not know how she may take it; I am +entirely dependent upon her, and what is more, I am her heir." + +"But tell her I must, Shireen, even if she cuts me off with a shilling. +I still have my sword, you know, pussy." + +I rubbed my head against his hand, and sang loud and long. + +He understood me, and took me up in his arms and kissed me on the head. + +"Yes, Shireen," he said, "I still have you, and we shall never part, I +do assure you, unless I am slain in battle, and even then you will be by +my side." + +Then he started to his feet. + +"Come, Shireen," he said bravely, "the more I think about it, the worse +it will be. I will go and seek my aunt now in her own room, and tell +her all about it." + +I trotted along the passage with him, and soon we came to Mrs +Clifford's door. + +"Come in," she cried. "Come in, Edgar," for she knew it was his knock. + +"Sit down, my child, by my chair." + +So Edgar took a low stool by her knee just as he used to do when a boy, +and the kindly white-haired lady passed her hand through his hair. + +"Just like old times, isn't it, Edgar?" + +"Yes, auntie; but I have come to speak to you about Shireen." + +"About your beautiful pussy?" + +"Yes. Look, auntie." + +Edgar, as he spoke, took me up and exposed my gum. + +"Do you see that brilliant red flashing little spot, aunt?" + +"Yes, my dear boy. Let me get my glasses. Why, I declare, Edgar, it is +a brilliant, a ruby, and though small, it looks like a priceless gem." + +"And so it is; and the person who had it put there is a still more +priceless gem to me." + +"I don't understand you, Edgar; you always were a strange child." + +"Well, shall I tell you the story of the ruby?" + +Mrs Clifford folded her mittened hands in her lap, and looked, or tried +to look resigned. + +"I think," she said, "I know what is coming. You have been out in +Persia, and you have fallen in love with some designing minx of a +Persian girl, and she gave you that Persian cat--and--and--and--" here +the old lady began to tap with her foot against the footstool--"oh, that +my brother's boy should have fallen in love with a blackamoor!" + +Edgar at this moment pulled out a case from his pocket, and opening it +by means of touching a spring, held out before his auntie's astonished +gaze a charmingly executed miniature portrait of my sweet mistress. + +"Is that a blackamoor, auntie?" he said. + +"This lovely child! Is this--" she spoke no more for a time. + +But my master knew he had gained a point, so he commenced to tell +Beebee's story and mine, from the very beginning to the end, and I +assure you, children, when he finished, the tears were silently falling +down the furrowed cheeks of the dear white-haired lady. + +"Oh, the inhuman monster of a father of the dear girl?" she said, as if +speaking to herself. + +Then she turned to my master and held out her hand. "Dear boy," she +said, "I am your friend, and if ever Beebee comes to this country, I +will try to be a friend and a mother to her." + +Then Edgar got up. He kissed the lady's white hair, then walked +straight away out of the room, struggling hard to restrain the tears +that filled his eyes. They were tears of joy though. + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN. + +ZULINA: A HOMELESS WAIF AND STRAY. + +Just a few weeks after this, and while reading a letter at breakfast, my +master's face flushed with joy. + +There was nobody in the room but me, for the old lady did not come down +to breakfast very early. + +"Why, pussy Shireen, what do you think?" he cried. + +Of course, I couldn't tell what the matter might be. + +"My regiment--the 78th Highlanders--has been ordered to Persia, to give +the Persians a drubbing for insolence to our Government, and if I am +well enough I must join forthwith. Hurrah! Of course I'm well enough. + +"There will be many regiments there as well as ours, but oh, Shireen! +won't it be joyful, and you must come too, pussy. It may seem strange +for the captain of a gallant regiment to have a cat as a pet, but what +care I? Many a brave soldier has loved his pussy, so you come along +with me, and I'll chance it. + +"Now," he added, "I'll just write a letter to the War Office, saying +that I am well, and burning to join my regiment, then I'll go down the +hill and post it before auntie is up. That will settle it." + +Well, of course, children, Mrs Clifford was very sorry to lose her dear +Edgar, as she called him, so soon again; but she was a brave old lady, +and though she cried a little, she gave him a blessing and bade him go. + +"Duty must be obeyed, Edgar," she said, "even though hearts should +break. Go, my boy, your country calls you." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +I don't think, children, there was a much happier cat than pussy Shireen +on the day my master left Waterloo Station for Portsmouth, to take +passage for Bombay in a ship of war, especially when the brave soldier +told me that this ship was to be commanded by Captain Beecroft himself. +Indeed, hearing that we were going to India to join our regiment for +service in Persia, Captain Beecroft had written to us, offering us a +passage, and saying he would be very glad indeed to have master once +more on board his vessel. And, he added, as master knew none of the +officers in the wardroom, he would be happy to have him as a guest in +his own apartments. + +We had not gone straight to London, I may tell you, Warlock, from +Yorkshire. We had a run over to Dublin first to see a friend, and on +board the steamer I astonished everybody by my perfect coolness. I even +ran right up the rigging into the foretop, and had a look around me, and +the sailors all declared I was a ship's cat born and bred. + +Well, we had arrived at our hotel in the evening. I may tell you that +it stood in one of the principal streets, and right in the middle of it, +so that anyone going out by a back window and across the tiles, would +have to go a long way round to get to the front door again. + +Of course, Warlock, no human being would have dreamt of going out at a +back window and along the tiles, and no dog either. But it is precisely +what I did when master shut me in the room, and locked me in for safety +till he should post a letter. + +When he returned, behold! no Shireen was there, and he called me from +the window in vain. + +The truth is, I had never been to Ireland before, and wanted to see what +the Irish cats were like; so I determined to spend a night on the tiles +and go home with the milk in the morning. + +I can't say, however, that I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I found the +Dublin cats a rather disreputable gang. They serenaded nervous old +gentlemen, and had water and brushes and lumps of coal and the boot-jack +thrown at them; they scratched up beds of choice flowers, and they broke +into pigeon-lofts, and dove-cotes, and killed and ate the pigeons. +Moreover, they boasted of all these exploits as if they had been the +greatest fun in the world. So, on the whole, I was somewhat disgusted. +However, it opened up a new phase of life before me, and so I gained +some experience. + +But, children, you must not suppose that I, a silken-coated Persian and +a brave soldier's cat, kept with this gang all night. I did not, but +retired into a garden arbour early in the evening to have a quiet talk +with a lady-cat who, it was evident from her voice and manners, had seen +better days. + +She was a very pretty half-bred Angora, or rather, I should say, she had +been pretty once upon a time, but at present her face was thin and worn, +her eyes looked world-weary, and her coat hung around her in mats and +tatters. + +"And so," she said, after we had settled down face to face, "and so you +have been far travelled, and come all the way from across the seas?" + +"Yes," I answered, "and I am going all the way back again. The fact is, +I have no real home, except where master is, and I do not care where +that may be, whether on the lonesome moorland, amidst the city's bustle, +din, and strife, or far away upon the lone blue sea, I say, that if he +be with me I am at home." + +"Ah!" sighed the poor waif in front of me. "I wish I had a kind master +or mistress, if so you wouldn't find me here to-night. Why, I haven't +even a name now, though they used to call me Zulina." + +"A pretty name," I said; "but tell me, Zulina, how did so +ladylike-looking and evidently amiable a pussy as you become a nomad and +a wanderer?" + +"Oh, don't call me amiable," she answered: "indeed, I am not. All my +amiability, and ever, love, for the human race, has been crushed out of +me. Well, once I had a home in the outskirts of this very city, and +many home-ties too. It was a pretty house, with gardens all around it, +and custom and long residence thereat had much endeared me to it. I +knew every hole and corner of it. Knew every mouse-run, the cupboards, +and the cosy nooks where I could have a quiet snooze when I needed such +refreshment, and the places in which I could hide when hiding became an +absolute necessity. I was acquainted with the manner of egress and +ingress, so that I felt free and untrammelled, and I was familiar with +every sound so that my rest was never disturbed by night, nor my nerves +jarred by day. + +"And out of doors too, Shireen, everything about the dear old place was +familiar to me; the trees on which the sparrows perched, the field where +I often found an egg, the meadow where the wild rabbits played, and the +paths by which I could reach it in safety. + +"But I was taken away from this home by a mistress who used to profess +such love for me, and removed to a town more than twenty miles from +Dublin. My new home too, was right in the centre of the town, and +everything about it looked strange and foreign to me. But so long as I +felt sure my mistress loved me, I did not care, so I began to learn the +place by heart, as it were, and all the outs and ins of it. + +"But lo! what was my astonishment to hear my mistress say one day: + +"`I don't think we can put up with that cat now in this new house. I +think we had better give a boy sixpence to drown it to-morrow morning.' + +"That night I left the house, and the ungrateful mistress I had loved so +well and dearly. I left the house, and the town too, and wandered on +and on nearly all night, and at early dawn I was back again at my +dear-loved home. + +"I had forgotten there were strangers there now. And they treated me as +a stray cat, and drummed me out when I dared to put my nose over the +threshold. + +"What could I do, Shireen? I could not endure the pangs of hunger, and +though I hung about the garden of my old home for days, and made many a +plaintive but useless appeal to the new-comers, I was forced at last to +cast aside the mantle of virtue and become a thief. Yes, I even broke +into the new people's pigeon-loft and stole a bird. Then I took to this +evil existence, and since then, alas! I have never been inside a human +habitation except to steal." + +"Well, Zulina, it is very sad," I said; "but I think you should try to +reform even yet, and some kind lady might take pity on you." + +"No, no, no," sighed Zulina, "I am but a homeless waif and stray, and my +fate, I fear, will be to die in the street, or be torn to pieces by +dogs." + +"I'm going to hope for better things for you, Zulina," I insisted. "But +good-bye. Yonder is the grey dawn stealing up into the sky, and I think +I hear the milkman's cry in a distant street. I must try to find my +master's hotel. Good-bye." + +It was a long distance round, but my instinct was unerring, and finally +I found myself trotting up the correct street, and soon after sitting in +the area doorway. + +Down came the milkman with his rattling cans, and in a minute or two, +Biddy, with her hair in papers, and looking very sleepy, opened the +door. + +While Biddy and the milkman were interchanging a few courtesies, I +slipped quietly into the house and made my way as fast as I could +upstairs to the second floor. + +I soon spied my master's boots, and mewed at the door. + +It was opened in a moment, and in I popped, purring as loudly as I knew +how to. + +"Oh! pussy, pussy," he cried, as he picked me up, "I thought I would +never see you more, and I was quite disconsolate. You went out by the +back and over the tiles, and now you've come in at the front; how did +you find your way round? + +"It is instinct, instinct, I suppose," he added. "He who guides the +great fur seals back through the stormy seas, through hundreds of miles +of darkness and mist to their far northern islands in June, He guided +you. + + "`Reason raise o'er instinct if we can, + In this 'tis God directs, in that 'tis man.'" + +Well, Warlock, we left Dublin, and at last found ourselves at Waterloo +Station. + +The train was in, and I was in also. I was in a basket, and I didn't +half like it. + +I heard my master say to a railway porter, "Take charge of that basket +for a few minutes, porter, till I go and buy some newspapers." + +Five minutes after this, when Edgar returned, he met that railway +porter, and he was looking very disconsolate indeed. + +His hands were bleeding, and he carried an empty basket. + +"Oh! sir," he cried, "your cat has gone. The basket was not securely +fastened, and as soon as you left she wriggled out." + +"But why, man, didn't you stick to her?" cried master. + +"I tried to all I could, I do assure you, sir; but she bit me and tore +my hands, then jumped down and disappeared in the crowd." + +"Well, come along and take my things out of the compartment where we put +them, for I shan't go by this train." + +"I'm so sorry, sir. But she's only a cat, sir. You could get another." + +"Do as you're told, porter, please," said my master imperiously. + +Without another word the porter followed him to the first-class +compartment, and there they found me cosily snuggled up among the rugs! + +[This incident occurred just as described, the _dramatis personae_ being +the author and his own far-travelled cat Muffie Two.] + +Master was delighted, and gave the porter half-a-sovereign to heal his +wounded dignity, and his still more wounded fingers. + +My children, I travelled many and many a thousand miles with master +after that both by sea and by land, but never again did he insult my +_amour propre_ by putting me in a creel. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +At this moment Lizzie and Tom joined the group of old friends on the +lawn. Tom threw himself down on the grass, and began to twine the +garland of gowans he had been making around the neck of Vee-Vee, the +Pomeranian dog. + +Vee-Vee was Tom's favourite, and never a night would the boy go to bed +without him. + +No, Vee-Vee did not sleep _in_ the bed, but on a couch in the same cosy +little room. He was exceedingly fond of the boy, a proof that love +begets love, and of course the doggie would be always first awake in the +morning, but he would not stir until Tommy did. As soon, however, as +the little lad sighed, his first waking sigh, Vee-Vee jumped joyfully up +on the bed, and his delight was simply wonderful. + +How nice to be awakened thus by one who loves you, even if it be but a +dog. + +Vee-Vee was quite as rapturous in the welcome with which he used to +greet Tommy's home-coming, if he happened to be away all day. + +During the lad's absence the dog would refuse all food, and simply lie +in the hall with eyes open and ears erect until he heard his little +master's voice or footstep; then he would spring up quite beside himself +with joy, his bark having a kind of half hysterical ring in it, as if +tears were hindering its clearer utterance. + +Vee-Vee now seemed rejoiced to get the garland of gowans. It was a mark +of favour on the part of Tommy that he acknowledged by licking his hands +and cheek. + +Meanwhile Lizzie had brought out a rug to place on the grass, that she +might sit thereon, and so save herself from the damp. + +As she was spreading it on the green sward something tumbled out. + +That something was Chammy. + +"Oh, Chammy, Chammy!" cried Lizzie delighted, "we thought you were dead. +Where _will_ you hide next?" + +But Chammy gathered himself slowly up and crawled away, one leg at a +time, to look for a fly. + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN. + +"WHEN THE FUR BEGINS TO FLY." + +Nobody had ever been heard to call Cracker a pretty dog or a bonnie dog. +He was sturdy and strong, and nearly, if not quite, as large as a +Collie. His legs were as straight as darts, and as strong as the +sapling pine tree. Then his coat--ah! well, there is no way of +describing that with pen and ink or in print either. It was rough +though not shaggy, and every hair was as hard apparently as pin-wire. + +In the matter of coats, in fact, Nature had, while dressing Cracker, +adhered to the useful rather than the ornamental. He had apparently +come in the afternoon for his coat, and nearly all the other dogs had +been before him. Collie had been fitted with his flowing toga, the +Poodle with his cords and tassels, the Yorkshire terrier with his +doublet of silk, and many others with coats as soft and smooth as that +of a carriage horse, and poor Cracker, the Airedale terrier, had almost +been forgotten. + +"Your coat, Cracker?" Nature had said. "Oh, certainly. I'm really +afraid, however, that you have come rather late in the day to be dressed +with anything like elegance." + +"Oh!" Cracker had put in, "I ain't a bit particular. Anything'll do +for Cracker, so as it is thick enough to keep out a shower with a +shake." + +So Nature had simply gathered up the sweepings of the shop, the cabbage +and clippings, so to speak, and mixed them all up into a kind of shoddy, +and dabbed Cracker all over with that, going in, however, for a few +finishing touches of gold about the muzzle, the chest, and legs. + +And good honest Cracker had given himself a shake, and said, "This'll do +famous," then trotted off to do his duty and his work, which, to his +credit be it said, every dog of this breed knows well how to get +through. + +Well, one sunshiny day, when the old friends, including even Chammy, who +was lying in the limb of a dwarf holly, were assembled on Uncle Ben's +lawn, Ben himself and the Colonel blowing clouds in their straw chairs, +and Lizzie lying with a book in Ben's hammock, who should come through +the gateway but towsy Cracker himself. + +He was a brave dog this, and just as modest as brave, for the two good +qualities always go hand-in-hand. So he advanced in a bashful, +hesitating kind of way, as if he felt he ought to apologise for his +presence on the lawn at all, but didn't know exactly how to begin. He +was smiling too, a very broad smile that seemed to extend halfway down +both sides. + +Vee-Vee and Warlock jumped up at once growling and barking, and ready to +defend the family circle with their lives if there was any occasion, but +seeing it was only Cracker, they ran to meet him, and give him a hearty +welcome. + +Then Cracker advanced, shaking his droll old stump of a tail, and +Shireen herself arose and rubbed her back against his legs. + +"No," she said, "you certainly don't intrude, Cracker, and we only