My Father was what is called a sporting character. The quantity of rats
he caught, and of birds he ensnared, was almost incredible; and the fame
of his exploits spread throughout the neighbourhood.
A taste of so decided a kind, and a dexterity so remarkable, not
unnaturally extended to his offspring; and before we had attained our
full growth, we had all killed our rats and caught our birds.
To indulge this passion my father had two little huts, which he called
hunting-boxes, both conveniently situated for his favourite pursuits.
One was on the bank of the river, near some old timber, a famous haunt
of the rats, who had a colony close by; and the other was in a wooded
spot, overhung with trees, among which the birds loved to linger,
although many of their number waited there to their destruction.
My mother, who had been very delicately brought up, and who had very
strict notions concerning propriety in female Cats, was very anxious to
keep myself and sisters away from either of these places, although she
had, of course, no objection that our brother should visit them; but,
as we had been all educated together, we Pussies thought it rather hard
that Tommy should go whilst we were forced to stop at home; and, as our
father was very indulgent, we often managed to slip off unawares and
join him and our brother, trusting to his kindness to save us from our
mother's displeasure.
I happened to learn one day that several sporting Cats had been invited
to a great hunt, the place of meeting being my father's box beside the
river. I felt the greatest desire to be present at one of these affairs,
as Tommy's account of them had made my very mouth water. I knew it would
be vain to ask my mother's consent, as she would not only refuse it,
but would take measures to prevent my getting out if I felt inclined
to disobey. I therefore kept very quiet about the matter, but resolved
within myself to indulge my inclination, and get a peep at what was
going on.
"It will be easy," I thought, "to do so without any one being the wiser;
and even if I should be found out when I am there, I am sure father will
not be angry."
With this reflection, on the appointed morning I slipped off
unperceived, and, arriving at the hut a good hour before the time fixed,
I climbed up to the top by the help of a tree which grew near; and
stretching myself on the roof, with my eyes peering over the edge, just
where a branch of the elm I had got up by afforded me a shade, I waited
for the company.
They were not long in coming. My father and brother arrived first, and
a servant with some provisions; they were soon followed by an immense
White Cat with one eye (but what a fierce one it was!) and a handsome
Tabby, his son. Next came a Cat they called Mr. Dick, who wore a shabby
grey coat, rather torn and patchy, and whose tail was ragged and dirty,
yet to whom everybody showed a great deal of attention, because, as
I afterwards learnt, he was very rich and ill-tempered. There were two
or three others that I don't well remember, but which made the number
complete.
As soon as they were all assembled, they sat down to breakfast; and
I could see them through a chink in the roof as they demolished their
meal. I had taken the precaution to bring something to eat too, and
I now devoured it with much appetite; for the fresh morning air and my
elevated position had made me hungry. As I munched my food, I could hear
the conversation below, and was much edified by the terrible stories
which some of them told about the fights they had had with rats as big
as themselves, and the fierce battles they had won. I could not help
observing that although Mr. Dick's adventures were much less wonderful
than those of any other Cat present, they were heard with a great deal
more interest, and were applauded as infinitely more remarkable.
Word was now given to prepare for the coming hunt, and every Cat rose
from table, and came out among the timber. Hiding themselves behind
various logs, my father stood up and uttered a loud cry, which I
afterwards learnt was a signal for a quantity of ferrets, trained for
that purpose, to rush into the rats' holes to drive them out. As the
rats have the greatest horror of these creatures, they sprang from their
hiding-places in the wildest confusion, and were at once pounced upon by
the hidden Cats.
What a scene of confusion followed! The rats, who were scampering along,
over and under the logs to escape from the hated ferrets, were suddenly
aware of the presence of more detested and more formidable enemies, as,
one by one, the sporting Cats jumped up, and made a dash at their
bewildered prey.
My excitement at this spectacle was almost more than I could bear.
As the growls of my friends and kindred, joined to the screams of the
flying rats, became audible, and I could see the lashing of tails and
the fierce glances of bright eyes, accompanied every now and then by a
chase where some rat, which had been hiding beneath a log, suddenly
leaped across the open ground, I sprang to my feet, I ran hither and
thither, with my tail swollen to twice its natural size, from my
eagerness to participate in the so-called _sport_ of my relations.
I was not however destined to remain without my share of it, although
I did not stir from the spot where I had been concealed. I said that a
tree grew close to the hunting-box, on the roof of which I was placed,
and that it was by its help that I had climbed to my present elevation.
A large rat, with a body not very much smaller than my own, which had
managed to escape from the fight where so many of his friends and
relations had fallen, sought about for a place of refuge. Espying the
tree, and seeing that all his enemies were at that moment too much
engaged to attend to him, he sprang up the trunk and came rapidly
towards me, little expecting to find another of his foes so far away
from her companions. I watched him come, and resolved in my own mind
that he should not escape, although my heart beat a good deal at the
idea of the encounter.
