The Adventures of a Cat, and a Fine Cat Too!

  LIFE ABROAD.

  The first adventure that one meets with on entering the world is certainto make a deeper impression on the memory than any of those which maysucceed it. Thus it was that I have a distinct recollection of ourmeeting with Mr. Fox, described in the last Chapter, and all the minutecircumstances that attended the discovery of his treachery and hispunishment by Snub. But from that time, a confusion of objects andevents rushes into my brain when I attempt to think over the particularsof my journey.

  The beautiful pictures of Nature, which almost every turn on the roadpresented to me, are however indelibly fixed in my memory, and I shallnever forget the loveliness of the sun rising from behind the greyhills, and enriching the sober colours of the landscape with a tingeof gold; or the splendid spectacle displayed from the summit of one ofthose same hills at noonday, with a very world of beauties at my feet,laid out in trees, and stream, and field, with a light breeze drivingthe patches of cloud over the face of the hot sun, and shifting at everymoment the light and shade beneath; or, lovelier still, the calm reposeof evening, when that same sun had run his course and was sinking to hisrest amid the harmonious sounds of Nature, and surrounded by the gloriesof piles and piles of golden and crimson clouds, which, as he sank lowerand lower down, gradually lost their splendour and faded almostimperceptibly in colour, until all was grey, and the night-wind sweptover the landscape as if mourning at the day's departure! These thingscannot be forgotten while our memory exists at all, and the joy theyawoke in my breast at seeing them, was like that which I had felt whenmy dead cousin used to sing some of her delightful songs,--it was allmusic to me.

  But the first sight of the sea was what filled me with wonder, delight,and fear! The immense breadth of water,--at one time so calm as thoughit were asleep; at another, moaning as if it grieved for the many braveand good hearts it had engulfed; and on other occasions, frettingagainst the rocks, or, when moved by some strong impulse, working itselfwhite with fury, and carrying all before it in its impetuous course. Allthese various moods were matter to me of astonishment and awe, which nofamiliarity could ever diminish; and I watched the waves roll in, andthrow shells or corks or pieces of smooth wood to my very feet, with thesame surprise after weeks of acquaintance, as I had done on the firstday of my beholding the ocean.

  Our road had led through districts but little frequented by otheranimals, and, with the exception of a stray fox or hare, we met scarcelya single creature. We carefully avoided all intercourse with the former,and the latter as carefully kept away from communication with ourselves;for the sight of us appeared so to alarm the poor beasts, that theywould not even answer our questions, whether we were proceeding towardsthe habitations of more civilized animals.

  To tell the truth, I so thoroughly enjoyed this part of my journey, thatI felt little inclination to change it for the confinement and stiffnessof city life; and as I had no difficulty in procuring food orlodging,--for mice and wild birds abounded, and any old tree gave meshelter,--I could have been content to spend some months in this errantmode of existence, and meditate in the half-solitude on the vanities ofanimal life. But I reproved myself for my selfishness when I looked atSnub. He, poor fellow, who had not been blessed with the same advantagesof education as myself, had little inclination to continue a coursewhich presented much to be endured and little to be enjoyed. The boldbending of a bough of a tree, which I found so admirable, he consideredvery inferior to the joint of some savoury bone; the wide expanse ofthe waters was to him less charming than the confined limits of somedish containing one of our favourite Caneville compounds. Nor couldit be expected that he should feel much enthusiasm at sight of a fineprospect, when his head was aching with the weight of my luggage, andhis feet were sore with the burden they had had so long to supportover flinty, uneven ground. I confessed to myself the justice of thisreflection, and became at last as anxious as he for our arrival at somecity.

  A few days after, various things convinced us that we were not farremoved from one. Heaps of rubbish lay strewn confusedly here and there,which were uncomfortable to look at, and much more uncomfortable tosmell! The road was broader and harder, as if beaten down by manyfeet. By-and-by a house or two appeared,--then two together,--thenthree,--until at last we saw a whole street, with quantities of littleobjects running in and out them. I would willingly have examined whatthe animals were who occupied these dwellings, which were indeedmiserable enough. I learnt afterwards that they were inhabited by pigs;and their huts, that were never too clean or neat, were called in thelanguage of the country _styes_, but so unpleasant an odour came fromthem that I could not be prevailed on to go very near. The town itselfnow came in sight, and, as I had never seen any other than Caneville,my curiosity was aroused as I drew closer to make acquaintance with theinhabitants, and see if they were at all like either of the tribes ofbeasts between which my native place was divided. Snub was no lessdelighted at the prospect of getting rid of his load and refreshing hisbody upon some more savoury food than he had lately indulged in.

  It was not at that time that I knew all the particulars which Iafterwards obtained concerning this foreign city; but I may as wellrelate here all that I subsequently gleaned.