wish +you would come oftener than you do." + +"Well, seeing as that's the case," said Cracker, "I'll make one this +afternoon at your little garden party. But I'm not much used to refined +society, I bet you. More at home in a stable than in a drawing-room; +the riverside and moor or the forest is more in old Cracker's way than +fountain, lawn, and shrubbery. But, la! Shireen, whatever is that +lying along that branch? It isn't a big snail and it ain't a large +slug, sometimes grey and sometimes green. Well, of all the ugly--" + +"It's a friend of ours," said Shireen, interrupting Cracker, "and, I +assure you, Chammy won't hurt anything or anybody except the flies and +mealworms." + +"Well, well," said Cracker, "wonders 'll never cease, but if I had met a +beast like that in the woods, I'd have bolted quick, you bet, and never +turned tail till safe in my kennel again." + +"And now, Mother Shireen, let us have some more of your story," said +Vee-Vee. + +"Ah! yes," said Tabby; "but what a pity Cracker didn't hear the first +part." + +Well, said Shireen, we arrived at Portsmouth, I and my master as safe as +anything, and after dinner proceeded on board. + +The _Hydra_ was the name of the war ship on which we were to sail for +India's distant shore. She was a fine craft of the kind human beings +call a corvette. I was not long in perceiving that she carried many +long black guns, but was glad to learn soon after my arrival, that as we +were going to make a very quick passage out to Bombay, these awful guns +would hardly ever be fired. + +The _Hydra_ was much larger than the old _Venom_, had fine open decks, +and tall, raking masts, with a low, wide funnel of jet, up which went +the crimson copper steampipe. Her decks were as white as ivory, and I +could see my face in the polished woodwork, to say nothing of the brass +that shone like gold. + +I trotted along by my master's side towards the quarter-deck. + +Captain Beecroft in uniform, and looking young and happy, came forward +with a smile to bid us welcome. + +"So you haven't parted with your beautiful cat?" said the captain, as we +walked to the companion. + +"No, Beecroft, nothing, I hope, will ever part me from her." + +"I wonder," said Beecroft, "if she'll remember her old pal, the hero, +Tom Brandy." + +"What? Have you still got Tom?" + +"Yes. It isn't likely I'd sail without black Tom. That would be to +throw away my luck, you know, and I'd never become an Admiral." + +"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed master; "but how superstitious sailors are!" + +"And some soldiers too, ain't they? ha, ha!" + +Then both laughed, and Beecroft led the way to his quarters, a sentry at +the door saluting as we passed by. + +I declare to you, children, when I saw honest Tom Brandy lying there on +a skin rug in front of the stove--for it was almost winter now, and very +cold--you could have knocked me down with a sledge hammer. + +I felt all over in a whirl with joy, and for a moment I didn't know +whether my top or my toes were uppermost. + +Tom jumped up with a fond cry, and ran to meet me, and the two of us ran +round and round the table in order to allay our feelings, like a pair of +three-month-old kittens. + +But we both settled down on the skin in a few minutes, and commenced +singing a duet together, to the accompaniment of a coffee-urn that +simmered above the stove. + +"Just like old times, isn't it, soldier?" said Beecroft, looking down at +me and Tom. + +"Just like old times, sailor," said master. + +Then the two shook hands once more. + +And down they sat to talk and smoke. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The ship sailed in a day or two, heading away down channel on a beam +wind. Tom told me it was a beam wind, else I wouldn't have known, for +it was just the same colour as any other wind. Tom also told me we were +under close-reefed topsails and storm jib, and that if it came on to +blow a bit more, we should be scudding under bare poles. + +I said, "Oh, indeed!" But I didn't know in the least what Tom meant. + +You will observe, children, that Tom was dreadfully learned and +nautical. + +He was looking far more respectable and beautiful than when I saw him +last. He had a new coat of jetty black, and there wasn't a single burnt +hole in it. He was rounder in the face, too, and more brilliant in eye. + +When I remarked upon these improvements. + +"Oh," he said, "it is like this, Shireen, I have been living in the +bosom of the Captain's own family on shore, and on the fat of the land, +as you might say. + +"I've turned over a new leaf too," he added, looking pensively at the +blazing, caking coal, and swaying to and fro with the motion of the +ship. "When I came on board the old _Venom_ I wasn't what you might +have called strictly honest. I would have laid hands on a herring at +any time; and I once tried to eat the cook's canary, and was beautifully +basted in consequence. But I've seen the error of my ways, and now that +I am the Captain's cat, I consider it is more honourable to beg than to +steal. But my eyes, Shireen, how beautiful you're looking! And to +think I've got you back again. Won't we have some jolly larks, and +won't we catch some flying fish. A few, eh? But mind you, Shireen, no +going to sleep on the bulwarks and tumbling into the sea, this cruise." + +"Oh, it makes me shudder to think of that wild adventure, Tom," I said. + +"Yes, those sharks pretty nearly had us, hadn't they, Shireen? If they +hadn't set to quarrelling among themselves as to which would have the +white cat and which the black, they'd have eaten us both." + +"Heigho!" I sighed, and looked at Tom. + +"Heigho!" sighed Tom, and looked at me. + +Then we went on with the duet. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The weather soon grew so warm and balmy, and beautiful, that there was +no longer any need for a fire in the stove, and the captain's steward +took away the skin, and put down a clean straw mat, and covered the sofa +with coolest white and blue chintz, and the ports were carried open all +day long, so that we could feel the breeze, and see the dark rippling +ocean rushing past us, all bespangled with splashes of sunshine. + +I was of course quite an old sailor, though I couldn't speak nautical +like Tom, and I enjoyed this cruise even more than the last. + +So I ought to. Was not every day taking me nearer and nearer to my dear +little mistress Beebee? And the shorter the time, the more I seemed to +love her. + +"Instead of going away from home," said dear master to me one day in the +cabin, "I seem to be going to my home, and going to happiness. Oh, I do +hope, Shireen, that something will turn up for our good. The fortunes +of war are so changeable, you know, Shireen, and we may see Beebee, may +be able even to save her from her fate; but alas! we may not." + +We rounded the Cape in wild weather. The waves were mountains high, +children; thunder roared and shook the ship, and lightning flash, +quickly following flash, played around us, till all the ocean looked +like a vast sea of fire. I was almost as much afraid of the thunder as +I had been of the great guns on board the saucy _Venom_. + +But soon we got out of this region of storms, and went north and away, +the weather getting warmer day after day. + +We were soon in the delightful regions of the flying fish; but I took +great care not to fall asleep again on the bulwarks. + +Everything looked the same in this great turquoisine sea; the bonitoes, +the flying fish, the dancing, cooing dolphins, and even those terrible +sly-eyed tigers of the sea--the sharks. + +On and on and north and north we went. Sometimes we passed a green +island, that seemed to hang in the air, rather than float on the ocean; +and sometimes the surface of the water was patched here and there with +glass-green or pearl-grey, and I knew, or rather Tom told me, that we +were sailing over shoals, and at night extra look-outs had to be set, +lest we should strike the coral rocks, and the ship break up, when we +should all be drowned, and I should never see my mistress more. + +It was what they call the cool season when we reached Bombay at last. +But such a bustling, busy scene, never did I see before in all my life! + +It was baggage and stores here, there, and everywhere, and soldiers all +about, and boats skimming the water in every direction; and drums +beating, bugles blowing, and great Highland bagpipes screaming, till I +declare to you, children, it made me quite dizzy. The worst of it was, +that for some days now I didn't see so much of my master, though you may +be sure I took good care to be at his side whenever I could. + +I was sorry when the time came to part with Tom again, but we plighted +our troth, and promised never to forget the happy cruise in the _Hydra_. + +When it was all over and we were once more at sea, _en route_ for the +Persian Gulf, I gave a great sigh of relief. But I did feel a little +lonely without Tom Brandy, and kept all the more closely to my master in +consequence. + +I was now to become a soldier's cat in downright earnest, and know +something about the horrors of war. Shireen paused for a moment. +"Cracker," she said, "do you like the story?" + +"It's a beauty," said Cracker, "and I'll like it still better when the +fighting commences and the fur begins to fly." + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN. + +THE FIGHT WAS HAND TO HAND AND HORRIBLE! + +Well, Cracker, my dear friend, the fighting did begin in earnest, and +soon too after we landed, though I'm sure I was very much puzzled +indeed, and tried in vain to make out what it all meant. + +How I wished that Tom had been there to help me, for I think Tom knew +nearly everything worth knowing. + +For the first time now I saw my master in full fighting array. He +called his fine clothes his war-paint, and he drew a huge long knife out +of a holder, and showed me how sharp it was, and said he was going to do +and die in his country's cause. + +I wasn't quite sure what doing and dying in a country's cause was. But +from the very commencement I knew that those soldier-men made a terrible +din. + +My master, in his gallant uniform and long sharp knife, belonged to the +gay Highlanders, and they were the first sent on shore, and marched +about in line and wheeled and tacked to the sound of the skirling +bagpipes, with no other idea, I thought, than just to show off their +fine clothes. + +War, I began to think, must be very nice indeed. + +Ah! but Cracker, the fur hadn't begun to fly yet. + +Well, master's servant was a very tall fighting-man of the Highlanders, +whom his comrades called Jock McNab. + +"McNab," said my master one day. + +The red-faced, big pleasant man saluted. + +"What's your wull?" said Jock McNab. + +"Shireen knows you well by this time." + +"Ah! 'deed she does," said Jock, "and lo'es me too." + +"Well, Mac, we've both got to look after her. Do you think when we get +into grips with the enemy, that Shireen would sit on top of your +knapsack?" + +"Weel," said Jock, "if you'll gie me leave, sir, I'll soon drill her to +that." + +So Jock took me in hand that very evening after we reached camp, and +began to teach me what he called "knapsack drill." + +It was very simple. I was put on top of the knapsack and Jock fixed the +bayonet on his gun and commenced plunging about up and down, and high +and low, as if in front of the enemy. But I set my nails firmly into +the knapsack and nothing could shake me off. + +"That'll do fine for a beginning," said Jock. + +There were British soldiers in the entrenched camp before Bushire, when +we landed there, and marched to it, and right hearty welcome they made +us. + +The camp was in the middle of a vast plain, on which grew here and there +some clumps of palm trees, and here and there a ruin stood. To our left +was the blue sea, with the far-off shipping. Some distance in front of +us was the walled town itself, built upon a long spit of land, and +washed nearly all round by the sea. Far away behind the town were the +lofty mountains, their snowy heads rising-high into the azure sky. + +"Poetry again!" said Warlock. + +"A spice of poesy," said Shireen grandly, "sometimes adds attraction to +a scene. Don't you think so, Cracker?" + +"Well, Shireen, to tell you the truth I can't say I understand it like. +My mother used to say to me `Cracker,' she said, `in your journey +through this vale of tears, always make a better use of your teeth than +your tongue.'" + +"Very good," said Warlock. "Your mother must have been a brick, +Cracker." + +"A brick, Warlock. What a funny idea! No, no, my mother was a Bingley +terrier. But go on, Shireen, when did the fur begin to fly?" + +Not yet a bit, Cracker. Well, at night, I found my way to master's +tent, and was glad to snuggle up in his arms, for though the days were +warm the nights were bitterly cold. + +Just before I fell asleep, Jock McNab came to the tent. + +"I'm sayin', sir," he said. + +"Yes, Mac, what is it?" + +"Is Shireen wi' you?" + +"That she is. Thank you, McNab, for being so mindful." + +"That's a' richt then," said Jock. "Good-nicht." + +And away the faithful fellow went. + +Now although we were lying in camp here before Bushire, we weren't going +to attack this town. Indeed, the people seemed very glad to see us, and +sold us all kinds of nice things. So our brave General Outram soon got +ready to make a terrible attack upon an entrenched camp of the Persians, +fifty miles distant, and we had to walk all the way. + +What a beautiful sight it was, I thought, to see all those brave +soldiers in lines and lines, outside the camp; horses, Highlanders, and +even fighting sailors and artillerymen. Of course you won't understand +all I am saying, Cracker, but I am a soldier's cat, you know, and cannot +help feeling a little martial ardour when I think of that splendid +campaign. + +Well, off we marched at last, my master at the head of his company, and +I, perched on Jock McNab's knapsack, but keeping master in my eye all +the time. + +What a long weary, dreary march that was to Char Kota! + +"Eh? Eh? What is it?" said the starling. "What d'ye say?" + +"I said Char Kota, Dick, but I'm not going to use any hard names if I +can help it, you may be sure." + +Well, continued Shireen, the village I mentioned is twenty-six miles +from the shore, but after a long halt we fell in again, and it was ten +o'clock at night before we got to the place where we were to rest till +morning. + +Oh, how tired and weary the poor fellows were, for all the afternoon a +cruel high cold wind had been raising dust-clouds around us, and +buffeting us till we could hardly get on! + +During a great part of the march I trotted by my master's side. + +The night turned out bitterly cold, and as we lay on the ground the rain +fell in torrents. The thunder roared and lightning flashed, till I +thought surely we would be all drowned. As it was we were drenched to +the skin. + +Firing took place next morning, and I was a bit frightened; but Jock +told me the men were only tiring off their pieces to make sure they were +all right, after the heavy night of drenching rain. + +The fight was to begin to-day, this very forenoon, for the enemy with +all his guns was but five miles away, in his fortified camp at Brasjoon. + +"The fur would soon fly," said Cracker, beginning to get much +interested. + +"Ah! but, Cracker, the fur didn't fly, for the enemy did." + +"They weren't real terriers," Cracker said, "you bet." + +No, and so they ran, and we took their camp, and their guns, and a lot +of other things, and settled down for a bit, after destroying all the +stores we didn't want. + +It was a cold, clear night, with the moon shining very brightly on the +plain and camp, and on the great mountains rising in rocky terraces high +into the starry sky, and not very far from us. We expected the great +battle would be fought next day, at least the men said so, and I +listened eagerly to all their conversation. + +But the fur didn't fly next day after all, and now we set out to walk +back to Bushire, after doing the enemy's camp all the damage we could. +We started on the march towards the shore at eight o'clock, and marched +on and on, singing and talking till midnight came. + +Then, Cracker, the fun commenced, and the fur did begin to fly at last. + +"Tell us! Tell us!" cried Cracker. + +Oh, it is evident, Cracker, you are not a soldier's dog, else you would +know that no single person can see more than a very little bit of a +battle, although he may be right in the midst of it. But if I didn't +see much I heard plenty. + +It was sometime past midnight, and the moon was shining, though sand was +blowing and getting into our eyes, when shouting and yelling, and awful +firing was heard in the rear of our army. In less than half-an-hour the +moonlight battle was raging its very fiercest. Horsemen were galloping +here and there, yelling forth words of command, big guns roared out on +the night air, bugles rang, and musketry roared, and fire flashed in +every direction. + +Of course, Cracker, being only a cat, I was terribly afraid, and +sometimes I could not see my dear master at all for the smoke, only his +flashing sword; but I often heard his brave voice high above the din of +the battle, and this gave me courage and hope. + +But my greatest trial came when the wild horsemen of the enemy came +dashing on towards the Highlanders, and attempted to break their ranks. + +Even at this terrible moment poor Jock McNab put up his hand and +smoothed me. + +"Hold on, pussy," he said. "Dinna be feared. The tulzie will soon be +ower when the grim-faced foreigners get a taste o' Highland steel." + +And a terrible tulzie that was, Cracker, and I saw much blood, and +flashing of fire and steel, and cries and groans and shrieks. Oh, it +was awful! + +Then the heat of the fight seemed to surge away from us, and Jock found +time to put up his hand once more and say,-- + +"Are ye still there, Shireen? Bravo! pussy." + +The firing of the foe was much farther away now, and kept on thus all +night long, till day at length broke pink and blue over the lovely +snow-clad mountains. + +Since the fierce raging of the battle, all throughout the cold hours of +night, we had lain where we had stood, without fire or without covering, +and showing never a light. But away in the West the pale moon began to +sink at last in a cloudy haze, and at daylight nothing could be seen for +the grey mists that covered hills and plain. + +Master came round and I rose to meet him. He asked Jock McNab as he +smoked and patted my head, whether I had shown any fear during the +fight. + +"Never a morsel, sir," said Jock; "any more than yourself, sir." + +Master went back to his place smiling at Jock's way of paying a +compliment. + +The firing of the enemy had by this time slackened, and it was greatly +feared by our fine soldier lads that they had drawn off, and not waited +"to get their licks," as Jock phrased it. + +Breakfast was now hastily served out, I sharing with master, who had +come round and sat down beside Jock and me. + +Then by degrees the morning mists gathered up and up, till they lay only +like