The rat sprang on to the roof, and was going to scamper over it, when
his fierce little eyes,--and quick nose too, no doubt, for it moved
incessantly,--spied me out, crouching at a short distance and ready to
spring. He stopped an instant, as if considering what it were best to
do, then, thinking perhaps that if he attempted to run I should be at
once upon his back, and, I suppose, observing from my look that I was
only a Kitten after all, he came boldly towards me, and, just as I was
about to pounce upon him, he sprang, like a flash of lightning, at my
face, and made his sharp teeth meet in the most tender part of my nose.
In vain I shrieked and beat the terrible creature with all my strength
upon the roof; it was to no purpose that I fixed my sharp claws into
his sides, and tried to tear him from his hold; he would not let go, and
the pain was at last so great, that, squeezing him in my paws, I rolled
over and over in my agony. The roof was sloping, and slippery besides
with dew, so that, blinded with terror and not knowing what I did,
I gradually got near the edge, and at last tumbled over on to the party
below. I should probably have been much hurt by the fall, as I was not
yet clever enough to tumble on my feet, but that I came down plump upon
the back of a very stout Cat, who was standing a little aside quite
tired out with his exertions. Him I knocked completely over, sending him
flying, to his astonishment, a dozen paces off; the rat, detached from
my nose by the shock, was at once strangled by my brother; and the rest
of the party, running up to me, whom they thought dead, were not a
little surprised to find the daughter of their friend. My father himself
took the matter very quietly; I heard him exclaim, "I say, Tommy, how
came your sister here? There will be a fine noise at home when your
mother hears of this;" but I heard no more; I had fainted from loss of
blood, and I did not recover my senses till I found myself in my own
bed, with my mother's mild eyes, full of sorrow, looking down upon me.
Notwithstanding the great cause she had to feel anger at my conduct,
which was in direct opposition to her wishes and even to her commands,
so frequently expressed, I had little cause to fear a scolding while
I was still confined to the house and suffering pain. And even when
I recovered, her remarks upon the folly of my behaviour were made
with such tenderness that, while I could not help admitting their
truth, I felt that I loved my mother the better for her correction.
I promised,--oh! how warmly I promised her, while the smart was still
within my wound, and my face was yet swollen and inflamed, that I would
never more be guilty of an act of disobedience; that I would, from that
time, do only what I was sure must cause her pleasure, and that I would
strive in all things to acquire a good name for gentleness and other
female virtues.
Alas! a Kitten's resolutions, made in the midst of pain and sorrow
caused through not attending to the advice of elders, are too apt to
be forgotten, when the aches are gone and the grief has worn away;
at least, to my shame be it spoken, it was so in my case, for when
I recovered I was more than once guilty of acts of mischief, which,
by good luck only, happened to be less serious in their results than
the event of the rat-hunt.
A circumstance which helped to make me thus doubly naughty and
disobedient, was the falling among bad companions. I had, at that time,
the dangerous fault of easily making acquaintance, no matter whether the
animals were such as I should or should not associate with. Not content
also with simply speaking and being civil to them, I became at once
extremely intimate, and therefore very naturally often found myself in
places and among dangers which I had no right to enter into or incur.
There came into the town, from a distant and wild part of the country,
a family of Cats, consisting of a father and nine daughters. They were
strange, shabby, half-savage looking creatures, and, having lost their
mother at an early age, had unhappily possessed no one who could
restrain or teach them better, so had grown up more like Toms than quiet
female Pussies. I was too young to know this at the time, and no warning
voice had been raised against them; for, fearing I should be denied the
pleasure of going out with my new acquaintance if I confessed to my
mother that I knew them, I never said a word concerning them, but ran
out to meet them on the sly. The elder Cats of the family rather
frightened me, they were so terribly wild; but the three youngest, who
were about my own age, I very much admired. They seemed so good-natured,
so bold, and were so free in their manners, that we became, in a few days,
the firmest friends; and although I was a little shocked at first at the
naughty words they used,--the biggest, I am grieved to say, sometimes
really swore,--yet I even got accustomed to that, and thought, silly
Kitten that I was, that it sounded grand and spirited.
Many and many a time, when my good mother thought that I was visiting
a relation or one of her own steady friends, was I scampering over the
country with these dangerous playmates, until, had I not possessed
so kind yet strict a guide at home, I should have become as bold and
shameless as they. Fortunately for me, I discovered their real character
before they had succeeded in ruining mine; and as the circumstance
caused a final break between us, I will relate it just as it fell out.
