46 AFFECTION EXHIBITED BY A CAT.

one. The servant brought me one. It was a tortoise-shell.
‘No, I said; ‘that will always be looking dirty. I will
choose another.” So I put my hand into the basket, and
drew forth this tabby; and the tabby has loved me ever since.

“When she came to have a family, she disappeared ; but
the rain did not, for it came pouring down through the
ceiling, and it was discovered that Dame Tabby had made a
hospital for herself in the thatched roof of the house. The
damage she did cost several pounds; so we asked a friend
who had a good cook, fond of cats, to take care of Tabby the
next time she‘ gave signs of having a family, as we knew
she would be well fed. We sent her in a basket completely
covered up; and she was shut into a room, which she soon
made lively with a number of young mewlings. More than
the usual number were allowed to live, and it was thought
that she would stay quietly where she was. Not so. On
the first chance she made her escape, and down she came all
the length of the village, and early in the morning I heard
her mewing at my bedroom door to be let in. When I had
stroked her back, and spoken kindly to her, off she went to
look after her nurslings. From that day, every morning she
came regularly to see me, and would not go away till she
had been spoken to and caressed. Having satisfied herself
that I was alive and well, back she would go. She never
failed to pay me that one visit in the morning, and never
came twice in the day, till she had weaned her kittens; and
that very day she came back, and nothing would induce her
to go away again. I had not the heart to foree her back.
From that day to this she has always slept at the door of
my room.”