a grey cloud on the snow-clad mountain peaks, and we beheld the +Persian army drawn up in battle array ready and waiting for us. + +It was a grand sight, Cracker, for the sun now shone gaily down on their +soldiers, in serried ranks of horse and foot. + +They had not long to wait for us, children. But there was a lot of +marching and counter-marching of regiments and brigades, that I could +not understand, unless it was that our fellows were just showing off +their fine clothes. + +But the tulzie soon commenced, and as I stuck to my seat on brave Jock's +back, my ears were deafened with the yelling and shouting and rattling +of musketry, and with the awful roar of the enemy's dread artillery. + +On we marched, or rushed, and soon the fight was almost hand to hand, +and so horrible! + +But the enemy could not stand the onslaught of our forces. They began +to give way and retire, and soon the battle became a rout. The Persians +left nearly a thousand dead on the field, and many more bodies lay in +every conceivable position along the route they had taken towards the +hills. + +After our cavalry had chased them afar they returned, and the march was +commenced back towards Bushire. + +It was a long, cold, wet, and weary one, but we saw the sea at last, and +never did soldiers stretch their tired limbs in camp, or make their tea +with greater pleasure, than did our poor fellows when they found +themselves once more in their entrenched position. + +Some of our officers were buried next day, but I was so glad to think +that neither my dear master, nor Jock, nor I, were among the wounded. + +Jock McNab was loud in his praises of what he was kind enough to call my +pluck and coolness in the presence of the foe. + +"I wadna gie pussy for onything," he said, "and I'm sure enough she +brought us luck, for never a man fell near me, either dead or wounded." + +This was my first battle then, Cracker, but it wasn't my last by any +means. + +As master said, the enemy was beaten, but being beaten doesn't by any +means signify that they were conquered. + +We remained quiet enough in camp now for many long monotonous days, +during which the enemy did not think of disturbing us. + +More troops began to arrive from India. The ships lay out yonder at +anchor, but a high tumbling sea rolled in upon the beach, and it was +difficult indeed to communicate with the vessels, so that the poor +horses in camp began to suffer from hunger, and our own rations were +sometimes scant enough. + +The north-west wind too, blew loud and fierce, and brought with it +clouds of dust, and a fine sort of sand that nothing on earth could keep +out of camp. The cold at night was still bitter, but we had tents now, +and I was cosy enough in master's arms. + +They tell me that British soldiers and sailors are born grumblers. +Well, I suppose there is some truth in this; but I must say, Cracker, +our men never grumbled at the scantiness of their own rations, though +they pitied the horses, but they did grumble a little because the time +was passing on so monotonously, and there seemed no early chance of +having another fight with the Persian foe. + +In fact, Cracker, the foe was getting insolent. By night we now began +to see his fires on the hills around, and, although he had not the +courage to attack us, he fired upon our outposts. + +My master, I knew, was getting impatient as well as his men. + +"I want to get farther on up country, pussy," he whispered to me one +evening; "up nearer the bonnie woods and bills where your heart and mine +dwell, Shireen, with your dear mistress Beebee." + +I purred and sang, and that seemed to give him heart. + +But soon after this Britain's great hero Havelock arrived, and we all +hoped then for a speedy change, and we weren't disappointed either, +Cracker. + +"More fur was going to fly, Shireen?" + +Yes, dear Cracker, more fur was going to fly, for in a week or two we +were embarked in a transport, and sailing up the Euphrates river to +attack the Shah's great army at Mohammerah. + +This stronghold was said to be occupied by the very pink and pith of the +Persian forces, in number about fifteen thousand in all. + +Among the chief regiments behind the formidable earthworks were seven of +the Shah's best and bravest including his guards, and the very flower of +his army. Some of these were commanded by a Prince of the blood royal, +and somehow or other my master found out that Beebee's father was there +also. + +When my dear master told me this his eyes were sparkling with joy. + +"It is just possible, Shireen," he said, "that Beebee herself may be +there, if so--" + +He did not finish the sentence, but I knew what he meant. + +And now, said Shireen, here come the children, so my little story must +end for a time. But you'll come again, won't you, Cracker? + +"Oh, like a shot, Shireen," said Cracker, "you bet." + +"Oh!" cried Tom, running up. "Come quick, Lizzie. Here is Cracker, the +dog that saved Shireen's life, and gave the butcher's bull-terrier such +a shaking. Poor doggie Cracker. Poor dear doggie, you won't bite, will +you?" + +The towsy tyke looked up into the boy's face and wagged his thick, short +stump of a tail at a terrible rate, and there was so much kindness and +affection in those brown eyes of his, that Tom at once bent down and +threw his arms about his rough and grizzled neck. + +Then Lizzie, who had been to fetch some milk, came and placed it down +before Cracker. + +Cracker really didn't want it, but he drank it rather than anybody +should think him ungrateful. + +"Mind," said Tom, "you must come to the Castle to-morrow afternoon. It +is Shireen's birthday, and we are going to give a party." + +Once more Cracker wagged his tail, then he went trotting away to the +gate, gave one kindly look behind, and so disappeared. + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. + +AND CHAMMY NEVER CAME AGAIN. + +As the weather grew colder, Chammy hugged the fire more, so to speak, +and was less and less inclined to run away. + +Perhaps to talk of Chammy's pedal progression as "running" is slightly +to exaggerate. But, nevertheless, when Chammy made up his mind to go +anywhere, whether it were on an expedition to the top of a curtain, or +the extreme point of a poplar tree, he got there all the same. He would +probably take a considerable time to make up his mind about it, however, +and he would focus the spot he meant to reach with one eye for an hour +or two to begin with. Probably, during this survey, his other eye would +be wandering all round the room at Shireen, at Warlock, or at Lizzie and +Tom. With one eye he was calculating the height of his ambition, as it +were, with the other he was counting the chances there were against his +ever reaching it at all. These chances had to be reckoned with, for +first and foremost he had to descend from his perch or the branch in the +ingle-nook. Having reached the floor, he would have to make for the +wall of the room and creep along by the foot of the dado, perhaps +changing colour once or twice so as to match the hue of the carpet, and +thus do his best to escape observation. For Tabby might be there, and +might sing out to Warlock: + +"Oh, Warlock, here is Chammy just racing off as fast as lightning. Let +us have some fun with him, and turn him over and over a few times." + +And they would do it too. And, although the cat and dog meant no harm, +their attentions were somewhat disconcerting, to say the very least of +it. + +Or Lizzie and Tom might be on the floor and spy him, and Lizzie call to +Tom, saying,-- + +"Oh, Tom, here is poor Chammy. I'm sure he is cold. Let us take him +and nurse him by the fire a little." + +And Lizzie might roll him in a Shetland-wool shawl, and sit down before +the blaze to warm him, shawl and all, being very much astonished, +perhaps, when she opened the shawl to have a peep, to find no Chammy +there at all. + +"Oh, Tom! Tom!" she would say, looking half afraid, "I'm sure I had +Chammy in my hands, and I'm sure I rolled him up; and now, why, he is +clean gone!" + +Or the cockatoo might see him, if Uncle Ben were there, and raise a +terrible alarm, shrieking and crying, "Scray! Scray! Scray!" till all +the prismatic crystals in the old-fashioned chandelier jingled to the +sound. + +Or the Colonel himself might find him. + +"Oh, you're on the hop, are you?" the Colonel would say. "Now you just +come back to your perch by the ingle-nook." + +And he would lift him by the crest that was over his head and carry him +back to the branch. + +Chammy was a good-tempered kind of a chameleon at most times, though he +could bite a little, and give a good pinch too if he saw any occasion; +but there was nothing in the world made him more indignant than being +lifted up by the crest. + +It was a handy way of lifting him certainly, but Chammy used to get +pea-green with anger when you did so, and his little nimble eyes would +look directly back at you; or, I should rather say, one of them would, +for very seldom indeed did he send them both to duty at the same time. + +"Put me down at once, sir," he would say, or seem to say, "this is an +indignity I do not feel called upon tamely to submit to. You would not +dare to lift a crocodile of the Nile thus. Yet I, too, belong to the +ancient family of the Saurians, and I bid you beware." + +I have said that Chammy could bite. This is true; but if the weather +were extra cold, he would stand any amount of teasing rather than be +bothered turning his head or opening his mouth to pinch you. One of +Chammy's mottoes was "_Perceverantia vincit_" (Perseverance overcomes), +and if his master put him back on his perch a hundred and fifty times +after he, Chammy, had made up his mind to reach the top of that curtain, +or get out at the window to climb a tree, he would watch his chance, +bide his time, and begin all over again. + +That is the sort of chameleon Chammy was. + +The deliberation manifested in all the droll animal's movements was +something to watch and wonder at, and afforded no end of amusement to +Lizzie and Tom. He never lifted more than one leg at a time. Not he. +Four legs in four seconds. That was the speed of his pedal progression, +and you didn't need a stop-watch either to determine it. But he studied +periodically on the march. He might be slow, but he was also wondrous +sure, and when it came to the turn of say a left hind leg, to move it +had to come to time, else Chammy would slightly turn his head and focus +one goggle backwards, as much as to say: + +"What's the hitch along down there? Why on earth don't you move instead +of delaying the procession?" + +When Chammy saw a fly that he had taken a fancy to, he would stalk +cautiously along towards it, one leg at a time of course, and if the fly +was fool enough to wait there long enough, why, it got caught and +swallowed, that was all. If it didn't, why Chammy evinced no great +degree of disappointment, another fly would be sure to come. Everything +comes to the chameleon who waits. So he would wait. + +There was a deal to be done, mind you, before a fly could be caught, he +must first judge the distance, being well acquainted with the length of +his own tongue. Then the jaws began to open, which they did as slowly +as the minute hand of a watch. After the jaws were opened and both +goggles focussed, the tongue, which looked like a garden snail, went +slowly straight out. Pop! Where is the fly? And where is the tongue? +Well, the tongue went back like a bit of india-rubber, and evidently the +fly was there too, for Chammy immediately began to move his jaws like a +cow chewing the cud, only infinitely slower. + +When flies were scarce, Lizzie or Tom fed Chammy with mealworms. They +would take up one at a time with a pair of forceps and put it on +Chammy's plate. + +Chammy's plate, by the way, was the lid of a pill-box, and sometimes he +would eat a dozen good big fat mealworms at one sitting, and perhaps +refuse food for ten days or more after it. If presented with a mealworm +when not hungry, Chammy would focus it with one eye for about a dozen +seconds, then slowly turn his head away in the drollest manner possible. + +"Excuse me," he would seem to say, "but I couldn't touch it. No good +eating if you're not hungry, is there? Take it away. Take it away." + +Chammy's attitudes were droll in the extreme while on his tree-branch. +Sometimes he would be quite perpendicular against a topmost twig, which +he held for all the world as an old, old man holds his long staff, his +chin resting on his two clasped hands. When he had warmed both his +hands at the fire on a wintry day, he used to slowly turn round his back +to the blaze to entice a little heat into his chilly old spine. + +But Chammy got many a tumble, and sometimes he would stupidly catch his +own tail to prevent himself from falling. So that if he had lived for +hundreds of years, and he certainly gave one that impression, he had not +gained a very great amount of wisdom in that time. + +But he was wise enough to know that the flies were to be found mostly on +the window panes, though for the life of him he never could discover why +he couldn't catch one when it was on the other side of the glass, he +would have a shot at such a fly again and again, then turn pea-green +with anger and disappointment, and crawl slowly away. + +The Colonel was a very humane man, and when the frost became very hard, +he placed a small but elegant oil-stove in a corner for the comfort of +the chameleon. It had crimson glass in front, and as this glass got +warm, Chammy used to stand up against it, the whole forming a very +pretty picture. + +Then Lizzie got a box and lined it with red flannel, and Chammy was put +to bed in it every night. But the oil-stove had to be lit before he +could be prevailed upon to stir of a morning. When Chammy felt certain, +from his feelings, that the room was well-aired, then he gathered +himself slowly up and took up a position on the edge of the box and in +the front of the stove, and there he stood for hours, warming first one +hand and then another. + +Well, I have been writing about this queer pet all the time as if it had +been a male. But the truth is, it turned out to be as Tommie said, a +"her chameleon," for lo! and behold it was discovered one morning that +Chammy had laid some eggs. She put them all together in a heap in the +corner and appeared to be employed all the time lifting and counting +them and feeling them over. There were five altogether, about the size +and shape of small beans, and pink in colour. + +Chammy ate no food after this. She didn't even seem to care to come any +more to warm her toes at the stove. And, on going to take off the lid +of her box one morning, Lizzie found poor Chammy immovable and colder +than ever she had been before. + +Then Lizzie sat down on the floor beside the red-lined box and burst +into tears. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +They made Chammy a grave near the sweet-scented syringa-tree, and when +spring-time came, they planted it with forget-me-nots, and Chammy never +came again. + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. + +SHIREEN'S BIRTHDAY.--STAMBOUL'S LIFE AND CAREER. + +Shireen's birthday party at the Castle was going to be a very grand +affair, so Tommy and Lizzie would have told you, for they had made great +preparations for celebrating the event. + +Shireen had reached the advanced age of one-and-twenty, and yet there +was but little sign that her strength was actually failing her. She did +not care to move about quite so much as she had done many years before, +and preferred, as we have seen, to take her little rambles about the +village, and visit her many friends there. + +She preferred, too, the lawn to the forest on a sunny summer's +afternoon, or a seat by the low fire among her old friends, when the +wintry winds were roaring around the chimneys, and shaking doors and +windows. + +But to look at Shireen, with her lovely coat, her sweet face, her wee, +short ears, and blue eyes, you would not have said she was more than +seven. + +"I wonder," said Lizzie, on the morning of Shireen's birthday, "if Mrs +Cooper will come, and bring her lovely prize cat Stamboul?" + +"Oh, yes, she is sure to come," was the reply. "I've just had a +letter." + +So away ran Lizzie and Tom to complete the arrangements for the +afternoon and evening entertainment, for the great _coup de theatre_ was +to consist of lighting up the grounds after dark with coloured lamps, +and the flowerbeds and borders with fairy lights, and this duty devolved +upon Lizzie and her little brother. + +How anxiously they scanned the sky as they hung up their lamps and their +Chinese lanterns, and how suspiciously they eyed the clouds, I need not +tell you. But twenty times, at least, Tom ran to ask his uncle if he +was quite sure it wouldn't rain. So at last Uncle Clarkson told him +that he was only a soldier, and not supposed to be able to read the +signs or the sky, and that if they wanted true information, they must go +to old Ben; they might as well bring him to luncheon. So, as soon as +everything had been completed to the entire satisfaction of the +children, off they set, and in a little more than an hour's time, they +re-appeared again, dragging Uncle Ben by his two hands on to the lawn. + +Luncheon was laid in a tent erected specially for the purpose, and some +time before they all sat down, a carriage rattled up the avenue, and +Mrs Cooper herself alighted with her maid, who was carrying a +mysterious-looking parcel, which was half basket, half bird's cage, and +really was the travelling-home of Stamboul, the prize cat. + +Everyone waited anxiously to see Stamboul, and when presently he stalked +forth, with his lovely red and white coat shining like satin and +floating all over him, there was a general hum of admiration. + +Stamboul did not take very much notice of anyone, he gave one glance at +Shireen, then looked at the dogs. Satisfying himself, apparently, that +they were harmless, he next turned his attention to the grass, walking +gingerly over it, and shaking a fore-foot at every step, in case it +might be damp. + +Then he entered the tent and disposed of himself in a straw chair, that +had a cushion to it. + +Now, although the party congregated together to celebrate Shireen's +birthday was everything that could be desired, and though the feast was +fit for a queen, and the lawn and grounds after dark looked like a scene +from the "Arabian Nights," still it is more with the cats and dogs we +have to do than with Lizzie's and Tom's little human friends, or the +older human beings who sat in the tent, talking and laughing very +pleasantly indeed. + +Shireen and her old friends occupied a beautifully lit up summer-house. +Even Cracker and the chameleon, who at this time was alive, were here +to-night; but Stamboul occupied the place of honour, which was a straw +chair, and he accepted the dignity with the easy grace of a prince of +the blood royal, and as if he quite merited the honour and dignity. + +For some time he sat thoughtfully washing his beautiful face, and all +kept silence around him, till he should be pleased to break the silence. + +"Yes, Shireen," he said at last, "I have been a prize cat now for many +years, and, indeed, I believe I am entitled to dub myself a champion. +Oh, no, Mr Warlock," he continued, smiling, "I wasn't always a prize +cat; nor have I been all my life as beautiful and fully pelaged as I am +now; indeed, I was once as plain and humble-looking as your friend Tabby +there." + +Tabby winced and felt a little hurt. Certainly she did not lay claim to +any great degree of beauty; still it seemed hard she should be thus +singled out. + +Even Chammy turned one eye down at her, and Dick cocked a black bead of +an optic towards her. Only Warlock gave her face a kind of consolatory +lick, as much as to say,-- + +"If you ain't very pretty, Tabby, you are very good, and virtue is +better, any day, than beauty." + +"Well, my friends," continued Stamboul, "you may think it is very nice +to be a first-prize cat, and to be made a great fuss with, and a great +show of at exhibitions, and to be boasted about by your mistress, and +crowed over by her friends; but I can tell you a show cat's life has its +dark side as well as its light, and this, I think, you will be ready +enough to admit, when you have heard some of my adventures and +experiences." