As fond as I was of Dinah, I was soon obliged to admit that she had
an unamiable disposition."
"Why, Miss Ruth, how funny!" said Ann Eliza Jones. "I didn't know there
was any difference in cats' dispositions."
"Indeed there is," Miss Ruth answered: "quite as much as in the
dispositions of children, as any one will tell you who has raised a
family of kittens. Well, Dinah made a quick recovery, and when her new
coat was grown it was blacker and more silky than the old one. She was
a handsome cat, not large, but beautifully formed, with a bright,
intelligent face and great yellow eyes that changed color in different
lights. She was devoted to me, and would let no one else touch her if
she could help it, but allowed me to handle her as I pleased. I have
tucked her in my pocket many a time when I went of an errand, and once I
carried her to the prayer-meeting in my mother's muff. But she made a
serious disturbance in the midst of the service by giving chase to a
mouse, and I never repeated the experiment.
"Dinah was a famous hunter, and kept our own and the neighbors' premises
clear of rats and mice, but never to my knowledge caught a chicken or a
bird. She had a curious fancy for catching snakes, which she would kill
with one bite in the back of the neck and then drag in triumph to the
piazza or the kitchen, where she would keep guard over her prey and call
for me till I appeared.
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