example does far more."
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Note 1. A fact which Darwin in his treatise on earthworms has recentlyproved.
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.
MIRRAM: A SKETCH FROM THE LIFE OF A CAT--ABOUT SUMMER SONGS ANDSONGSTERS.
"The mouse destroyed by my pursuit No longer shall your feasts pollute, Nor rats, from nightly ambuscade, With wasteful teeth your stores invade."
Gay.
"Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife, Come and hear the woodland linnet; How sweet his music! On my life There's more of wisdom in it."
Wordsworth.
Ida continued to improve, and she did not let me forget my promise toresume my office of story-telling, which I accordingly did next evening,bringing my portfolio into Ida's bedroom for the purpose.
Ida had her cat in her arms. The cat was singing low, and had hisround, loving head on her shoulder, and his arms buried in her beautifulhair. So this suggested my reading the following:--
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MIRRAM: A SKETCH FROM THE LIFE OF A CAT.
"Mirram: that was the name of pussy. It appears a strange one, I admit;but you see there is nobody accountable for it except the little catherself, for she it was who named herself Mirram. I don't mean to saythat pussy actually came to her little mistress, and said in as manywords, `Mirram is a pretty name, and I should like to be called Mirram.Call me Mirram, please, won't you?'
"For cats don't talk nowadays, except in fairy tales; but this is how itwas. She was the most gentle and kindly-hearted wee puss, I believe,that ever was born, and if you happened to meet her anywhere, say goingdown the garden walk, she would look lovingly and confidingly up in yourface, holding her tail very erect indeed, and `Mirram' she would say.
"You see, `Mirram' was the only English word, if it be English, thatpussy could speak, and she made it do duty on every occasion; so nowonder she came to be called Mirram.
"If she were hungry she would jump upon your knee, and gently rub hershoulders against you and say, `Mirram.'
"`Mirram' in this case might be translated as follows: `Oh, please, mydear little mistress, I am _so_ hungry! I've been up ever since fiveo'clock this morning. With the exception of a bird which I found andate, feathers and all, and a foolish little mouse, I've had nobreakfast. Do give me a little milk.'
"This would be an appeal that you couldn't resist, and you would giveher a saucerful of nice new milk, telling her at the same time that itwas very naughty of her to devour poor birds, who come and cheer us withtheir songs both in winter and in summer.
"Another morning she would come hopping in through the open window, whenyou least expected her, and say `Mirram' in the most kindly tone. Thiswould, of course, mean, `Good-morning to you. I'm glad to see youdownstairs at last. I've been up and out ever since sunrise. And, oh!such fun I've been having. You can't conceive what a fine morning itis, and what a treat it is to rise early.'
"And now, having introduced this little puss to you by name, I must tellyou something about her playmates, and say a word or two about the placeshe lived in, and her life in general, and after that show you how pussyat one time came to grief on account of a little fault she had. Ofcourse, we all have our little faults, which we should strive toconquer, and I may as well confess at once what Mirram's was. Well, itwas--_thoughtlessness_.
"The first and the chief of pussy's playmates, then, was herchild-mistress. Would you like to know what her name was? I will tellyou with pleasure; and when you hear it I'm sure you will say it is astrange one. She had two Christian names--the first was Fredabel, thesecond was Inez--Fredabel Inez--the latter being Spanish.
"`But,' you will say, `is "Fredabel" Spanish too, because I never heardof such a name before?'
"No, I am quite sure you never did; for this reason: no child was evercalled by that name before, the fact being that her papa invented thename for her, as it was the only way he could see to get out of adilemma, or difficulty. And here was the dilemma. When pussy'smistress was quite a baby, her two aunts came to see her, and they hadno sooner seen her than they both loved her very much; so they both wentone morning into her papa's study, and the following conversation tookplace:--
"`Good-morning, brother,' said one aunt. `I love your baby very, _very_much, and I want you to call her after me--her first name, mind you--andwhen she grows up she won't lose by it.'