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +STAMBOUL'S LIFE AND CAREER. + +"Ever see a cattery, Shireen? No, I dare say you never did; and of +course, Tabby, you never did? Well, I will tell you of the cattery in +which I was born, and there are many far less pleasant than that, I can +assure you. + +"I remember it well, though it is many years ago. I don't say that I +can actually recollect the day of my birth, but I mind the days of my +kittenhood right well. And I can remember as if it were but yesterday, +the morning I and my brothers and sisters were all bundled off to a +show." + +"To be sold, I suppose?" said Shireen. + +"Yes, my dear," said Stamboul, "to be sold. But mind you, I don't blame +my old mistress in the least for this. She was at heart a lover of +animals; and if she kept us in a cattery, and restricted us of our +liberty to some extent, it was not altogether her fault. + +"Mrs Rayne was a widow lady, and lived almost by herself in a pretty +house in the country. She had neither kith nor kin belonging to her, as +far as ever I could see. She had one faithful old man-servant and his +wife, who lived in the house and attended on her in every way. But Mrs +Rayne looked after the cattery herself. She fed us, and she gave us +milk and water." + +"Thought cats never drank water?" said Cracker. + +"A very great mistake, I assure you, sir," said Stamboul. "A cat won't +thrive unless she has water, and that water must be soft, and clean, and +sweet." + +"Well, Stamboul," Cracker said, "a dog is never too old to learn." + +"But," continued Stamboul, "I must tell you about the cattery. You see, +there was a little cottage down in the grounds, nicely shaded with trees +and all that, and with oceans of honeysuckle swelling all over the +porch, and clustering round the windows. It was only a two-roomed +cottage; but, nevertheless, Mrs Rayne conceived the notion of turning +it into a cattery, for this amiable lady had an idea that if she did her +best to improve the breed of cats in this country, she would be able to +get for them a somewhat higher place or standing as members of society. + +"She had commenced by keeping a few--three I think--for her own +pleasure; but one by one they disappeared. They had been trapped, +poisoned, or shot by the keepers, so she saw that if she were to do any +good at all, she must protect her valuable cats, and at the same time +keep their breed and species select and pure. So she had a look round +the cottage one day, and was glad to find, to commence with, that it was +not damp. Dampness in a cattery is likely to give rise, directly or +indirectly, to many ailments incidental to cat-life. + +"Then Mrs Rayne proceeded to furnish the cottage, after a fashion, +plainly and well. This, I may tell you, Mr Cracker, was quite as much +for her own sake as for the sake of the pussies. You see, she reasoned +thus, and very rightly too, cats have become like clogs, domesticated, +they have for countless ages given up their own wild life in the woods, +and hills, and cairns, and elected to live with mankind, and share his +joys and sorrows. In doing so, they give up, in a great measure, their +freedom; they become the willing slaves of man, the playmates of his +children, the gentle, soothing comforters to many a lonely human being, +who has nothing before him in this world except the grave. Well, then, +if pussy has done and does do all this, is it fair to keep her all her +little life like a wild beast, shut up in a cage, or banished to barn or +outhouse? + +"No, and Mrs Rayne--although the cottage would be the home of the cats +_par excellence_--would often visit it and spend many an hour therein, +with her books or her knitting. She would even take her food there +sometimes, for a cat never looks upon any place as an ideal home if a +kettle never sings upon a hob by the fire, or a table is never spread +for breakfast, or for tea. + +"So, when completed, the cottage not only had a nice low fire, protected +by a strong guard, to be put on when the fire was lit and no one in the +room, but there were in it a table and stools, a couch, and a nice +wicker easy-chair and footstool. + +"There was a cupboard or two also, and there were brackets and +flower-stands, and a mirror or two, and nick-nacks on the mantelpiece as +well. + +"In fact, this room--which was the winter end of the cottage--was so +comfortable, that no one could have told it was a cattery. The other +room was furnished as a summer-room, and needed no fireplace. + +"There was in each a sanitary box of earth; but as the cats had at all +times free access to the garden by means of a little swinging door at +the bottom of the main door, this box was never used except for the +convenience of young kittens. + +"You will now observe, Tabby, that Mrs Rayne, in a manner, lived among +her cats, so that she had their companionship and they had hers. +Moreover, as a special treat, she used to take one of them into the +house, frequently of a night, and whenever any cat was ailing she +treated it as kindly and considerately as if it had been a baby. + +"The cat's garden itself deserves a word or two. + +"You see, galvanised wire fencing is very cheap, as I dare say you, +Cracker, being a farmer's dog, know. Well, Mrs Rayne, first and +foremost, laid out the pussies' garden in front of and partly round the +cottage. She laid down a bit of a lawn; she planned walks, and planted +shrubs and flowers, for I can assure you, Cracker, we cats have an eye +for colour and effect as well. Then she surrounded the whole with a +high wire fence, covering in the top as well, so that birds might not +come in to eat pussies' food, and be eaten by the pussies in turn. + +"The place was sheltered from the cast and north by a wooden fence, so +on the whole, either in winter or in summer, a more comfortable cattery +never existed to my knowledge, and I have seen a few. + +"The garden was laid out then partly for effect, but partly, also, for +utility and luxury. The lawn was a delightful place for the young cats +to tumble and jump upon, when the spring and summer were in their prime, +and the grass and weed-tops, that grew on this wildery of a lawn, helped +to keep the cats in health. + +"Then here and there, at different heights all round the wooden fence, +and the wire fence also, were placed shelf-seats, about eighteen inches +long, by one foot broad. On these the cats would lie and sun +themselves, or they could take exercise all round, by leaping from one +to the other. + +"Among the flowers that grew around was Valerian, of which the cat is +fond, and several other pretty flowers, that appealed to pussy's sense +of smell, and gratified her eye. + +"There was a filter indoors, and large, clean dishes were placed on the +floor for the drinking water, so that the furry inmates could help +themselves whenever they pleased." + +"And a bit of brimstone in each dish, I suppose?" said Cracker. "A fine +thing brimstone, you bet." + +"Fiddlesticks!" said Stamboul disdainfully. "Mr Cracker, I am afraid +your notions are somewhat antiquated." + +"I don't know what that be," retorted Cracker. "I just speak as I've +been taught." + +"True, true, my good fellow, and doubtless with the best intentions; but +then, living in the country as you do, one is bound to believe a great +many popular and foolish fallacies." + +"I own to it, I own to it, Stamboul," said Cracker. "Now up north, +where I comes from, a cat ain't looked upon as much of a stunner I +'ssure you, Stamboul. They are just kept as a kind o' live mousetraps." + +"Yes, I know," said Stamboul; "and they are starved under the mistaken +notion that this makes them catch mice." + +"So they be. And doesn't it? I know if I were main hungry, and spotted +a fine fat rabbit dashing past, I'd soon have he, you bet, and my dinner +next, afore he were cold." + +"True, Cracker, but it is also a fact that the better a cat is fed, so +long as he is not foolishly pampered and spoiled, the better a hunter he +will make. You see, Cracker, to catch mice and rats, a cat has to have +a deal of patience, and a world of cunning, and spend long nights of +determined watching. To do this he must be in form. If he is +half-starved, he is nervous, and tired, and weary; if he be hungry, then +instead of watching by the cat's run, he'll be thinking more of the +cupboard and the last square meal he had, and wondering when he will +have another. Or, it is possible enough, instead of watching at all for +master rat--and a well-bred cat won't eat a rat after all--he will +prefer to do his hunting in the nearest pigeon-loft or hen-house." + +"There is a deal in what you say," said Shireen. + +"Yes, I can see that," Warlock put in. + +"Well," said Cracker, "I gives in to superior judgment." + +"And now," continued Cracker, "is it true, Stamboul, that cats will suck +a child's breath? Mind, I'm not so far left to myself as to believe +this, although there, maybe, is some hayseed in my hair." + +"A sillier notion," said Stamboul, "was never heard, and this fallacy +dates back to the days of witchcraft. Pah! out on such a ridiculous +notion, it is really too absurd to argue about." + +"Well, Lady Shireen there, while telling her story, has proved in her +own experience that it isn't places so much that cats love as persons," +said Tabby. + +"That is true, Tabby, if the persons are good to them; and I really +think that people are beginning to think now, that cats are reasoning, +thinking beings, with minds differing from their own only in degree." + +"If not interrupting you too much, Stamboul," said Warlock, "I have just +one word to say, having been a student of cat-life, especially of Mother +Shireen there, and my own companion and field-ranger, honest Tabby here. +Well, there is a saying, which is all too common among human beings I +think, and that is the expression, `As cross as a cat.' I've seen a cat +cross, and I've felt her claws, too, but that was when she was either +done out of her rights and starved, or put upon in some way or another." + +"Glad to hear you stick up for cats, Warlock," said Stamboul. + +"Oh, I just speak of cats as I find them. Now, for instance, who is it +among human beings I wonder, that hasn't noticed how fond a +well-trained, well-kept cat is of children? + +"Here is a bit master read in a book the other day [`The Domestic Cat,' +by same author], and he told me that the writer had studied cats ever +since he was the height of the parlour tongs. + +"`But,' says the author, `the domestic cat is _par excellence_ the +playmate and friend of childhood. What is it, indeed, that pussy will +not bear from the hands of its child-mistress? She may pull and lug +pussy about any way she pleases, or walk up and down the garden-walk +with it slung over her shoulder by the tail. If such treatment does +hurt the poor cat, she takes good care not to show it. It is amusing +enough sometimes to watch a little girl making a baby of her favourite +pussy. They are wearied with gambolling together on the flowery lawn, +and playing at hide-and-seek among the shrubbery, and pussy "_must_ be +tired," says little Alice. Pussy enters into the joke at once, and +seems positively dead beat; so the basket is brought, the little +nightcap is put on, the shawl is carefully pinned around its shoulders, +and this embryo mamma puts her feline baby to bed and bids it sleep. +There are always two words, however, with pussy as regards the sleeping +part of the contract, for little Alice never can get her baby to close +more than one eye at a time. Pussy must see what is going on. Anon the +baby "must be sick," and pussy forthwith appears as if she couldn't +possibly survive another hour. Bread pills are manufactured, and forced +down the poor cat's throat, she barely resisting. Then lullabies, low +and sweet, are sung to her, which pussy enjoys immensely, and presently, +joining in the song herself, goes off to sleep in earnest. + +"`And Alice, pussy's friend, although at times she may use the furry +favourite rather roughly, is kind to her in the main. Doesn't pussy get +a share of Alice's porridge every morning? Doesn't she sup with Alice +every night? And do you think, for one moment that Alice would go to +bed without her of a night? Not she! And still this cat may be as +savage as a tiger to strangers, and even to those in the house who do +not treat her well. And let anyone else, except a child, attempt to +lift this pussy by the tail, and see what he will see.'" + +"And feel what he'll feel," said Cracker; "and serve him right, says I." + +"But I fear," said Shireen, "this is somewhat of a digression. You were +talking, Stamboul, of your pleasant and delightful cattery, the home of +your kittenhood." + +"Yes. Well, I shall go on with my story." + +CHAPTER NINETEEN. + +IN A CAT-DEALER'S DEN. + +"The cattery then," continued Stamboul, "in which I was born, was really +a very pleasant home, chiefly I think from the fact that dear old Mrs +Rayne studied our ways and habits. She didn't stint us in food either." + +"Gave you plenty of fish, I suppose?" said Cracker. + +"Well," said Stamboul, smiling, "I do not deny that cats do like a bit +of fish; but, bless you, my dear Cracker, it is a mistake to think they +don't like flesh far better." + +"Mrs Rayne had no less than seven female or queen cats, and two +beautiful Toms. One of these lived in the house constantly and was Mrs +Rayne's especial favourite. He was my dear father, but, alas! like many +a beautiful cat, he got caught in a trap one day, and came home with a +terribly lacerated leg. It got better for a time, but in his struggle +no doubt, my father had hurt himself internally, for he became sickly +after this, grew thin, and lost all appetite. Then his coat fell off in +patches, and one day he was missing. + +"Yes, he was found again, but dead. He had only gone down the garden, +feeling, I suppose, that his end was near, and crept in under the dark +shade of a bush to die. + +"But the secret of Mrs Rayne's success in rearing nice cats with +wondrous coats, just like mine and yours, Shireen, was this--she fed her +pussies with regularity and gave them plenty of variety of course. A +little porridge and milk was our regular breakfast, but there was some +variety as regards the dinner every day. Nor did she forget that cats +like a little nicely-mashed greens now and then, and even a bit of +tomato and any other raw fruit and vegetable, if it be but a potato +paring." + +"Many cats many tastes, I suppose," said Warlock. + +"That's it, Warlock, you speak like a book; but then you have enjoyed +the not slight privilege of having had a cat as a companion, the cat +being the superior animal." + +Cracker looked at Warlock and Warlock looked at Cracker, and I rather +think their thoughts were very similar, only they said nothing. It +wouldn't have been polite. + +"Well, my friends," said Stamboul, "such was the home in which I was +born and reared up to the age of two months. Then the show came round. + +"Mrs Rayne said that we--the four kittens--were all very, very +beautiful and fascinating, and that if her purse were only half as big +as her heart she would not part with one of us. `However,' she added, +`those who buy you must pay your price, and having done so, they will +value you all the more.' + +"So mother and I were placed in a nice roomy box, not a wretched little +reticule of a thing such as I have more than once travelled in to cat +shows. The guard was warned to take precious care of us, and so he did. + +"Mrs Rayne was at the station to meet us herself, and conveyed us in a +cab all the way to the show. + +"We were in good time, so that our dear mistress had an opportunity of +arranging our pen for us before putting us in, and also to speak a bit +of her mind to the manager and promoter. + +"`The pens are too small, Mr Silk,' she said. + +"`Very sorry indeed, madam,' said Mr Silk. + +"`Yes, but sorrow will hardly give the poor pussies anymore room.' + +"`Then there is no sanitary box of earth placed behind each pen, and +you, Mr Silk, ought to know that a well-trained cat is the most cleanly +animal on earth. Why don't you take a lesson from Mr Cruft?' + +"`I'll have that seen to another year.' + +"`Thank you, Mr Silk, and now will you have the goodness to send me a +man to sweep out that abominable sawdust from my cat's pen?' + +"`The sawdust, madam! Why surely--' + +"`I said the sawdust. Nothing worse could be imagined. It gets in the +cat's fur. It gets in their milk, and if they have a morsel of meat, +that also is rolled in it, and they are probably half poisoned.'" + +[This, however, was properly arranged at Mr Cruft's great Aquarium Cat +Show of 1894.] + +"Having had the sawdust removed, Mrs Rayne put down our pretty +cushions, gave us a little warm milk sweetened with sugar, patted our +mother, and left. + +"The judging was over by the time she returned, and she was very pleased +to note, that she had won first prize for the cat and first for the +kittens. + +"Mother was half asleep, but we--the kittens--were lively enough and +full of tricks and fun. There was quite a crowd of well-dressed people +around our pen watching our gambols, and so Mrs Rayne was not surprised +to be told soon afterwards by the secretary, that two of her kittens +were claimed at catalogue prices. + +"Mrs Rayne sighed. She would just as soon have taken us all home +again, she said. + +"Well, my friends, I sigh when I think of my pleasant home with Mrs +Rayne, and I think I see the dear old lady now, with her snow-white hair +and sunny smile. I never saw my country home again, and I never saw my +mistress more. But a cat that I met at a show the other day, and got +conversing with in the evening when all the people had gone, told me +that she had come from Mrs Rayne's cattery, which was now no more, they +having carried the old lady to her grave a year ago. Heigho! there