A MILITARY CAT.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 11778, 28 September 1901, Page 1 (Supplement)

A MILITARY CAT.

' Taking about cats,' said Uncle Tim, ' puts me in tniud of a cat I once owned.

' Let me tell you abo«t her. Sbe was a Maltee, and what that cat didn't know wasn't worth knowing.

' Here';* one thing site .i id . Early in the seveial years ag;o, I moved into a little old house on tfu; Ciuokeu River.

' We put our provisions losti in the cellar, and the first nigL t wo made our beds on the floor, but we iidu't sleep.

'No sooner had it come dark than we heard the most awful tearing and sqnpakiug in the cellar.

' I jit the candle und went down. Jerusalem 1 Talk about aiR ! I never saw suc'i a sight in nay born days. Every inch of tho cel'.ir ">otto:u wns coverei with them. Ther lan up on to me, and all over me. I jumped back into the room and called 'h<! cat.

' She came down aui 'ooked. I guess she «at there aboo:. len minntrs looking st those rat?, and I was waiting to scp what she would do,

• By and by she shook her bead, and went upstairs. She didn't w!te to tackle them.

' That nij;ht, I tell y v. 'hire wasn't miii'h '•livp. Iv rhe luo.uinq I c^ui.l not find her.

' She'd gone. I guf-.f.td t^- rats had fri«htenfd her, and to t ll the plain truth. J didn't winder -nuci .

' Night camn again, auJ t'io oM oat hada't returned.

' Says Betsy Ann — O)nt'- my w f.—to me, ' Tim, if that, o1o 1 \ ca, do-it conio bock ww'il nave to lojvp, 1; o ralr> will ext as op.

' Says I. • Jnt't you !ol the ■ ' a* alone.' • 1 didn't bplie-o

*i/.l It.,

good and all.

' Jast as jrfi'tsv Am wus putting the childrea to bed I heard a scratching at the ontside door.

4 1 went and opened it, an 1 there oa tho doorstep stood our old Maltee, and behind her a whole army of cats all paraded as regular as any -',ldierp, and commanded by our mi!ita'; T cat. I lot the old cat in and the c.hsrs followed her.

( She went right fc? the cj.-'ar door and scratched there. I began to understand. ' Old Maltee had out for help. I opened the way to th'j c-'ll-ir.

' She marched down, and tho other cats tramped after her ia regular military order ; and as they went past 1 counted fifty six of 'em.

'Oh ray, if there wasn't n ry and a rumpu3 ia that 'ere collar iu<»- night then I'm mistaken.

' Tbe next morning the oli < - came up and caught hold of my tro; i- leg and pulled me toward tb.3 door. 1 I went down to see the sight. ' Talk ab)Ut your Banker iiill and Boston maesacreß.

* I never s*w any such sLj'.t bsforenor sine.

• Bstsy Ann and me, with my boySammy, were all day as hard at work as we could be clearing the dead rats out of that *ere cellar. ' It'd a fact every word of it.