BAD TO BEAT.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1152, 28 March 1884, Page 4

BAD TO BEAT.

The moon struggled through a tangle of rigging as though cloud-bars, and made a dim light on the pier. A black, shadowy form, scarcely seen, crept .along the end of the dock. “ That’s her,” said the watchman. There was a low, moaning sound, half cry, half shriek. Then the form disappeared “Some unfortunate has drowned her sorrows in 'he river !” saill, expecting the watchman to rim toward the scene.—“ No.” said he, “ she is often here. “ A daft creature 1" —“ A very singular one. I have seen her on the pier for fourteen years. She always conies at night.” “ Does she ever go away}”- “ Yes ; sometimes she goe< to Europe, and is gone several months. She takes the leading steamship lines 1 “What is she—a witch, a tramp, an eccentric rich woman, a goblin ?’ “ A cat, a black cat with a white tipped tail. She came when she was a kitten. She has been here ever since. She lives on the dock, or rather under the dock. We call her a dock rat.” “ Does she hunt dock rats}”—No, she hunts with them. The old cat and the rats live peacefully together. All the rats know her. I think she lived here about four years when one day the rats of her acquaintance got on board a ship to go to Liverpool, She got on with them, crawling up the cablechain and through the port-nole after them. It was a provision ship. They all came back in six weeks as fat as butter.” “It is strange that a cat should live quietly with rats}”—“ Ves; they have a sort of flat under the pier—parlor, bedrooms, baths, and all that sort ot thing. You see there are two kinds of dock rats—English and American. The English rats are regu lar bruisers. They whip the Americm rodents. The cat took the side of the Americans, and hunted the English intruders out ot the pier. Of course the American rats had a great admiration and gratitude for her in consequence. For many years they had lived and hunted together. The rats are pirates, cruising around on a flotilla of chi] is during the day, and picking up scraps thrown overboard from the vessels at anchor. They come back in their little craft laden with booty, and the old cat dividesdf he spoil. She manages a kind of hrapital, and nurses rats that are injured in their marauding cruises. I guess she plans some of the more daring ventures of the piiate rats. She is a pirate queen after a fashion. The singular thing is that no one can ever get near her. When you heard her cry she w aa signalling to some of her freebooters. I have often tried to catch her.”—iVeto York 'Journal,