is a +deal of sorrow in this world to cats as well as men. + +"Well, at the first show we were all sold to different owners. I never +knew where my brothers and sisters went, but I live in hopes of some day +meeting them at a show. + +"That first show was not a well-conducted one, and though it was held at +the Crystal Palace, the cages were placed in a draughty place, and the +pens they told me at another show, to which I was sent afterwards, had +been used for other animals. I don't know how this may be; but I do +know that something was wrong, for nearly a score of cats at that show +caught infectious ailments, which speedily carried them off after they +got home. + +"Alas! my friends, I was now to have a new experience and one of a very +painful nature. I had been bought, not by anyone to keep as a pet, but +by a woman--I cannot say lady--who kept cats for profit and profit +alone. She had no love for them, all she expected was to pocket gain by +them. + +"My heart sunk when I was taken into this filthy den, for it was nothing +else. It was a room in a small suburban cottage, and contained no less +than twenty cats and kittens of all breeds and ages. Many of these were +confined in cages of the most crampy and filthy kind. + +"The poor inmates indeed seemed in a woeful plight. + +"I got talking to one of them in an adjoining berth to my own after it +was dark. + +"`I suppose,' I said innocently, `I shall soon be taken to a real home?' + +"`A real home!' said the silver tabby I had addressed. `Well, you may, +but I very much doubt it. Why, some of us have been in this dismal +prison for three long years, and may be for years and years again, +unless we have the luck to die or to get sold, for escape seems +impossible. We are kept for breeding.' + +"`You are well fed, I suppose?' + +"`Well fed? Ah! you'll soon know how we are fed. Why, we never get a +change of any kind; it is milk and bread, milk and bread and half-putrid +lumps of horse-flesh from one month's end to another, and never a blade +of grass to cool our blood and to refresh us. And we only have one +little run in the backyard yonder once a day, when mistress happens not +to be busy elsewhere.' + +"`Yet, nevertheless,' continued my informant, `mistress is supposed to +be a celebrated breeder, and sometimes a lady arrives at the door of her +cottage and is shown into a nicely-furnished room. She has come most +likely to buy a cat or kitten. We are all kept groomed and ready +always, and not having any exercise, we are moderately plump and fat. +Well, soon after the carriage stops, mistress herself, better dressed +than usual, hurries in and picks up one of us, and takes a brush and +comb and goes rapidly over the coat. Then she enters the best room, +petting and hugging the poor pussy. Ah! well does the cat know that it +is all false affection; but she sings and looks pleasant, the prospect +of leaving this vile den making her happy and hopeful for a time.' + +"`And then,' I said, `when a pussy is sold she is taken away in the +carriage to some pretty and refined home, where she will be well cared +for, and have good food and toys, and maybe beautiful children to play +with, and--' + + "`Like a dream her life will pass away!'" + +"`Ah!' sighed the silver tabby, `would it were so. But it is far often +the reverse.' + +"`Indeed!' + +"`Yes, and I am going to tell you why. _You see cats like us, that have +been dragged up in a den like this, and without human companionship, +never learn manners. They are never cleanly in their habits, and just +as often thieves as not. So the new purchaser soon finds out her +mistake, and pussy, instead of becoming a parlour pet, is thrust out of +doors, ill-used by the servants, and in time becomes a nomad and helps +to swell the great army of vagrant cats, that commit depredations of +every conceivable sort and render night hideous by their howlings_.' +The sentences I place in italics should be remembered by all who think +of buying a beautiful cat for a companion. + +"My young heart sunk when I heard this intelligence, and, alas! I soon +found it was all too true. Yes, my dear Shireen, and more than true, +for not only were all the cats in this great prison-house treated as if +they had been wild beasts, but sometimes even with systematic cruelty. +I myself was soon the subject of this. You see, that having been used +to good food in variety, with plenty of fresh air and exercise, I fell +ill. I could not drink the thin skimmed-milk, and I loathed the high +half-putrid horse-flesh. Then my skin became irritable. So one day my +mistress hauled me out of my cage and slapped me across the head till my +eyes grew almost blind, and I was dizzy. + +"`I shall lose by you, confound you,' she cried. + +"Then I was taken to a dirty back kitchen and scrubbed, yes, literally +scrubbed with hot water and soap, then roughly dried and put in a cage +near the fire. When half dry I was smeared all over with some +vilely-smelling ointment till I loathed the very smell of myself. After +this I was put in the hospital cage in another room. Here there was a +cat in a worse plight than myself by far. + +"She didn't care to talk at all. + +"`I'm too sick and ill to speak,' she said. `Besides, I'm going to be +drowned to-night. I do so wish the night was come.' + +"I shuddered with horror and fear. + +"The night did come, and with it the executioner. He seized my poor +companion and thrust her roughly into a sack, in which I could see there +were some old bricks. Then he tied her up and left the room. + +"I got worse instead of better, and there came a day when, from +something in my mistress's eye, I knew that I too was doomed. + +"I received no food or drink of any kind that day; my inhuman mistress +no doubt considering it would be mere waste to give meat to a cat she +was going to drown. + +"I determined, however, that I would make a struggle for life. + +"The day passed wearily by, and how very, very long it did seem to be +sure. + +"At last--ah! how my heart did beat--the door of the room opened and the +same horrid ragged man came in. He carried a lantern and a sack with +bricks, just as before. + +"I pretended to be asleep. + +"He cautiously opened the door. + +"In a moment I sprang up, and he speedily withdrew a badly-bitten hand. +Before he could shut me up again I had dashed out and darted from the +room. + +"I knew not where to run; but here was a window. I was a powerful +kitten for my age. + +"So the window flew into flinders and I was free. + +"Yes, I was free. A homeless, wretched nomad. Now some cats are +possessed of the homing instinct, as it is called, in great perfection. +But, alas! I felt none of it, else you may be sure, my friends, I +should have found my way back again speedily enough to Mrs Rayne's. + +"But I was free. Oh, how glad even that thought made me. + +"The fresh air blew in my face, and I felt better and stronger already. +I glanced up and down the street. Far up one end of it were many +lights, the other was all dark and so I chose that. + +"I ran on and on and on, and soon found myself in the country, and tired +at last, I crept into a shed and went to sleep among some clean hay, the +fragrant smell of which seemed to curl round my heart and revive me. + +"I was hungry when daylight came, and was lucky enough to find a mouse, +on which I breakfasted, and then went to sleep again. + +"It was dark when I awoke, and so I resumed my journey, still going in +the same direction, guided by some instinct to place as great a distance +as possible 'twixt myself and the cat-dealer's den I had escaped from. + +"Before daylight I came to a great forest, and being tired, I crept in +under a bush of furze, and, on a warm dry bed, slept long and sweetly. + +"I idled about the forest all night--and a lovely moonlit night it was-- +finding plenty of food, but seeing no men and no dogs. + +"I determined, therefore, to make this forest my home for a time, at all +events; but I must not sleep on the ground, for dogs would be sure to +find me out and worry me. Luckily I found a comfortable shelter half +way up the trunk of a grand old oak, and so I concluded to live here. +And a most perfect shelter I found it to be. + +"For many, many months, I could not tell you, my friends, how many, I +lived in this tree, becoming entirely nocturnal in my habits, for when I +ventured out during the day I sometimes saw rough-looking men with dogs, +and was glad to escape into the branches of some oak or beech, where I +sat trembling with fear until they had gone. + +"I found plenty of food in the forest, and my drink was the pure soft +water from the purling brooklets. The only thing I ever did long for +was a drop of milk. + +"The summer and autumn passed away, and winter came wild and dreary. +The birds no longer sang in the forests, and many had flown south and +away to summer lands beyond the seas. I missed many of my forest +friends too; they had gone away, or had hidden themselves in cosy +corners and gone to sleep for the winter. This kind of long sleep was +denied to me however, and now I often felt cold and wretched, and would +wander for hours through the snow and under the stars or moon, that used +to glimmer down through the leafless branches, and fall in patches of +light on the ground beneath. + +"One evening, while wandering thus, I came upon a little country +cottage, and, listening near to the stackyard, I heard the voice of a +young girl raised in song coming from one of the outhouses. + +"I crept nearer and nearer, and presently came to the door of the byre, +where the cows were. The girl's song was a very simple and a very sweet +one; but far more sweet to me was the sound of the purling milk as it +fell in rich streams into the pail. + +"The temptation to enter was irresistible. But I did not venture too +far in. + +"`Oh, what a pretty pussy!' said the girl. + +"Her voice re-assured me, and I began to sing. She tried to get me to +come indoors with her, but I was too wild and suspicious for that. Yet +I accompanied her as far as the cottage door, and I even peeped in. + +"A cheerful fire of wood was burning on the hearth. How pleasant it +looked! And near it sat an old man smoking, and two pretty children--a +girl and a boy--were playing by the fireside. + +"They brought me bread and milk, and I ate it coyly and hungrily. But +when they would have taken me up I ran out again, and once more made for +the forest and for my cold bed in the tree. + +"Next night, however, I returned to the cottage, and was treated with +equal kindness; and so for night after night, till the children used to +quite expect me. I allowed them to smooth and pat me now, and sometimes +I went indoors and sat a little by the fire. + +"But one dark and stormy evening some dogs and men discovered my tree. +They had traced me by my footprints through the snow. + +"It was, however, too late for them to do anything to me that night, but +I knew they would come and rout me out when morning broke, so I made up +my mind now that the forest was no longer safe for me in winter. That +night I left the tree, and wandering away to the cottage, I took shelter +in the outhouse above the room where the cows dwelt. + +"Next morning I astonished and delighted the children by appearing among +them to breakfast. I had captured a huge rat, and, bringing it in with +me, I laid it on the hearth to show my prowess. By so doing I quite +ingratiated myself with the old man. + +"And so it ended by my taking up my abode with these good people. + +"When summer came again I used to go roving in the forest, for a very +delightful life I found it. Nevertheless, I invariably came home in the +evening, and did my best to keep the outhouse clear of rats and the +rooms indoors free from the plague of mice. + +"I was a great favourite with this humble family, and many people came +from afar to see the wonderful wild cat as they called me, who had been +tamed by the power of kindness. + +"I loved the old man, and used to sit on his knee of an evening, as he +sat and smoked his short clay pipe by the fire; and I loved the children +too, especially little Alfred, the boy who would never go to bed at +night until I was ready to go with him. + +"Poor wee fellow, he fell ill at last, and this was the beginning of the +end of life in the grand old forest. + +"Alfred died, and they took him away to his long home, and I never saw +him more. But I used often and often in the bright summer days to go +and sit on his little grave and think of him. People said I expected he +would one day come again. Nothing of the sort. Cats know what death +is, and I felt sure that Alfred would never, never come again. + +"I knew these people were very, very poor, because one day, when a lady +came to see the wonderful wild cat and took quite a fancy to me and +offered my master a long price, he reluctantly agreed to part with me. + +"He sat silent for a long time. + +"But I could see the tears silently coursing down his cheeks. + +"Then he turned to the lady. + +"`Take him, then,' he said, `take him and be good to him. He were my +wee lad's cat like that be dead and gone, but a ten-pun' note's an' +awfu' temptation to poor folks like we, and will get the children many a +little comfort for the comin' winter. Pay the lassie,' he added, `I'll +no touch it.' + +"He gave one glance at the fireside, and then went out and stayed away +for hours. + +"He could not bear to see me leave." + +CHAPTER TWENTY. + +HAND MET HAND IN A HEARTY SHAKE. + +I do not think that Shireen would have been quite happy, had she not +been able to go now and then and see her village friends, especially +perhaps Emily and the blacksmith. + +A rough-looking and a rough-voiced sort of a man was Mr Burn-the-wind, +as the villagers called him; but it will be readily enough admitted, I +think, that there is always some good in people whom cats, and dogs, and +children, are fond of. You see, it is like this: we grown-up people are +very apt to judge others by their speech, and by what people say about +them; while the children, and the creatures we are so fond of calling +the lower animals, read one's character often at a glance, or if not, by +one's actions at all events. Well, Mr Burn-the-wind was actually +beloved by dogs and cats, and seldom during the day could you have come +into his shop without finding a crowd of merry children there, with whom +the good fellow laughed and romped, or chased round and round the anvil. + +Lizzie and Tom looked in pretty often to see the blacksmith, although +they were what the people called gentlefolks' children, and although +Burn-the-wind did not take the liberty of romping with them, he told +them many a droll story, and sometimes sang them a song. + +Then Shireen used to be found there, and if Tom and Lizzie came in and +waited awhile, she went trotting home with them, and sometimes they met +Cracker, and so they all came back together. + +Tom admired Burn-the-wind very much, and sometimes insisted upon being +taken up on his sturdy shoulders, that he might catch hold of the +bellows handle and blow the fire. And how he used to laugh, to be sure, +when the coals got red and hot sparks flew! + +"What are you going to be when you grow up?" said Burn-the-wind one day +to Tom. + +"I haven't twite (quite) made up my mind yet," replied Tom manfully, +"but I will either be a great general, and cut off lots of heads, or a +blacksmith, and soo (shoe) horses." + +Tom thought it grand fun to see a horse being shod, and wondered at the +animal's patience in holding up foot after foot, while Shireen sat by +and sang. + +The snow was on the ground one afternoon when Lizzie and Tom, rosy and +healthy-looking after a long walk, dropped in on their way home. + +Warlock and Tabby were with them, and Vee-Vee also. + +"Is Shireen here, Mister Blacksmith?" said Tom. + +"Ay, that she is, my lad. Been singing to me, and I was singing to her. +Oh, we're fine friends, I assure you." + +So all waited with Burn-the-wind for some time and then all went home +together, after bidding the village smith a kindly good-night. + +Uncle Ben was just coming out of his gate as they passed, with Cockie on +his shoulder, and the bird screamed with delight when she saw the party. + +"Oh, Uncle Ben," cried Lizzie, "you're coming to the Castle, aren't +you?" + +"Yes, my dear, that's where old Ben is bent upon going for a game of +chess and a long clay pipe." + +The little party were all assembled to-night around the low fire, which +was burning and spluttering away most cheerfully. Even Chammy was +squatting on a branch of his tree by the ingle-nook, holding up first +one hand and then another to the welcome blaze. + +"Shall I begin just where I left off, Cracker?" said Shireen. + +"Oh, do!" cried Cracker. "I want to hear about more fur flying, you +bet." + +Well, then, said Shireen, we left a sufficiently large army to guard the +entrenched camp at Bushire, and went on with quite a small, and very +daring fleet, to attack the large army of the Shah, in the town of +Mohammerah. + +I felt somewhat sad after we had reached the fortified town we were +going to attack, to find that I was not to be taken on shore, and so you +see, Cracker, I can give no personal narrative of the battle, because I +was not in the thick of it, and didn't actually see the fur flying. + +But all I saw on the morning of the twentieth of March impressed me very +much. Where do you think I went for safety, Warlock? + +"Into your master's bed, perhaps." + +No, Warlock, but right up into the maintop crosstrees, where I could be +as far as possible away from our own ship's guns. I had no fear of the +enemy's guns. + +I had gone up there very early and at daybreak heard much heavy firing, +for a raft had been placed quite close to the walls of a fort, with +mortars on it. Then soon after all our ships began to batter the walls +of the fortified town, and they got as near as possible in order to do +this. But mind you, Cracker, the Persians weren't slow at returning the +fire, and some of their round shot crashed into our ship, and made her +tremble from stem to stern. + +"That means from head to tail, doesn't it, Shireen?" + +Yes, Cracker. One great shot came tearing quite close past me, but I +took no heed. Indeed, despite the roar of battle that was going on on +all sides of me, I couldn't help thinking about my mistress. Everything +beautiful always made me think of Beebee. And it was a lovely sight I +saw. + +"The battle?" said Cracker. + +Well no, not so much that perhaps, but the morning was bright and clear, +every puff of white smoke, with its tongue of fire, made me jump a +little, but the smoke itself was borne quickly to leeward on the wings +of a cool breeze. Then on shore were the low wicked-looking forts, and +the greenery of trees, and the Persian horsemen in splendid uniform +dashing hither and thither, and the ships themselves, with the loosely +hanging canvas and their flags, on the river, glittering in the rays of +the spring sunshine. All was beautiful. + +Then further on in the day began the disembarkation, and I saw my dear +master among his hilted warriors going on