Still, I am not prepared to say that Pompey had any word for violets, or
for anything else that ministered to his delight. It was enough for him
to be happy; and he had better ways of expressing it.
Cats do have the power of making people understand what they want done,
but so far as my knowledge of them goes, some of the most intelligent
ones "talk" the least. Thomas Erastus, whose intelligence sometimes
amounts to a knowledge that seems almost uncanny, seldom utters a sound.
There is--or was--a black cat belonging to the city jail of a
Californian town, named "Inspector Byrnes," because of his remarkable
assistance to the police force. When, one night, a prisoner in the jail
had stuffed the cracks to his cell with straw, and turned on the gas in
an attempt to commit suicide, "Inspector Byrnes" hurried off and
notified the night keeper that something was wrong, and induced him to
go to the cell in time to save the prisoner's life. He once notified the
police when a fire broke out on the premises, and at another time made
such a fuss that they followed him--to discover a woman trying to hang
herself. Again, some of the prisoners plotted to escape, and the cat
crawled through the hole they had filed and called the warden's
attention to it. In fact, there was no doubt that "Inspector Byrnes"
considered himself assistant warden at the jail, and he did not waste
much time in talk either.
The Pretty Lady had ways of her own to make us know when things were
wrong in the household, although she used to utter a great many sounds,
either of pleasure or perturbation, which we came to understand.
Pages:
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204