Tabby winced and felt a little hurt. Certainly she did not lay claim to any great degree of beauty; still it seemed hard she should be thus singled out.

Even Chammy turned one eye down at her, and d.i.c.k c.o.c.ked a black bead of an optic towards her. Only Warlock gave her face a kind of consolatory lick, as much as to say,--

"If you ain't very pretty, Tabby, you are very good, and virtue is better, any day, than beauty."

"Well, my friends," continued Stamboul, "you may think it is very nice to be a first-prize cat, and to be made a great fuss with, and a great show of at exhibitions, and to be boasted about by your mistress, and crowed over by her friends; but I can tell you a show cat's life has its dark side as well as its light, and this, I think, you will be ready enough to admit, when you have heard some of my adventures and experiences."

STAMBOUL'S LIFE AND CAREER.

"Ever see a cattery, Shireen? No, I dare say you never did; and of course, Tabby, you never did? Well, I will tell you of the cattery in which I was born, and there are many far less pleasant than that, I can a.s.sure you.

"I remember it well, though it is many years ago. I don't say that I can actually recollect the day of my birth, but I mind the days of my kittenhood right well. And I can remember as if it were but yesterday, the morning I and my brothers and sisters were all bundled off to a show."

"To be sold, I suppose?" said Shireen.

"Yes, my dear," said Stamboul, "to be sold. But mind you, I don't blame my old mistress in the least for this. She was at heart a lover of animals; and if she kept us in a cattery, and restricted us of our liberty to some extent, it was not altogether her fault.

"Mrs Rayne was a widow lady, and lived almost by herself in a pretty house in the country. She had neither kith nor kin belonging to her, as far as ever I could see. She had one faithful old man-servant and his wife, who lived in the house and attended on her in every way. But Mrs Rayne looked after the cattery herself. She fed us, and she gave us milk and water."

"Thought cats never drank water?" said Cracker.

"A very great mistake, I a.s.sure you, sir," said Stamboul. "A cat won't thrive unless she has water, and that water must be soft, and clean, and sweet."

"Well, Stamboul," Cracker said, "a dog is never too old to learn."

"But," continued Stamboul, "I must tell you about the cattery. You see, there was a little cottage down in the grounds, nicely shaded with trees and all that, and with oceans of honeysuckle swelling all over the porch, and cl.u.s.tering round the windows. It was only a two-roomed cottage; but, nevertheless, Mrs Rayne conceived the notion of turning it into a cattery, for this amiable lady had an idea that if she did her best to improve the breed of cats in this country, she would be able to get for them a somewhat higher place or standing as members of society.

"She had commenced by keeping a few--three I think--for her own pleasure; but one by one they disappeared. They had been trapped, poisoned, or shot by the keepers, so she saw that if she were to do any good at all, she must protect her valuable cats, and at the same time keep their breed and species select and pure. So she had a look round the cottage one day, and was glad to find, to commence with, that it was not damp. Dampness in a cattery is likely to give rise, directly or indirectly, to many ailments incidental to cat-life.

"Then Mrs Rayne proceeded to furnish the cottage, after a fashion, plainly and well. This, I may tell you, Mr Cracker, was quite as much for her own sake as for the sake of the p.u.s.s.ies. You see, she reasoned thus, and very rightly too, cats have become like clogs, domesticated, they have for countless ages given up their own wild life in the woods, and hills, and cairns, and elected to live with mankind, and share his joys and sorrows. In doing so, they give up, in a great measure, their freedom; they become the willing slaves of man, the playmates of his children, the gentle, soothing comforters to many a lonely human being, who has nothing before him in this world except the grave. Well, then, if p.u.s.s.y has done and does do all this, is it fair to keep her all her little life like a wild beast, shut up in a cage, or banished to barn or outhouse?

"No, and Mrs Rayne--although the cottage would be the home of the cats _par excellence_--would often visit it and spend many an hour therein, with her books or her knitting. She would even take her food there sometimes, for a cat never looks upon any place as an ideal home if a kettle never sings upon a hob by the fire, or a table is never spread for breakfast, or for tea.

"So, when completed, the cottage not only had a nice low fire, protected by a strong guard, to be put on when the fire was lit and no one in the room, but there were in it a table and stools, a couch, and a nice wicker easy-chair and footstool.

"There was a cupboard or two also, and there were brackets and flower-stands, and a mirror or two, and nick-nacks on the mantelpiece as well.

"In fact, this room--which was the winter end of the cottage--was so comfortable, that no one could have told it was a cattery. The other room was furnished as a summer-room, and needed no fireplace.

"There was in each a sanitary box of earth; but as the cats had at all times free access to the garden by means of a little swinging door at the bottom of the main door, this box was never used except for the convenience of young kittens.

"You will now observe, Tabby, that Mrs Rayne, in a manner, lived among her cats, so that she had their companionship and they had hers.

