TWO CATS AND AN ALLIGATOR.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Issue 16, 10 September 1898, Page 8

TWO CATS AND AN ALLIGATOR.

The big cat's name was Daisy, and the little oat, her daughter, was named Susan, but the alligator I don't think ever had a name. Tlie cats were of a beautiful tortoiseshell colour, with snowy breasts and paws. The alligator was very little and very ngly, with nothing remarkable about him except an astonishingly loud voice, all out of proportion to his size, as Susan one day found out. The two cats, though alike in colour, were extremely unlike in disposition. Daisy was very good - natui ed and motherly, while Susan was independent, with a fine temper of her own, and very inquisitive. The alligator had a shallow pan, filled with .water, .placed near the kitchen stove, and there he would float motionless for hours, while Susan "would sit by the pan, intently studying him, for some time. Then a velvet paw would gently lap him on the back, the alligator would immediately sink to the bottom, and Miss Susan would g«t her paw wet, which she didn't like at all. tThe performance was repeated over and over again, till one the alligator, instead of dropping under water as usual, gave a tremendous hiss and jumped right into Susan's face, so startling her that she fell over into the pan, thereby getting such a fright and wetting that she didn't molest him again for some time. As the day grew warmer the alligator would leave his pan and crawl about orer the floor, and one day he happened to crawl under the stove, where Daisy was stretched out- enjoying a nap. Meeting with nothing, more alarming than a gentle piirr, he gradually drew nearer and nearer, until, attracted by Daisy's warm, soft "fur, he finally stretched himself directly across her, and there they lay and slept together ; arid often after that, when Daisy was lying under the stove, the alligator would come out of his pan and join her, and she was always ready to welcome him. Between him and Sutan, however, there was always trouble. She never lost an opportunity to slip up behind him, unseen if she could, and tap him on the back, while he would hiss like a small

steam-engine if he saw her come into the room. It was very amusing for the whole family to watch their periormances, and also a mystery how he could tell the two cats apart at such a distance, but he never was known to hiss at Daisy. That was a long time ago, and pretty Daisy is now resting under the rose-bed in the garden, while the alligator is stuhed and occupies a place on the cabinet : but Susan is still alive and as inquisitive as ever, and when lately one ot the boys brought home a largo turtlo from abroad and put him in a pul o£ water, Susan evidently thought that hei old enemy had come back once more. She would sit down and watch him awhile, then tap him gently and jump back, expecting the customary hiss ; but as the turtle took no notice whatever of her, she soon lost all interest m lu'm. — : Scotsman,

" Well, my son," said a good-natured father to an eight-year old son, the other night, " what have you done to-day thnt may be set down as a good deed?" " Gave a poor boy a penny," replied the hopeful. " Ah, ah ! that was a charity, and charity is always right. He was an orphan boy, was he ?" " I did'nt stop to ask," replied the son. " I gave him the money for licking a boy who upset my school-bag."