At the distance of an easy walk from the city of Caneville was the
residence of a very wealthy bloodhound, who was as proud of his noble
descent as he was of his riches and influence. The grounds attached
to his splendid mansion were very extensive and beautiful, and one
portion, which contained some tall trees and low bushes, was called
the "preserve," because birds of all kinds had their nests among the
branches. In order to guard this property from thieves and intruders,
several fierce dogs paraded about the grounds, and, as they had orders
to kill all animals that were discovered lurking there, you may believe
the place was tolerably quiet. All these particulars I only learned
afterwards, when I had nearly fallen a victim to my folly; but I knew
perfectly well that this ground was private property, and that I had
no business whatsoever to go into it.
My three friends and myself, being out one day upon an excursion, such
as I have described, I, having slipped away from home, as usual, on the
sly, with only a little pinafore for clothing, came upon these beautiful
grounds, and having crossed a park, where we rolled upon the green turf
undisturbed, we at last stood in the "preserve."
[Illustration: AN UNWELCOME VISITOR.]
Here we were at once attracted by the quantities of birds which flew
from branch to branch above our heads, and twittered gaily in the
fancied security of their leafy homes. We looked, and sniffed, and
watched them as they flew, until our mouths watered at the sight. Having
eaten nothing since morning, our appetites were very keen, and the
thought of a little poultry was not by any means a disagreeable one. But
how was it to be procured? My friends, bold as they seemed, had a great
objection to climb one of the trees to hunt for it; and I, although
sufficiently strong and active to mount to the very highest in the
course of a few seconds, had just sufficient sense of propriety left to
feel that it would be wrong. What, however, will not the persuasions of
the wicked sometimes do? Although I knew perfectly well that it was a
great sin, that the birds were not mine, and that I had not only no
right to them, but no right either to be within those grounds, I was, in
a moment of weakness, prevailed on to climb a lofty oak, and seize upon
the contents of a nest we could discover among the branches.
Quick as thought, I sprang upon the gnarled trunk, and mounted to the
upper boughs; in a few seconds, I stood high up in the air, with one
foot resting on a convenient ledge, my fore-paws outstretched upon a
nest, wherein three half-fledged birds were chirping, one of which had
opened its beak at my approach, as though I were its mother, whom it
asked for food.
At another time I should have been touched at the spectacle of these
little helpless creatures, and could have found it in my heart to
place something in their yellow mouths; but now giving heed only to my
voracious appetite and the cries of my friends, who kept calling out to
me to pitch them down, I seized them cruelly by their necks, and cast
them, one by one, below, desiring my companions, as I did so, not to
divide them till I had descended to have my share.
Imagine, however, my astonishment, my anger, at their ingratitude, when,
instead of waiting my coming, each seized a bird as it fell, and began
devouring it with all speed, paying no more attention to my claims or
words than if I had been a stranger, instead of their _friend_ and the
provider of the feast.
Enraged at their baseness, I had commenced my descent, to punish their
perfidy, when the terrible sound of a dog's voice broke upon my ear.
From my leafy hiding-place I peeped, in trembling, below, and saw two
enormous brutes rush from a neighbouring bush, and, with a tremendous
growl, fall upon my ungrateful companions. In an instant one was seized
by the back of the neck, and dragged off, I knew not where; the other
two fled, with shrieks of fear, pursued by the remaining dog, which,
I suppose, had been attracted to the spot, with his companion, by the
cries of the Cats, when telling me to throw them down the birds.
Oh! how my heart beat as I witnessed the scene I have just described,
and thought that I too might have been one of the victims! Even now I
might be unable to escape, but lose my life in attempting to get away.
How bitterly I reproached myself for having been weak enough to choose
such creatures for associates! What advantage had they ever procured me?
Had I learnt from them one single thing of good? I grieved to think, not
one. But what evil had their acquaintance not brought me? I had been not
only guilty of disobedience to my mother,--that tender mother!--but I
had trespassed upon the property of others: I had taken that to which I
had no possible right; I had caused the death of three little creatures;
and I had not even had the consolation of putting the smallest bit of
one of the innocents into my own mouth. All these reflections passed
through my Cat's brain, as I sat shivering on my elevated perch; and
I resolved, as I had so often resolved before, that if I got safely
out of this danger, nothing should induce me to commit such sins, or
trust to such worthless _friends_ again.
Whether my repentance had anything to do with my escaping from my
difficulties with a whole skin, I cannot say; but it is certain that
when, after darkness had settled on the earth and all around was silent,
I ventured to descend from my hiding-place, I succeeded in making my way
out of the "preserve," and park beyond, in safety, when I took to my
heels with all speed; nor did I stop till I had reached my own quiet
home, which I stealthily entered through an open window.