30 THE HISTORY OF DAME MITCHELL

fore a perfect master of the art and mystery of catching rats
and mice, which cats of noble houses often neglect to prac-
tise. He set himself on the watch, and surprised a mouse
who had left its hole to eat the flour; he sprang upon the
rash adventurer, describing what geometricians call a
parabola, and bit his mouth to prevent his crying. But
this chase, although skilfully managed and occasioning little
noise, attracted the attention of “the young journeyman

baker.

 

* Hold, here’s a cat!” cried the lad, seizing a shovel.

The master baker turned round, and seeing Mowmouth
eating a mouse, said to the young journeyman, “Don’t
hurt him; you see he is doing us a service.”

“But where, I wonder, did he come from?”

** What matter, if he is useful here,” replied the baker,
who was a baker of cultivated mind, and whose learning
had reached the fourth class. “Eat, puss, eat, continued
he,” stooping to caress Mowmouth; “swallow as many
mice as you can, there will still be too many remaining.’

The cat took advantage of this permission. After he