Waiting for Her Ship.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIX, Issue XXV, 20 December 1902, Page 1593

Waiting for Her Ship.

There was a eat once that was the favourite of the eaptain and erew of a coasting steamer. In the course of time puss presented the ship with a family of kittens, which were less than a month old when the docks were reached. When the ship sailed the eat was missing. Search was made in vain about the wharves, and the eaptain was compelled not only to sail without his mascot, but to assume the responsibility for her abandoned infants. When the prodigal eat returned another and a larger boat filled its place at the wharf. The cat visited every steamer in the docks; then, convinced that she was homeless and kittenless, she took up her quarters in a watchbox, and patiently awaited the captain's return. Week followed wetk; scores of barques arrived, and were each in turn anxiously inspected; and still, ttndiseouraged by repeated disappointments, the eat kept her post.

At last the long-awaited ship was sighted. and there was no need this time to hunt for the rat. There she stood, quivering with agitation, on the extreme edge of the wharf, as the malodorous little craft pushed its way up the river. The captain’s big black dog. pussy's old friend and companion, barked his furious welcome from the deck. This increased her excitement, and when the steamer was still twelve feet from the docks. she cleared with flying leap the intervening space, and amid the cheers of the crew, ran straight to the captain's cabin, where she had left her kittens two months before. TOey were wedl-grown young cats by this time, and disposed to resent her intrusion: but the mother's joy was as excessive as if she had been parted from them but for a single night.