  The place was called Norsarque, and was inhabited by animals of everysort and size, who lived in houses large, small, middling, high, low,miserable, and beautiful, just as their means or taste allowed them.They were not, I found, the richest beasts who occupied the most costlydwellings; on the contrary, I often discovered some very poor animalswho made a most splendid figure; for, curiously enough, although theNorsarquians had a very great notion of their own wisdom, they oftenbelieved the greatest nonsense which any creature chose to tell them,provided the speaker wore a fine coat, and seemed to think a good dealof himself.

  I could write a history of the many funny and contradictory thingsI met with in Norsarque; but perhaps nobody would read it if I did, soI will go on with my own adventures, and only speak of such matters asparticularly concerned myself. I must however mention, as a circumstancethat had afterwards a great deal to do with causing my departure fromthe town, that the place was governed by some superior, or thought to besuperior, animal, chosen from among the principal beasts; but that theinhabitants generally were so discontented and fond of quarrelling,that they had scarcely elected him King, than they began to find faultwith him and with everything he did, and were not satisfied until theykilled him or drove him away, and set up another in his place. Sometimesthis royal beast was a Pig; sometimes a Lion; once he was a Fox, and,although very much hated by all his subjects, he managed to make themquarrel among themselves, and so employ their time as to have no leisureleft to think of him, until one unlucky day, when, having nothing elseto do, they rose up against him and drove him out, and put some otheranimal in his place. When I arrived at Norsarque, a Bear was on thethrone; so the Bears were in high favour, and several fresh ones hadlately come to the city to seek their fortunes,--and very rough-lookingbeings they were too!

  With the aid of Snub, I managed to procure some handsome apartments ina genteel quarter; and, as I intended to make a long stay in the place,I procured everything which could make them comfortable.

  When once established, I directed some attention to my humble companion.As I was convinced of his fidelity and his attachment to myself, Iresolved to keep him for my own private servant, and I therefore hiredothers to do the necessary work of the house. But as Snub could notattend me in my walks in the costume he wore when he left his nativeplace, I procured a complete livery-suit, in the fashion at Norsarque;and Snub soon looked splendid in a dress of bottle-green, with whitebuttons springing out all over his body, just like daisies on a lawn,and, I assure you, with his hat surrounded with a broad gold band, andhis hair powdered, he looked a very different figure. Having thus caredfor his outer dog, I did what I could to improve his name; and scorningto remember that he ever bore such a vulgar one as _Snub_, I made him_Snubbini_ forthwith, and took care always to pronounce every letterof the
word. It was astonishing to observe the effect which these littlematters produced on my neighbours. They took me for a grand Cat at once;and I overheard a Pussy, who was talking to another on the roof of thehouse situated on the opposite side of the street where I lived, thatI was a foreign Princess in disguise, and was rich enough to buy halfNorsarque, if I felt inclined! But how they had learnt _that_ piece ofnews, I could not imagine.

  I had been residing some months among the restless inhabitants ofNorsarque, when an incident took place, which, although I thought butlittle of it at the time, turned out of great importance to me.

  I happened to be walking in one of the principal Squares, or _Places_as they were called, when my ear was attracted by the sound of music.

  Although the performers were not of the best, and their time was aboutas good as their tune,--that is to say, both indifferent enough,--Icould not help stopping as I went by to see the show.

  There were three mongrels, rather fantastically dressed, blowing all thebreath they could spare into two flageolets and a flute, but as one orthe other was forced to stop every now and then to recover his wind, andalways managed to do so in the most pathetic part, the effect was morecurious than agreeable. Several animals were standing round, and alittle wee Pup went about among them collecting, with a hat big enoughto hold a great deal more than was ever put into it. But the creaturewho most attracted my attention was a huge lump of a Bear, with so uglya face that it made me quite shudder to look at him, who seemed themaster of the band, and held a tray up to the various windows where anyheads had been put out to listen to the music. He was in the act ofdoing so, when I came up, to the window of a large house, where a fat,white Puss, evidently the servant of some rich family, was nursing adarling little Kitten that was mewing with delight at the scene below.

  WANDERING MINSTRELS.]

  The servant had thrown down a few coppers in reply to the Bear's demandfor money, when the ill-tempered brute, not satisfied with the donation,swore in so terrible a way, that the frightened nurse let go her hold ofthe Kitten, which fell direct from her paws.

  I rushed forward to save it, upsetting as I went the unfortunate littlePup, who was at that moment presenting the hat for my contribution, andwas just in time to seize it by the tail before it reached the pavement.At the same instant the door burst open, a troop of servants rushed out,headed by a Cat, superbly dressed. The band of musicians disappeared,as if by magic, the great Bear being the first to take to flight; thenew-comers surrounded me, and I had the satisfaction of putting theKitten, unharmed, into its mother's paws. A tender scene then ensued;and as ingratitude was not among this Lady Puss's failings, I was beggedto enter, nay, was almost carried into the house, to receive therepeated thanks of the noble family.