shore, and my heart sank with +fear, as I thought he might be shot. + +I even began to descend the rigging to go with him, but then I thought I +could be of no use, and so remained. + +All the while the troops were leaving, the battle of great guns raged on +between ships and shore, and I was dreadfully alarmed once at a fearful +explosion that took place on shore, for the enemy's magazine blew up, +and masses of masonry and timber, and mangled human beings were thrown +straight into the air amidst sheets of flame and rolling clouds of +smoke. + +Well, Cracker, I did not see my dear master again for three or four +days, and very anxious I was; but I had heard that the British arms had +been everywhere successful, and that the town and all the forts were in +our possession. The army of the Shah had fled far away. + +When my master came back at last, and honest Jock McNab with him, how +loudly I sang as I ran to meet them! It was one of the happiest days in +my life. + +But a strange adventure now gave hope and happiness to my dear master +once more. + +One beautiful afternoon there he was, walking on the ramparts of one of +the half-ruined ports of Mohammerah, in company with Jock McNab, his +faithful Scottish servant. To-day, all being safe, I myself was +permitted to come on shore with them, and I was seated on Jock's +shoulder. After gazing for a short time down into the silver, silent +river--his thoughts, I felt, were very faraway--the surgeon of the ship +came round. + +"Ah! Edgar," he said, "have you seen the ruins of the exploded magazine +yet?" + +"No, my friend. Is it worth beholding?" + +"Well, yes, if you are not too nervous. But a sight so ghastly and +awful I have never yet clapped eyes upon." + +"I'll go," said master. "Mac, just wait here for me a few minutes." + +Jock saluted, and seating himself on a block of masonry, look me off my +perch and began to play with me. + +While so engaged, a footstep fell upon our ears, and we both looked up. + +Before us stood a tall and handsome dark-bearded man, in a semi-clerical +garb, which, however, was sadly soiled with mud and blood, and very much +torn in several places. The man was in the prime of life, but the +paleness of his face contrasted strangely with the depth of colour in +his beard. No wonder he looked wan and weary, for his left arm was in a +sling, and there was a wound across one temple, which seemed to have +been received but recently. + +"Man!" said Jock, rising from his seat, "you've got a sad cloot (knock) +there. I hope you felled the chiel that dang you." + +"He isn't alive to-day," said the stranger, smiling sadly. + +"I have just come from Akwaz," he continued. "Mine has been a +remarkable escape. I am safe now, however, and would seek the +assistance of your General Outram. I am told he is both brave and +gallant." + +"Well, sir," said Jock, "I can answer for it, he is baith. Just let him +in front of the foe, and a braver man never swung a claymore, so early +in the morning; but place him alongside laddies and bairnies, and he is +the kindest, mildest lad that ever lived." + +"I am glad to hear so good a character of your great General, but an +English lady is in great distress at Bagdad. I thought it possible he +might help me. With one hundred men, if they could but be spared, I +would take in hand to secure her release." + +"Pussy, pussy," cried Jock, in some alarm, for I had been wistfully +gazing at the new arrival since he began to speak, and now sprang +lightly from the soldier's shoulder on to his, and began to sing, and +rub my head against his ear. + +"Can it be possible?" cried the stranger, taking me down and looking at +my mouth. "Ruby and all," he added, as if speaking to himself. + +You see, Warlock, that I had known the stranger at a glance. He was the +good, kind priest who had nursed my master back to health, when wounded +by the bandits in the wild forest. + +"Soldier," he said excitedly, "this is Shireen." + +"She's nobody else," said Jock. "But wha in a' the warl' are ye, that +seems so weel acquaint wi' the dear auld cat?" + +But now the stranger had seen my master and the surgeon returning, and +hurried off to meet them, I still retaining my place in the priest's +arms. + +The recognition had been mutual and simultaneous. + +"This is indeed a happy meeting," both exclaimed. + +Then hand met hand in a hearty shake. + +"But you are wounded, my friend. Come, let our good surgeon attend to +you at once." + +The priest was led to the doctor's tent, and master would not let him +speak until he had quaffed some refreshment, and had the ugly wound in +the forehead attended to. + +"And now I must speak to you at once, and alone," said master's friend. + +"I am rejoiced to meet you, and I hope it will all end well. But Beebee +and Miss Morgan--" + +"Yes, yes. Speak! Tell me the worst." + +"They have both been removed, under an escort, from her father's palace, +and are prisoners near Bagdad." + +"In a prison! Good heavens!" + +"No, friend, no. Not in a prison. Their home is a beautiful villa on +the outskirts of Bagdad. Their gaolers are women and eunuchs." + +"And the father?" + +"It is the father who has done this, and at the conclusion of the war, +or it may be before it, Beebee will be removed to the Shah's palace, and +Miss Morgan will be made a slave, if no worse fate befall her. I have +escaped and come to tell the tale. It seems to me providential that I +have found you." + +"It would appear so; but I am indeed in great distress of mind. We +cannot, I know, spare a man, for an expedition is just on the eve of +starting up the river Karoon to Akwaz. The enemy are falling back in +force on that town, and the General wishes to be beforehand with him." + +The priest-surgeon put his hand on my master's shoulder. + +"Do not be afraid," he said, pointing with a finger skywards. "There is +One who rules all things for good. Trust Him. Be patient. All will +yet be well." + +"Pray Heaven your words may soon come true!" + +CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. + +"HAVE HEART AND HOPE, MY FRIEND." + +Far away up the river Karoon, my children, lies the city of Akwaz, and +it was for this place our three little gunboats, the _Comet_, the +_Planet_, and the _Assyria_, now started. + +But for the anxiety that I could not help noticing was depicted on my +dear master's face, this expedition would have been altogether as nice +as a picnic. + +We--my master, the priest, Jock and I--went in the _Comet_, with one +hundred Highlanders. + +Our whole force did not amount to much over three hundred men, and yet +with this little mite of an army we were going to attack a town, the +size and strength of which we were not even sure of. + +I, however, felt no fear, because I heard master say that whatever men +dare, they can do. + +Well, in due time we reached the town, and we landed, attacked and +captured it. + +Persians are not cowards. They can fight well, and this army of about +nine thousand men would, doubtless, soon have destroyed our bold little +force, had it not been so arranged as to look like three invading +armies. + +Then, of course, we had the support of the gunboats, and, as master +said, it was but right to give the Persian general his due. He must +have thought that our troops were but the advance-guard of General +Outram's whole force. And so he and his army ran away. + +"Did much fur fly, Shireen?" asked Cracker. + +Not much, said Shireen. You see, Cracker, we didn't get so near to the +enemy as you did to the butcher's dog that day you saved life, else +brave Jock McNab and master would have made plenty of fur fly. + +From the river, the town of Akwaz and the broad sheet of water, with its +beautiful wooded islands, and the wild and rugged mountains far behind, +formed a scene which was lovely in the extreme. + +On the evening after the day on which our gallant force had routed the +enemy, and captured the town with all their stores, the priest and my +master sat long on deck, talking of the past. I sit on the priest's +knee. There was a calm or repose about this man that to me was very +delightful, and as he smoothed me while he talked to master, I purred +and sang with my eyes half closed. + +I was not asleep, however, and I could hear every word they said. + +I noticed, too, that this good priest spoke ne'er a word about himself, +or his own affairs. He seemed to interest himself in master and in him +only. This I thought was very unselfish and considerate of him. It was +kind of him, too, to keep master and me company at all, for he was still +very weak from his wounds, and a less brave-hearted man would have been +confined to his hammock. + +At last we got up steam and departed for the camp at Mohammerah, and not +only our General Sir James Outram, but all our soldier and sailor +companions-in-arms were rejoiced to see us, and hailed us as the heroes +of Akwaz, which we undoubtedly were, despite the fact that we had +suffered but little loss. + +But that same day news came which delighted some of us, but grievously +disappointed most. + +Peace had been proclaimed, and we were to fight no more. This was +looked upon by our brave soldiers as a downright shame. Just as the +campaign was opening out so hopefully, and there was every prospect that +we would, in course of time, conquer the whole of Persia. + +But two of our number were very glad of the news, and these were that +dear, big priest, and my own beloved master. + +They went out together at sunset to talk matters over, as they wandered +slowly up and down among the shady date trees. Jock McNab accompanied +them at a little distance, and I trotted quietly between the two. + +At last they sat down at a spot which afforded them a beautiful view of +the river. + +"War is a terrible thing, my friend," began the priest. "Are you not +glad that peace is concluded?" + +"War is, as you say, a terrible thing," replied my soldier-master; "yet +I fear we redcoats like it. You see, we all look forward to honour and +glory. Every private carries a marshal's baton in his knapsack, +figuratively speaking, and yet, for one reason, I am glad this war is +over." + +"Ah! I knew," said the priest smiling, "that I should soon reach down +to that which is next your heart." + +"How true and good you are!" said Edgar. + +"And do you know what I have done?" continued the priest. "What I have +dared to do?" + +My master turned quickly round to him. + +"You have been to see the General!" he said quickly. + +"Indeed I have." + +"And you have told him all the story?" + +"I have told him almost all." + +"And he--" + +"He is going to help us." + +"Heaven bless you, dear friend, all your life." + +Edgar extended his hand, which the priest shook right cordially. + +"Now, you know," the priest said, "I had to tell the General that you +were interested indirectly in this affair, and then he at once told me +that you and I could go to Bagdad in the _Comet_, which was going there +on state business. That he would gladly give an asylum and all +assistance to the English lady, Miss Morgan, and to her maid, if she had +one, no matter whether she were English or not. Then he shook hands +with me and told me to go and talk the whole matter over with you." + +My master sat thoughtfully looking at the river for a time, then he +turned once more to the priest. + +"I can see exactly how the land lies," he said smiling. "How good and +thoughtful of the General." + +"Yes, he is our friend." + +"His horror," added the priest, "at the villainy displayed by a father, +who would sell his young and beautiful daughter to the Shah against her +will, was plainly discoverable in the manner in which he stamped his +foot, and cried, `Scandalous! Shameful!'" + +"And the allusion to the maid--" began Edgar. + +"That, you know," said the priest, "is left for you and for me to +interpret, as best we may. Miss Morgan must have a maid, must she not?" + +"Certainly. Every English lady must have a maid," said my master, +smiling a happy smile. + +"And it wouldn't do, would it, for the English General to be implicated +in the abduction of a Persian noble's daughter?" + +"No, certainly not." + +"And so you see that--" + +"Yes, yes, I see," cried master, laughing right heartily now. "Beebee +must, for the time being, become Miss Morgan's lady's-maid. Ha! ha! ha! +It is droll." + +"Yes, it is droll." + +But then master's face fell. + +"Ah! my dearest friend," he said, "we may, after all, be counting our +chickens before they are hatched." + +"Nay, nay, nay," cried the priest. "I have set my heart upon having +this strange adventure end well, and end well it must and shall." + +"Unless--" + +"I know what you would say, captain. Unless Beebee has already been +taken off. But I do not think this is at all likely. They do not do +things very rapidly in Persia. They are a calm, contemplative kind of +people. But, nevertheless, Beebee is doomed to a fate too horrible to +think of if we do not rescue her." + +"Do you think," said Edgar eagerly, "it will be very, _very_ difficult?" + +"I do think it will be somewhat difficult. But have heart and hope, my +friend. Let me recall to you a motto that I have heard from your own +lips." + +"And that is?" + +"`Whate'er a man dares he can do.'" + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"And now," said Shireen, "I am going to reserve the last part of my +story till we meet again, for, Cracker, your folks must think you are +lost, and I can see that the cockatoo yonder is standing on one foot and +half asleep." + +"Cockie wants to go to bed," cried Uncle Ben's pet, arousing himself, +and lifting his great white, yellow-lined wings as if he would fly. + +"As for me," said Cracker, "I'd sit and hear you talk all night, you +bet." + +"And so would I," said Warlock. + +"The more I see and learn of cats," continued Cracker, "the more I +respects them like, and I don't care a rat's tail what the other dogs +say about me. There's that butcher's rag of a bull-terrier, for +instance, goin' and tellin' the whole village that I'm often seen in +cats' company, and that I'm half a cat myself. Well, I says, says I, I +might be something worse. But, bless you, Shireen, next time I meets +he, I'm going to let him out." + +"I wouldn't kill him quite," said Shireen. + +"Oh, no. I'll just shake him like. They kind o' dogs can be killed +over and over again, and don't take much hurt. Besides, you know," he +added knowingly, "it will teach the varmint manners." + +"I say, you know," said Warlock, "I think the quarrel with the butcher's +cur should be mine." + +"Nonsense, Warlock, he would swallow you up." + +"All! you don't know how much fight there is in me when I'm fairly +angered. Well, I keep company with Tabby here. We hunt together, don't +we, Tab?" + +"That we do." + +"And fish together. So just let that butcher's dog come across me." + +"Tse, tse, tse!" said the starling, admiringly. The chameleon simply +warmed his other hand before the fire. + +I'm not sure, that as far as that goes, Chammy wasn't the wisest in that +group of friends. Catch Chammy fighting! He would take a hundred years +to make up his mind to do it, and then he wouldn't. + +"By-the-bye," said Shireen, "though human folk will have it that dogs +and cats don't agree, there is plenty of true stories told by +naturalists to prove that when a dog and a cat, indeed, I might say any +dog and any cat are brought up together, they agree like lambs upon a +lea. They will wander about together just as Warlock and Tabby do. Eat +out of the same dish without quarrelling, and sleep together on the same +mat at night. + +"I see," added Shireen, "that master and Uncle Ben haven't quite +finished their game yet, so while we wait I may as well tell you a +little story about cat and dog life. It is mentioned and authenticated +in a book called `Friends in Fur.'" [Same author.] + +This story is told of a cat called the "Czar," and a doggie whose name +was "Whiskey." And it is doubly _a propos_ because, like Warlock +yonder, Whiskey was a Scotch terrier, and he lived in a country village +far away in the north of bonnie Scotland. In the same house dwelt the +Czar, a splendid, large, rough-haired cat, who, it was said, had been +imported from Russia--hence his name. + +My friend, Harrison Weir, to whom I am indebted for the speaking +illustrations contained in this book, once owned a cat of this breed, +and a very handsome cat it must have been. He speaks of it thus in his +book called "Our Cats," page 30; "The mane, or frill, was very large, +long and dense, and more of a woolly texture, with coarse short hairs +among it, the colour was a dark tabby. The eyes were large and +prominent, of a bright orange, slightly tinted with green; the ears +large by comparison, with small tufts full of long woolly hair; the +limbs stout and short, the tail being very dissimilar as if was short, +very woolly and thickly tipped with hair, the same length from base to +tip, and much resembled in form that of the British will eat. Its +motion was not so agile as that of other cats, nor did it apparently +care for warmth, as it liked being out of doors in the coldest weather. +Another peculiarity being that it seemed to care little in the way of +watching birds for food, neither were its habits like those of the +short-haired cats that were its companions. + +"It attached itself to no person, as was the case with some of the +others, but curiously took a particular fancy to one of my short-haired +silver tabbies; the two appeared always together. In front of the fire +they sat side by side. If one left the room the other followed. A down +the garden paths they were still companions; and at night they slept in +the same: box; they drank milk from the same saucer, and fed from the +same plate, and, in fact, only seemed to exist for each other. In all +my experience I never saw a more devoted couple." + +No two animals in the world could have loved each other more dearly and +devotedly than did the Czar and his little wise companion, Whiskey. + +Whiskey, I need hardly tell you, Cracker, was like Warlock there, the +gamest of the game, but of course he never showed his teeth to the Czar. +They took their meals from the same dish, only Whiskey seemed to have +compacted to have all the bones. They were also constantly together, +all day long, except when Whiskey's duty to his master called him +afield, and at night they shared the selfsame bed; the Czar often taking +Whiskey in his arms because he appeared to be the biggest. I'm not +sure, indeed, that the Czar did not awaken Whiskey when that little +gentleman took the nightmare. Be this as it may, they were, altogether, +as loving as loving could be. + +And once or twice a week this kindly couple used to go out hunting +together. + +"Just like Warlock and me," said Tabby. + +Yes, said Shireen, and they cared nothing for game laws, and took no +heed of the keepers, except to hide or run from them; for this cat and +dog were a law unto themselves apparently. + +On their hunting expeditions they used to go out together in the +morning, and after spending all the long day in the woods and wilds, +they invariably came home before dark. + +This coming home before nightfall was no doubt a suggestion of +Whiskey's, for a dog can neither see so well in the dark as a cat, nor +can his constitution so easily withstand the clews of night. But the +very fact of the Czar's consenting to keep early hours to please his +Scottish friend, is another proof of how dearly he must have loved him. + +And almost every night these sons of Nimrod brought home with them some +trophy from the hunting-ground. Sometimes it was a rabbit, more often a +bird--if the latter, Whiskey generally had the honour of carrying it, +and very proud was he of the distinction; if a small rabbit, the Czar +bore the burden. + +And so things went on till one mournful night, when Whiskey returned +later than usual and all alone. He came into the house, but lay down on +the mat near the door, and from that he would not budge an inch. He +refused his porridge and all consolation, and lay there in a nervous and +acutely listening attitude, starting up whenever he heard the slightest +sound outside. + +His mistress at last went to bed and left him. + +It must have been long past midnight when Whiskey came dashing into his +mistress's bedroom, knocking over a chair in his excitement, and barking +wildly as he rushed hither and thither. + +When his mistress got up at last poor little Whiskey preceded her to the +door, barking again and looking anxious and excited. + +Outside a pitiful mew was heard, and as soon as the lady opened the door +in rushed the Czar on three legs. He had left one foot in a horrid +trap. + +And now nothing could exceed the kindness of the dog towards his wounded +companion and playmate. He threw himself down on the rug beside her, +whining and crying with very grief, and gently licked the bleeding stump +where the cat himself had gnawed it off to save his life. + +And every day for weeks did Whiskey apply hot fomentations with his soft +wee tongue to pussy's leg, until at last it was completely healed. + +But they had no more romping together in fields and woods, for the +Czar's hunting-days were over--in this world at all events. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"Cornered at last," cried Uncle Ben, laughing, as he looked at the +chess-board. "No, you haven't a move. Ho! ho! Well, I've had my +revenge." + +"And I," said the Colonel, "shall have mine another evening." + +"Right you are. Now, good-bye, Lizzie and Tom. Come, Cracker, old dog, +you go my way, don't you?" + +So good-nights were said, and hands were shaken, and off went Uncle Ben +and his cockatoo adown the road towards his bungalow, where his man +Pedro was waiting to place before him his frugal supper. + +CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. + +"GO HOME, MY FRIENDS, IT IS ALL OVER." + +The school stood quite in the suburbs of the little village--the girls' +school I mean--and there was nothing very unusual about it. Year in and +year out, with certainly no more holidays than they deserved, the +teachers--orphan girls both--laboured all day long at their duties, and +had the satisfaction of knowing that they were well beloved by their +sometimes noisy pupils, to whom their wish, however, was always law; and +the children generally made a good show when examination time came +round. + +It was in here, one hard frosty day, that Shireen dropped on her way +down town, to pay her usual round of visits. + +She had just left Uncle Ben's bungalow, after a long talk and song with +the sailor, and a few words to Cockie, the cockatoo, who, if he did not +say very much, was a wonderful mimic, and made many droll motions. He +never saw a boy, for example, without going through the movements of +using a whip. Perhaps Cockie believed with Solomon, that it was a pity +to "spare the rod and spoil the child." + +There was a kind of general welcome to Shireen when she entered the +school-house; but, strangely enough, she went straight up to the desk, +and paid her compliments to the two teachers before doing anything else. + +Then Shireen looked about her from the seat she had taken, namely, a +high three-legged stool. She could, from this elevation, see a large +number of her little friends, with whom she would hold a little +conversation presently. But there was one homely, good-natured face +that she missed, and one of the teachers, as if reading her thoughts, +stroked her back and head, as she remarked with a smile. + +"Emily isn't here to-day, Pussy." + +"No," said the other girl. "Emily has been a good girl, and worked +hard; and she has finished her education, and gone home to keep house +for her father." + +So Shireen did not stop so long to-day in the school as was her wont, +for the chief attraction was gone. But she dispensed her favours among +her friends freely enough before she went. And they were not all girls, +either, whom Shireen regarded affectionately. For though it was a +girls' school, there were tiny, wee pests of fair-haired boys there, not +an inch bigger, presumably, than the school tongs, and of one or two of +these Shireen seemed very fond. + +Down the room she trotted at last, however. She was not long in meeting +with an adventure, for round the distant corner came Danger, the +butcher's bull-terrier. There wasn't a good tree within fifty yards, so +Shireen had a race for it. She got up into the sycamore safely, +nevertheless. Danger coming in a good second, and stopping to bark +savagely up at her. + +Shireen raised her back and growled defiance down at him. + +Then she taunted him. + +"Why don't you come up?" she cried derisively. "Why don't you climb the +tree? Because you can't, clever though you think yourself. Fuss! +Futt! Wouldn't I make the fur fly out of you if you did come up. And +wouldn't I carve my name on your nose, just. Go home! Go home, you +ugly brute. Mind, you'll catch it when Cracker meets you. Oh, he'll +give it to you properly next time." + +The dog trotted off at last, and then Shireen came slowly down. + +She meant to-day to pay all her other visits before going to Emily's, +because then she would have longer time to stay with her. So she went +first to see Jeannie Lynch, at her mother's tiny earthen-floored +cottage. Jeannie's mother was an invalid, and would never be better. +But she could just sit by the fire in her high-backed chair, and do +knitting, while Jeannie attended to the housewifery. Shireen found the +girl busy washing up the dinner things, and singing low to herself. But +there was a subdued, chastened kind of a look on her pretty face, which +was habitual to it, for Jeannie was lame, and, I'm sorry to say, the +village children teased her and called "Box-foot" after her. So even +when she went out to do shopping for her mother, she limped along the +street, looking fifty years of age, instead of the eleven summers that +made up the sum total of her existence hitherto. She looked, indeed, as +if she owed people an apology for her somewhat ungainly appearance. + +Shireen loved her, nevertheless, and she loved Shireen, and it wasn't +for sake of the drop of milk Jeannie always put down for her, nor in the +hope of catching the mouse that nibbled paper in the cupboard, that +pussy always stopped at least an hour at this humble dwelling. + +But she had to go at last, because she must see Mr Burn-the-wind, and +also little Alec Dewsbury. Alec was one of the afflicted. At school +one day, when quite a tiny lad, he had somehow injured his spine, and on +a small, stretcher-bed he had lain helpless for years. Often in summer +he lay out in the garden under the tree's green shade, where he could +hear the birds sing, and look up at the sailing clouds, with the rifts +of blue between; and higher still in imagination, far, far away beyond +the blue, where they told him God and angels dwell, though God was +everywhere. In winter his stretcher stood in a cosy corner of his +cottage home; and kind people brought him books and papers to read. But +Alec's pale face always lit up with joy when Shireen came in, for he had +no pet of his own. + +"I wonder," he said to his mother one day, "if cats go to heaven? Oh, +surely they do," he added, before she could answer. "I'm certain all +good and beautiful creatures go there. Besides, mother, we know there +are cows and bees there." + +"What put that in your head, lammie?" + +"Because it's a land flowing with milk and honey, you know; so there +must be cows and bees there." + +Alec was a very, very old boy for his years. + +The blacksmith, on this particular day, was in very fine form, and +making the sparks fly in golden horizontal showers just as Shireen +trotted in to say "good-day." He had four ragamuffins of rosy-faced +children, perched high on a bench, with their legs dangling in the air, +to whom he was relating an old-fashioned fairy-tale, which made them +laugh at one moment, and stare with wonder and astonishment the next. +Shireen knew all four children, so she jumped up, and seated herself +beside the smallest, a mite of a girl, who at once declared to the +others that pussy loved her "bestest of all." + +Then the blacksmith smoothed Shireen with the back of his hand, because +it was the only unsoiled portion of that horny fist of his, and then he +went on with his story. + +While they were all listening, Lizzie and Tom ran in. Tom had his +skates slung over his shoulder; and his sister carried a basket, which +contained many a dainty, and many a little luxury for the aged and the +indigent sick. + +Like pussy herself, Lizzie and Tom were always welcome, whether they had +a basket or not; because, even when they did not bring little gifts of +jelly, or beef-tea, or books, or snuff and tobacco, they brought smiles, +and the sunshine of their innocent and winsome ways. + +But to-day, neither Lizzie nor Tom stayed long with Burn-the-wind, +because the former had her basket to lighten and hearts to lighten +thereby, and because Tom noticed there was no horse to be shod at +present, and he knew that the ice on the mill-pond was inches thick. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" cried Lizzie, as they got nearer to the top of +the street. "Something surely has happened. Look, Tom, at the lot of +the people, and they are carrying somebody. Oh, Tom, it is Emily, I +know and feel sure." + +Yes, it was Emily. + +Poor girl! Only the day before, she had returned from school for good. +She was going to settle down now, she told everyone of her intimate +friends, laughing gleefully. She was going to do her father's little +house-keeping; and poor old dad, as she called him, would in future have +many a comfort he had missed since mother died. + +And baby, too, would not be so much neglected, and could be taken out +every forenoon, after father had gone back to work. + +There was a bit of garden, too, behind the humble cottage, with a nice +grass plot in the centre; there, in spring and summer, the daisies grew, +and the yellow celandines. + +Bobby, her infant brother, could roll on the grass when it was dry and +fine, while she did the gardening all around. And this would be so +delightful, because then she would never want a flower to place on +mother's grave. + +So you will observe, dear reader, that it was all beautifully arranged. + +Alas! and alas! If I were writing an altogether imaginary story, the +somewhat sad and sombre ending to this chapter would be altered. But +there is far more of truth in my story than anyone will ever know. + +That day then, when Emily took her little brother out in his far from +elegant perambulator, she heard the sound of a band. A wild-beast show +was stationed on the village green it seemed, and there was a triumphal +procession through the streets of the little town. Poor Emily stood +aside to see it pass, for, despite the fact that children would be +admitted to the great marquee for half-price, this procession was the +only part of the show she would see. But she marvelled much at the +lordly ungainliness of the elephants; at the queer, old-fashioned +visages of the camels, and at the wisdom of the piebald pony, and the +wit of the immortal clown who rode him, who had appeared--didn't the +bills tell her so?--before every respectable crowned head in Europe. +But she stood agape with astonishment when she saw the beautiful and +airily dressed "Lion Queen," perched high on top of her gilded carriage. + +Then the procession passed on, and Emily resumed her journey with the +perambulator. Not far up the street she remembered that she wanted some +tobacco for her father, and that she had passed the shop. She left the +perambulator where it was for a few minutes, till she should run back +and make the little purchase. + +As she stood at the counter she heard the quick rattle of wheels, and a +noise of galloping hoofs, and then the shout of "Horse ran off!" fell +upon her car. + +"Oh, the baby!" cried Emily, and dashed out of the shop. + +The perambulator, with the child in it, laughing and blinking in the +sunshine, stood right in the track of danger. + +But Emily, heedless of everything except the desire to save her brother, +rushed on towards it. Nearer and nearer came the horse. People +shrieked as they saw the girl at the perambulator. + +One push sent it clear away from under the very hoofs of the +fear-maddened horse. Next moment, Emily herself was down. + +Then the sorrowful procession. + +Two hours after Lizzie and Tom had seen Emily borne by kind and loving +hands into the humble cottage that had been her home, the doctor came +out. + +He shook his head sadly. + +"Go home, my friends," he said, "it is all over." + +He jumped into his carriage and was driven away. But tears trickled +down the cheeks of men in that little crowd; faces were buried in +aprons, and women wept aloud. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The grief of poor Emily's father was something to see and remember for +ever and a day. I am not going to attempt to describe it. He was a +good man, and a Christian; yet, not that night, nor for many nights and +days, was he able to see the light, and to say from his heart: "The Lord +gave, and the Lord has taken away, blessed be His name." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +As to Shireen--I must tell you about her. She never left the cottage +while Emily's poor little body lay there; and had you entered the house +the night before the funeral, you would have seen the poor father +sitting by his half out fire, absorbed in grief, and Shireen upon the +coffin-lid. + +In the cat's face sorrow, intense sorrow, predominated; but there was +also a touch of anger also. Why was her favourite here in this dark +box? What had they done to her? Who had done it? + +Ah! there was a mystery somewhere, which this little feline playmate and +friend of the deceased girl failed to fathom. Can we, in our wisdom? +Alas, no! + +CHAPTER TWENTY THREE. + +EN VOYAGE FOR BAGDAD. + +Winter had passed and gone. It had fled far away to Norland hills, and +spring reigned in its stead. + +Sweet-voiced, hopeful spring! Spring, that is always so full of love +and joy. Spring, with the balmy wind that whispers softly through the +woods and groves, mingling its voice with the purling song of the +brooklet and rill, sighing over fields of waving corn, and wooing the +odours from a thousand wild flowers. Spring, with its chorus of +joy-birds, whose melodies ring out from every woodland, every thicket +and grove, till all the green earth seems to lift up its voice in a +chorus of gladness and mirth. Sweet-voiced, hopeful spring, the poet's +one season of all the seasons of the year. + +The old castle lawn was beautiful again, green with verdure and starred +over with daisies, and out there now Lizzie and Tom were able to play +and gambol once more, where Uncle Ben, with his cockatoo, and the +Colonel used to sit there in their good straw chairs, smoke their pipes, +and talk together of the days of auld lang syne. + +Out on this lawn on one particularly blue skied sunny afternoon, Shireen +and her friends were assembled, Warlock looking as wise as ever, Vee-Vee +as gentle and loving, and Cracker, with his droll, rough, kindly face, +all willing to please. + +"Shireen," said Cracker, "we haven't heard you speak for a long time." + +Shireen paused in the middle of the operation of face-washing and sat on +her mat for a moment or two, with her paw raised thoughtfully in front +of her. + +"You see," she said at last, "it takes some time for grief like what I +suffered for poor Emily to die away. Oh, mine isn't gone even yet, and +somehow I feel older since they took and buried my girl friend. But +this is not going to prevent me from concluding my story, and I'm sure I +ought to be glad to see you all around me on this lovely afternoon, and +to know that we are all alive and well." + +"Let me see, where did I leave off in my story about my master and +Beebee?" + +"Oh, I remember," cried Warlock. "You and your master were about to +start on a long journey up the great river to a town called--what was it +called though?" + +"Bagdad!" cried Shireen. "I have it all now. Yes, and the kind +good-natured priest was going with us." + +Well, my children, Bagdad, you know, is far away to the north, and high +up the winding Tigris. Oh, that river does wind to be sure, in and out, +out and in, and sometimes it really flows north when it might be saving +time by keeping on towards the sunny south, or the golden east. But I +dare say, after all, the river knows best, and is in no great hurry to +leave this lovely land. + +Not all lovely is it, though, for even at the places where the river +winds the most, the banks are low and wide, stretching afar on each +side, and bounded by rising hills, with here and there a tuft of palm +trees. + +But at other places the river goes hurrying on rapidly, as in terror and +dread of the very wildness of the scenery, tall beetling cliffs, +impassable jungles and bare-scalped rocks, rising brown above the +greenery of storm-rent woods and forests. This is the home of many a +strange and beautiful bird, the resort of many a savage beast. + +"Grand opening for sport, Shireen," said Cracker. + +"Ah, Cracker, you are strong and big and brave, and your teeth are like +daggers of ivory, but short indeed would your existence be if you +attempted sport in this lovely wilderness. There are beasts herein, +Cracker, one touch from the paws of which would end all your joys and +troubles as well." + +"I'm not going there then, Shireen. Yorkshire or Scotland is good +enough for me, and I'd as soon tackle a Bingley badger as a Bagdad +tiger, you bet." + +On and on went our little vessel, Chammy, up the waters of the broad, +deep river. + +"How happy I should be to-day," I heard my master remark to the priest, +"if it were not for this ever-abiding anxiety." + +He put one hand upon his heart as he spoke. + +"We must trust to Providence and do our best," replied the priest with a +smile. "You are not giving way to despair, are you, my friend?" + +"No, my best of friends. But I cannot help feeling within me a strange +comminglement of hope and doubt, of joy and fear. Oh, Antonio, if +anything happens to that dear child, I shall not want to live one single +hour longer. I should--" + +"Hush! hush! _mon ami_, I feel certain it will all come right." + +My master grasped his hand. + +"How much I admire your repose, your calmness, and your perfect trust in +Providence." