Charles Dickens, for that is the name of the gentleman you see sitting
by the table, wrote many books and stories. Some of his stories are
about little children for grown folks to read, and others are for the
children themselves. Mr. Dickens had a pet cat, that was always in his
library. Strange to say, it had no name. That was no matter, because
the cat could not hear. He was deaf. But he liked very much to be
petted, and plainly showed sometimes that he was not pleased to have
his master do any thing else. One evening, when Mr. Dickens was
sitting at the table reading, his candle suddenly went out. He did not
know why it should have done so, but he got up and lighted it. In a
few moments it began to get dark again, and he looked up quickly at
the candle, and saw puss just raising his paw to put it out. "What did
he do?" He gave the cat a loving little pat and went on with his
reading. What a sly cat was that to find a way to make his master
notice him.