40 THE CAT AND THE KNOCKER.

The next day the same thing happened, but it occurred
several times before any one suspected that Deb could possibly
have lifted the knocker. At length Mary told her mistress
what she thought, and one of the family hid in the shrubbery

 

to watch Deb’s doings. Deb was allowed to run out into the
garden, and the door was closed. After a time the-clever
creature was seen to climb up on the window-sill, and then
to rear herself on her hind-feet, in a sloping position at the
full stretch of her body, when, steadying herself with one