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Most of the officers had now congregated round the bows, one or two only +being on the little bridge, for we were within but a few miles of the +strange quaint city of Bagdad. But what a lovely picture the river and +its banks now made! Here was many a beautiful house and charming villa, +in whose gardens or lawns lovely children were playing. There were +flowers everywhere, and everywhere were orchards all in bloom, pink, +crimson, and snow-white. + +The river was very rapid here indeed, so our progress was slow; but +except my master, no one on board I believe would have cared to have it +any quicker. + +He was standing astern, near the wheel, gazing dreamily into the water, +when the priest advancing, led him aside. Then he pointed to a +strange-looking building on a low hill, surrounded by waving woods. It +seemed partly a villa and partly a fort. + +"They are there!" said the priest. "Miss Morgan and her maid." + +I could see the colour come and go on my dear master's face, and really +felt sorry for him at that moment. + +"Pray Heaven," he said, "we are not too late, Antonio." + +"Better now," said Antonio, "leave all to me. This is a matter of life +and death. If I keep calm and cool my head will be clear and I shall +succeed. If I lose my presence of mind for one moment, Miss Morgan and +her maid may--" + +"What?" + +"Die." + +"Antonio!" said my master, "I leave all to you. I trust you +thoroughly." + +Our little steamboat was now rapidly getting near to Bagdad, the city of +Kaliphs, and all at once we rounded a bank, and there burst upon our +gaze a scene which is as impressive as any, my children, I have ever +witnessed. + +Perhaps our sudden appearance caused as much astonishment to the people +of Bagdad as their strange city caused to us. For very quickly, before +indeed we had thought of casting anchor, boats began to crowd shyly +round us; boats strange in shape, boats laden with strange passengers +and gaily-dressed Turkish men and women, whose veils scarce concealed +their beauty, boats flitting hither and thither on trade or pleasure +bent, and high up the stream a wonderful bridge built of boats. + +The city itself, along the side of the river, seemed a city of palaces, +of domes and minarets, of cupolas and towers. There was beauty and +brightness everywhere, and the tall waving palm trees, that shot upwards +their green-fringed tops against the blue sky and fleecy clouds, lent to +the whole scene additional charm. + +But anchor was let go at last, right in front of the charmingly-kept +gardens of the British Consul, and master, with Antonio and other +officers, went on shore to visit him. + +That night the Consul himself came off to our little ship, and master +confided to him--for he was a kindly man--the whole story of Beebee, and +sought his advice. + +This was willingly given. + +"It seems strange, however," said Mr Wilson, the consul, "that she +should have been sent to Bagdad." + +"This was no doubt for safety," said Antonio, "although the visit was +said to have been recommended by the Persian doctor for health's sake, +and she is as strictly guarded here as she would be in her own country." + +"Well," said Mr Wilson, "any assistance that is in my power to give +you, you may depend upon. Meanwhile, I think that your plan of getting +Miss Morgan and her maid away by stealth affords the best chance for the +safety and perhaps the lives of both." + +Two days after this all was arranged, and Antonio, dressed as a +travelling merchant of Persia, and accompanied by myself, dropped down +stream in a hired boat. + +But little did I know then the important part I was to play in the +delivery of my poor mistress from the fate that threatened her. + +CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR. + +"REMEMBER, IT IS FOR FREEDOM, AND FOR LIFE ITSELF." + +"Oh! Miss Morgan," cried Beebee. "How is this all to end?" + +My mistress was sitting on the balcony of the room when she made this +remark, and Miss Morgan, her English governess, was by her side. + +The window overlooked the orchards, that went sweeping down towards the +banks of the swift-flowing Tigris; and on the far horizon, high above a +cloudland of trees, rose here and there the painted cupolas and gilded +minarets of the great city of Bagdad itself. + +"I hardly know yet, my dear child, how it will end. I have prayed, +Beebee, prayed long and earnestly, and I have hope, and for some reason +or another which I cannot explain, I associate the passing of that +British steamer with our deliverance." + +"And I, too, have prayed to the Christian God; but somehow he gives me +not the hope that He seems to give to you. Suppose," she added, "we +could escape to Bagdad, and reach your British ship, would she give us +shelter?" + +"As a last resort I may counsel this, Beebee, mine; but, ah! think of +the risk. The chance of discovery is very great, and you know what +discovery means." + +"Yes," sighed Beebee, "it means, to me at all events, death, and a bed +beneath yon dark flowing river. And yet I feel I should like to take +the risk, dear teacher. In a few days, at most, we shall be sent back +to our own home, for the peace has come. Then, oh, dear Miss Morgan, it +will be too late." + +"See how lovely the sunset is," she added, with a sigh, "and listen, +teacher, to the song of those happy birds. Ah! every creature is happy +that is free. I--I--oh, teacher, I am the veriest slave!" + +Poor Beebee leant her head on the shoulder of her companion, and burst +into tears. + +It was at this very moment, my children, that I, led by some unerring +instinct that I cannot even describe to you, crept through the orchard +and leapt upon the balcony with a joyful cry. + +Antonio had brought me within two hundred yards of the house. + +"Your mistress is not far off, Shireen," he said; "go, seek her." + +I had sought her. I had found her. Oh, happy hour; but for a time +neither she nor Miss Morgan knew me. + +Beebee looked up when I came in, her face still streaming with tears. + +I sang aloud, and rubbed my head and back against her; and at last a +light seemed suddenly to dawn upon her. She stared at me for a moment +almost in fright, and superstitiously. Then gradually a smile crept +around her lips and eyes. + +"Oh, teacher!" she cried. "Can it be possible? Take her up, quick, and +look for the ruby." + +"Yes, yes, I am right," she added quickly, as Miss Morgan exposed my gum +for a moment, and showed the gem set fast in my tooth. "Oh, I was sure +of it!" + +And then I was held fast to Beebee's beating heart. + +Miss Morgan was looking strangely puzzled. She was thinking. + +"I cannot understand," she said, at last. "What can it possibly mean, +Beebee? And how _could_ Shireen have come here?" + +"You cannot understand," cried Beebee gladly. "Oh, but I do. They tell +us love is blind. It is false. For I can see; I can see it all. My +prince is near at hand, and soon he will come. He is, indeed, he must +be in that very ship that passed on up the river to Bagdad." + +Miss Morgan's eyes now began to gladden with joy. + +"What you say must be true," she said. "And deliverance is at hand. We +have but to wait." + +I felt happier now than ever I had done in my life before. Night fell +soon; and I retired with my dear mistress into the luxuriously-furnished +apartment, just as slaves began to light the lamps. + +They took no notice of the strange pussy. + +By-and-bye, the tall, black, fierce-eyed eunuch himself came in, with +boys bearing refreshments. But even he did not know me. He had not +Beebee's eyes of love. + +Beebee talked to him to-night pleasantly too. She even teased him a +little, as she used to do when more of a child. + +He looked pleased, happy even. He seemed to love his mistress; and yet, +this man, at the bidding of his master, Beebee's father, would have +thrust her shrieking into a sack, and cast her into the Tigris, whose +dark waters close, every month, over many a lovely female form, doomed +to death by their heartless husbands. + +"How long now," she asked the eunuch, "before we return to our own +lovely Persian home? Oh, I am sick of Bagdad." + +"But two, three days, then I have the order." + +"Ah!" he added, "my little bird-mistress will rejoice when at last the +Shah sends for her!" + +Beebee clapped her little hands. + +"Indeed, indeed, I shall be joyful," she said, "when the day of my +deliverance comes." + +I slept that night in Beebee's apartment; but the whole of next forenoon +wore away and nothing unusual occurred, and I began to notice that +sadness was once more stealing over the face of my young mistress. + +But when it was once more close upon sunset, the eunuch glided silently +up to the window of the balcony, on which Beebee sat, with Miss Morgan +and me. + +"Would the ladies be amused?" he asked. "A Persian merchant, with a box +of jewellery and many fine things, would like to spread his wares at +their feet?" + +A quick glance passed betwixt Miss Morgan and Beebee, and the latter +smiled and nodded assent. + +In a few minutes more, Antonio, the priest, prostrated himself on the +mosaic, before the now veiled ladies; but was told he might arise and +show his wares. + +He lost no time in doing so, and Beebee lifted up her hands and laughed +with delight. For here were gems and jewels, rich and rare; dresses of +every description, and toys of curious workmanship. + +"Oh, Jazr!" she cried to the eunuch. "You have been always so good and +kind to me, and I may not again have such an opportunity of presenting +you with a gift. Wear, for my sake, Jazr, this chain of gold, and think +of me when I am far away, as I soon shall be, you know." + +The eunuch was profuse in his thanks. + +"And now," added Beebee, "go, good Jazr, and bring me my two favourite +female slaves. You have to-day made Beebee happy, and she will show her +joy by giving them also gifts of value." + +Next moment Jazr was gone. + +Though he was not absent from the room a minute, for he had but to go a +little way along the passage and clap his hands, there was time for a +few words to pass between Beebee and Antonio. + +"You know me?" he said in English. + +"Yes, yes," in a quick whisper. + +"Buy this gold watch as a gift for Miss Morgan, and open it when alone. +Buy, also, this large parcel of silk. It contains all you will require +to insure your safety." + +In half an hour more, Antonio, the Persian merchant, was gone, and the +whole house and garden had resumed their usual quiet. + +Hours passed away. Then over all the country fell the silence of the +night, scarce broken even by the song of birds in the orchards and +groves. + +The window of Beebee's sleeping apartment was fully thirty feet above +ground; but it overlooked a wild piece of jungle or woody thicket, into +which, if anyone could drop, he or she would be beyond the walls of this +prison villa, and presumably free. + +Oh, children, continued Shireen, after a brief pause. I am very old +now, but were I to live as long again, I should not forget the anxiety +and terror of the hour that succeeded midnight. + +In Beebee's apartment slept two girl slaves, and on a mat outside the +door, the red-eyed eunuch, Jazr, himself. There was a dim light in the +room, that came from a little taper floating in a glass of oil. That +was all; and it just served to render things dimly visible. + +Quick though my hearing was, I heard no footstep when Miss Morgan stood +beside Beebee's couch, and lightly touched her shoulder. She was +dressed in a long dark cloak of some kind, the hood of which was over +her head. + +One finger was on her lip, as if to counsel silence and caution. But +there was no need of this, for Beebee had been awake for some time, and +knew now that the hour of action had come. + +She got up at once, but slowly, cautiously. + +My heart beat high with dread at that moment, for there was the sound of +talking outside the door. Miss Morgan held up a finger, and both girls +paused, waited and listened. + +It had been but the eunuch talking in his sleep, for he soon resumed his +heavy breathing, and as far as he was concerned, all seemed safe for the +time being. Miss Morgan now stepped across to the place where the two +little slave-maids lay, and bent for a moment over them. Both were +sleeping soundly, and she drew a breath of relief. + +Then she went directly to the window, followed by Beebee and myself. It +was an open jalousie, and to a hook in the wall I noticed that a thin +ladder of silken ropes had been attached and flung over. + +This was the most trying moment. + +By the taper's pale glimmer I noticed that my dear young mistress was +white with fear. + +Miss Morgan now took me on her shoulder, and next moment swung herself +over the window-sill, descending, it appeared to me, to certain death in +the awful darkness. + +When her head was level with the sill, she beckoned to Beebee. + +"When I give the signal," she whispered, "hesitate not a moment, but +speed downwards. Remember, it is for freedom, and for life itself; and, +Beebee, for your prince." + +How brave Miss Morgan was! + +In two minutes' time, though it seemed to me it was an hour, we had +reached the ground. Then Miss Morgan held fast the end of the silken +ladder, and gave the signal. + +_There was no response_! + +What a fearful moment that was! Surely my mistress had fainted, or had +the slaves awakened and held her? + +I glanced upwards. Oh, joy! Against the dim, grey light above the +trees, and against our prison wall, something dark was visible. And +descending too. + +It must _be_; it _was_, Beebee. + +But see; she is still ten feet at least above the ground, when from the +window, high above, comes a piercing shriek. + +The slaves have awakened and given the alarm. + +Beebee has paused in her descent. She is petrified with fear. + +Next moment she lets go her hold and falls. + +Ah! but inanimate though she be, for she has fainted, she is safe. +Strong arms have caught her; and next moment, while the great bell of +our prison villa clangs forth from the turret its iron notes of alarm, +we dash into the deepest, darkest part of the wood, guided by Antonio, +the priest, who is carrying Beebee, and in a few minutes more are close +by the river's brink. + +Clang--clang--clang, goes the dreadful bell! + +There is not a moment to lose. Lights are already springing up here and +there, by the side of the dark stream. A boat is now liable to be +intercepted or even fired upon. + +Antonio steps lightly into the skiff. Miss Morgan--I still clinging to +her shoulder--quickly follows, and takes Beebee, still insensible, from +his arms. + +One light push, one touch of the oars, and we are off and away into +mid-stream, and soon speeding down the dark river to freedom and to +safety. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +I think that even Cracker himself drew his breath more freely now that +Shireen had reached this part of the story. There could not be much +more of it. Only they all wanted to hear the very, very end. So they +waited in silence. + +The forest would have been searched, said Shireen, everywhere; and +everywhere next day, boats would dart up and down the river. But all +too late, for we were all safe and sound on board that little British +boat, and gaily steaming down the river. + +A few weeks after this we reached Bombay, and here, once more, I had to +part with Beebee, my mistress; for the terrible Indian Mutiny had broken +out, and I and my master had to stay with our regiment; while Miss +Morgan and her pupil, with the dear, good priest, Antonio, sailed +homewards round the Cape. + +Heigho! sighed Shireen. That was a terrible war, and it would take me +weeks and weeks to tell you of all I heard and saw. And it was all +very, very sad, too. + +But dear master gained what he called honour and glory; though for the +life of me, my children, I never could see where that came in, or what +it meant, but it is something that soldiers and sailors greatly love, +and often sigh for. + +The longest time has an end, Warlock, and when the horrors of the mutiny +were all things of the past, and the sun of peace shedding once more its +soft rays over beautiful India, master and I found ourselves sailing +back to Merrie England. + +Yes, Tabby, we sailed in the dear old corvette _Hydra_, and Tom was +there--Tom Brandy. Need I say that I was happy? + +The first place that master started for, when the ship reached English +shores, was his aunt's pretty home in Yorkshire. + +Almost the first words he said, when his good old auntie sailed smiling +into the room, were,-- + +"Well, my dear aunt, I am so pleased to get back alive and well; but +tell me, how is the blackamoor?" + +"Oh, your blackamoor," cried his aunt, laughing. "She is not far away, +nor Miss Morgan either; and she is the dearest, sweetest child on earth. +Here she comes!" + +Yes, there she came. And never had I seen her look more lovely, more +gentle, and good. + +Children! a marriage took place sometime after this, and Beebee became +the wife of Colonel Edgar Clarkson. + +"What!" cried Warlock. "Our master that is now?" + +"Yes," said Shireen, nodding. + +"And," said Tabby, "Beebee is our mistress?" + +"None other." + +"Oh, how delightful! How charming!" + +"Tse, tse, tse!" said Dick, the starling, and off he flew to Lizzie, +who, with her brother Tom, was reclining on the lawn, making gowan +garlands [the gowan is the mountain daisy] to hang around their +favourites' necks. + +Dick alighted on Lizzie's head, and at once began to go through the +motions of bathing and splashing in the sheen of her bonnie hair. + +But Dick's departure seems the signal for the breaking up of the party. +For lo! shades of evening have begun to fall. + + "And in the painted oriel of the West, + Whose panes the sunken sun incardines, + Like a fair lady at her casement, shines + The Evening Star, the star of love and rest." + +So "good-nights" are said, and hands are shaken, then slowly homewards +to his bungalow, by the pathway under the lindens, swings honest Ben and +his cockatoo; while the shadows deepen beneath the trees, and the +blackbird trills his last sweet song. + +Behind him walks Cracker--a garland of gowans around his neck--all the +way to the bungalow gate. Here he stops a moment to receive Ben's +friendly farewell pat, then gives his droll old stump of a tail a shake, +and trots slowly home alone. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The End. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Shireen and her Friends, by Gordon Stables + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHIREEN AND HER FRIENDS *** + +***** This file should be named 38236.txt or 38236.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/2/3/38236/ + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + +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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