"
"What a shame! I wouldn't keep a cat who played such a cruel trick,"
Mollie said.
"My Dinah Spot doesn't catch birds or chickens," said Nellie Dimock;
"only mice."
Mrs. Elliot had come in with a message to her sister while this talk
went on, and had lingered to hear Eliza's story of old Jane.
"Girls," she said, "with your President's permission, I will tell you a
story about a cat. It is curious, because it proves that a cat remembers
and reasons much as a man or woman would in similar circumstances. Susie
and Mollie, I have told it to you before, but you will not mind hearing
it again.
"When my brother Charles was a young man he kept a bachelor
establishment in the country, and with other pets owned a beautiful gray
cat he had; brought with him from Germany. She was very intelligent and
docile, a great favorite with her master, and was allowed many
privileges in the house. She came in and out through a small door cut in
the side of the house which she opened and closed for herself. A chair
was regularly placed for her at the table; she slept at the foot of my
brother's bed, and perched herself on his shoulder when he took a stroll
in the garden. She could distinguish the sound of his bell from any
other in the house, and was greatly disturbed if the servant delayed in
answering his call.
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