The Cat.

Otago Witness, Issue 1805, 25 June 1886, Page 27

The Cat.

The cat is an animal that mews and purrs, because purr-haps it a mews-cs him. He is covered with f urr, is full of deceitfulness, and abounds in check. 1 said that on purr-pass. He can place himself: outside a canary, and then smilingly come and sit by our side, chuck full of penitence and canary. There are a great many kinds of cats, some of which I will mention. The plain cat, tho feline cat, cat-fish, cat-tail, tom-cat, cat-nip, cat-a-plasm, cat-o'-nine-tails, cat-e-gory, catalogue, cat-astrophe, cat-erpillar, &c, &c. The inventor of the violin got his idea from the cat. Listening to the melodious strains of that musical genius one summer's evening, he became perfectly charmed and cut him open to see whence the music came. He thus laid the foundation for ; the violin strings. I cannot say much of the cat-o'-nine-tails, partly because it is a very touching subject, and besides I don't know much about him. The cat can draw more than any other animal. He can draw a bucket of water from an upstairs window, an old shoe from a corner where it has long slumbered, a man from his bed on a cold night, a revolver from its hiding place, some pretty bad words from a religious man, and a great many other things of minor importance. To look at the. playful little kitten, who would believe that it could ever grow to be one of those everlasting mewing nuisances that sit on the fence and call Ma-ri-a every night ? Have you never heard them ? Their music surpasses the celestial spheres, and even the jewsharp. It unites all of our passions, moves us when all el&e fails, and causes us to exclaim, in the words of the psalmist, " 0, to be there, to be there." A tom-cat sits upon a shed Ami warbles sweetly to his mate, ■' Oh, when the world has gone to bed I love to sit ami mew till late." Hut when tho tom-cat sits and sings. Up springs the student mad with hate— Ho shoot that cat to fiddle-strings, He also loves to mu-til-ate. — Texas Sittings.