Moreover, as a special treat, she used to take one of them into the house, frequently of a night, and whenever any cat was ailing she treated it as kindly and considerately as if it had been a baby.

"The cat's garden itself deserves a word or two.

"You see, galvanised wire fencing is very cheap, as I dare say you, Cracker, being a farmer's dog, know. Well, Mrs Rayne, first and foremost, laid out the p.u.s.s.ies' garden in front of and partly round the cottage. She laid down a bit of a lawn; she planned walks, and planted shrubs and flowers, for I can a.s.sure you, Cracker, we cats have an eye for colour and effect as well. Then she surrounded the whole with a high wire fence, covering in the top as well, so that birds might not come in to eat p.u.s.s.ies' food, and be eaten by the p.u.s.s.ies in turn.

"The place was sheltered from the cast and north by a wooden fence, so on the whole, either in winter or in summer, a more comfortable cattery never existed to my knowledge, and I have seen a few.

"The garden was laid out then partly for effect, but partly, also, for utility and luxury. The lawn was a delightful place for the young cats to tumble and jump upon, when the spring and summer were in their prime, and the gra.s.s and weed-tops, that grew on this wildery of a lawn, helped to keep the cats in health.

"Then here and there, at different heights all round the wooden fence, and the wire fence also, were placed shelf-seats, about eighteen inches long, by one foot broad. On these the cats would lie and sun themselves, or they could take exercise all round, by leaping from one to the other.

"Among the flowers that grew around was Valerian, of which the cat is fond, and several other pretty flowers, that appealed to p.u.s.s.y's sense of smell, and gratified her eye.

"There was a filter indoors, and large, clean dishes were placed on the floor for the drinking water, so that the furry inmates could help themselves whenever they pleased."

"And a bit of brimstone in each dish, I suppose?" said Cracker. "A fine thing brimstone, you bet."

"Fiddlesticks!" said Stamboul disdainfully. "Mr Cracker, I am afraid your notions are somewhat antiquated."

"I don't know what that be," retorted Cracker. "I just speak as I've been taught."

"True, true, my good fellow, and doubtless with the best intentions; but then, living in the country as you do, one is bound to believe a great many popular and foolish fallacies."

"I own to it, I own to it, Stamboul," said Cracker. "Now up north, where I comes from, a cat ain't looked upon as much of a stunner I 'ssure you, Stamboul. They are just kept as a kind o' live mousetraps."

"Yes, I know," said Stamboul; "and they are starved under the mistaken notion that this makes them catch mice."

"So they be. And doesn't it? I know if I were main hungry, and spotted a fine fat rabbit dashing past, I'd soon have he, you bet, and my dinner next, afore he were cold."

"True, Cracker, but it is also a fact that the better a cat is fed, so long as he is not foolishly pampered and spoiled, the better a hunter he will make. You see, Cracker, to catch mice and rats, a cat has to have a deal of patience, and a world of cunning, and spend long nights of determined watching. To do this he must be in form. If he is half-starved, he is nervous, and tired, and weary; if he be hungry, then instead of watching by the cat's run, he'll be thinking more of the cupboard and the last square meal he had, and wondering when he will have another. Or, it is possible enough, instead of watching at all for master rat--and a well-bred cat won't eat a rat after all--he will prefer to do his hunting in the nearest pigeon-loft or hen-house."

"There is a deal in what you say," said Shireen.

"Yes, I can see that," Warlock put in.

"Well," said Cracker, "I gives in to superior judgment."

"And now," continued Cracker, "is it true, Stamboul, that cats will suck a child's breath? Mind, I'm not so far left to myself as to believe this, although there, maybe, is some hayseed in my hair."

"A sillier notion," said Stamboul, "was never heard, and this fallacy dates back to the days of witchcraft. Pah! out on such a ridiculous notion, it is really too absurd to argue about."

"Well, Lady Shireen there, while telling her story, has proved in her own experience that it isn't places so much that cats love as persons,"

said Tabby.

"That is true, Tabby, if the persons are good to them; and I really think that people are beginning to think now, that cats are reasoning, thinking beings, with minds differing from their own only in degree."

"If not interrupting you too much, Stamboul," said Warlock, "I have just one word to say, having been a student of cat-life, especially of Mother Shireen there, and my own companion and field-ranger, honest Tabby here.

Well, there is a saying, which is all too common among human beings I think, and that is the expression, 'As cross as a cat.' I've seen a cat cross, and I've felt her claws, too, but that was when she was either done out of her rights and starved, or put upon in some way or another."

"Glad to hear you stick up for cats, Warlock," said Stamboul.

"Oh, I just speak of cats as I find them. Now, for instance, who is it among human beings I wonder, that hasn't noticed how fond a well-trained, well-kept cat is of children?