"`Good-morning, brother,' said the other aunt. `I also love your dearbaby very much, and if you call her first name after mine, when shegrows up she'll gain by it.'
"Well, when baby's papa heard both the aunts speak like this, he wasvery much perplexed, and didn't know what to do, because he didn't wantto offend either the one aunt or the other.
"But after a great deal of cogitation, he possessed himself of a happythought, or rather, I should say, a happy thought took possession ofhim. You see the name of the one aunt was Freda, and the name of theother was Bella, so what more natural than that baby's papa shouldcompound a name for her between the two, and call her Fredabel.
"So he did, and both aunts were pleased and merry and happy.
"But at the time our tale begins baby hadn't grown up, nor anything likeit; she was just a little child of not much over four years old.
"Now, as the one aunt always called her Freda and the other Bella, andas everybody else called her Eenie, I think we had better followeverybody else's example, and call her Eenie, too.
"Was Eenie pretty, did you ask? Yes, she was pretty, and, what is stillbetter than being pretty, she was very kind and good. So no wonder thateverybody loved her. She had a sweet, lovely face, had Eenie. Herhair, that floated over her lair shoulders, was like a golden sunbeam;her eyes were blue as the bluest sky, and large and liquid andlove-speaking, and when she looked down her long dark eyelashes restedon cheeks as soft as the blossom of peach or apricot.
"Yet she was merry withal, merry and bright and gay, and whenever shelaughed, her whole face was lighted up and looked as lovely as sunrisein May.
"I have said that Eenie was good and kind, and so she was; good and kindto every creature around her. She never tormented harmless insects, ascruel children do, and so all creatures seemed to love her in return:the trees whispered to her, the birds sang to her, and the bees told hertales.
"That was pussy Mirram's mistress then; and it was no wonder Mirram wasfond of her, and proud to be nursed and carried about by her. Mind you,she would not allow any one else to carry her. If anybody else hadtaken her up, puss would have said--`Mirram!' which would mean, `Put medown, please; I've got four legs of my own, and I much prefer to usethem.' And if the reply had been--`Well, but you allow Eenie to handleand nurse you,' pussy would have answered and said--
"`Isn't Eenie my mistress, my own dear mistress? Could any one ever behalf so kind or careful of me as she is? Does she ever forget to giveme milk of a morning or to share with me her own dinner and tea? Doesshe not always have my saucer filled with the purest, freshest water?and does she forget that I need a comfortable bed at night? No; mymistress may carry me as much as she pleases, but no one else shall.'
"Now Mirram was a mighty hunter, but she was also very fond of play; andwhen the dogs were in their kennels on very bright sunshiny days, andher little mistress was in the nursery learning her lessons, as all goodchildren do, Mirram would have to play alone. _She_ wasn't afraid ofthe bright sunshine, if the dogs were; she would race up into a tallapple-tree, and laying herself full length on a branch, blink and stareat the great sun for half an hour at a time. Then--
"`Oh!' she would cry, `this resting and looking at the sun is very lazywork. I must play. Let me see, what shall I do? Oh! I have it; I'llknock an apple down--then hurrah! for a game of ball.'
"And so she would hit a big apple, and down it would roll on the broadgravel-path; and down pussy would go, her face beaming with
fun; and thegame that ensued with that apple was quite a sight to witness. It waslawn-tennis, cricket, and football all in one. Then when quite tired ofthis, she would thrust the apple under the grass for the slugs to maketheir dinner of, and off she would trot to knock the great velvety beesabout with her gloved paws. She would soon tire of this, though,because she found the bees such serious fellows.
"She would hit one, and knock it, maybe, a yard away; but the bee wouldsoon get up again.
"`It is all very well for you, Miss Puss,' the bee would say; `your lifeis all play, but I've got work to do, for I cannot forget that, brightlythough the sun is shining now, before long cold dismal winter will behere, and very queer I should look if I