A SMART CAT.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 273, 24 April 1873, Page 7

A SMART CAT.

" Talking about cats," said TJnele Tim, a regular Yankee, " puts me in mind of a cat I once owned. Let me tell you of her. She was a Maltee, and what that cat didn't know wasn't worth knowin'. Here's one thing she did. In the Spring of '46 I moved into the little old bouse down on the crooked river. We put our provisions clown in the cellar, and the first night we made our beds on the floor. But we didn't sleep. No sooner had it come dark than we hoard a tearin' and a squcakin' in the cellar that was awful. I lit a candle and went clown. Jerusalem ! Talk about rats ! I never saw such a sight in all my born days. Every inch of the cellar bottom was covered with them. They run up unto me, and they run over me. Ijumped back into the room and called the cat. She came down and looked. I guess she sat there t -n minutes, looking at them rats, and I was wantin' to see what she would do. By-the-by she shook her head, and turned about and went upstairs. She didn't care to tackle 'em. 'That night. I tell ye, there wasn't much sleep. In the mornin' I called for the cat, and couldn't find her. She'd gone. I guessed the rats had frightened her ; an-1 to tell t^e plain truth. I didn't much wonder. The ni^ht came again, and tho old cat hadn't shown herself. Says Betsy Ann (that's my wife) to me says she, ' Tim, if that old cat don't come back, we'll have to leave this

place. The rats'U eat us up.' — Says I : ' Just you leave the old cat be.' I didn't believe she'd left us for good and r-11. Jmt as Betsy Ann was putt in' the children to bed, we heard a scratchin' an! a waulin' at ihe outbid*.' <»f the door. I wont aiv! opt-nod it ; and there stood our old Maltee on the door-dtep, and behind her a whole army of cats all paraded as ye ever seen soldiers ! I let our old cat in, and the others followed her. She went right to the cellar door, and scratched there I began to understand. Old Maltee had been out for help. I opened the way to the cellar, and she marched down, and the other cats tramped after her in regular order — and as they went past I counted fifty six of 'em. Oh, my !if there wasn't a row and a rumpus in that 'ere cellar that night, then I'm mistaken ! The next morninsr the old cat came up and caught hold of my trousers leg and pulled me towards the door. I went down and saw the sight. Talk about yer Bunker Hill and yer Boston massacres ! Mercy ! I never saw such a sight before or since. Betsy Ann and me, with my boy Bam my, was all day at hard work as we could be, clearin' the dead rats out of that ere cellar 1 It's a fact — every word of it.