The Portland daily press., 1875-09-18
The ManX Cat.
Tod by Country Doctor in New Eng
land:
BY f. G.. FAIRFIELD.

both, no DOUBT, DelonS 10 Inc human race
At least, the ethnologsts say so.
'sBeware on 'em, Job," was my mothers
last injunction to me years since, when the
dew of life was on the grass, and the great,
golden buttercups always nodded good-morn-
ing as I went by; and it was an injunction
she always served on young married
couples just beginning the world. l had just
caught and Gagged my bird, in sweet Molly
Davis, who made green grass. and daisies,
and violets, and June weather, wherever she
went; and was about to settle down as a
country doctor. l am an old man and full of
whims; but never think of Molly in her
blossom, as she was when l married her,
without humming over and over to myself,
and have done it some days hundred
times:
And her feet
Had music sweet,
And her voice was low,
And she 8, mt,
As she went,
Sunshine to and fro.
"Beware on 'em, job" said my mother
that dreamy September day when Molly and
parted from her to start in life all by ourselves
-''and you, Molly, be sure you never leave
the cat in the room with the baby. It's dan
gerous"-my mother always pronounced dan
gerous with short "and I've heard queer
accidents happenin'. People have done it.
and have come back to find the baby dead
and the cat purrin' away in the cradle, just
as if It hadn't had any hand in IT,
pooh-poohed mildly, "Haven't you out
lived that notion of the anc,ents, mother?'
had long since outlved the ancients; it's
strange how modern people are when they
are young. sits the cats way Of expressing
the music In its SOUL" There was music in
everything to me just then, with Molly blush
ing her rosiest, and life shading of into gold
en- hazes on the horizon.
"Pve heard of people dyin' OF over-wis-
DOM" rejoined my mother, sarcastically
''but''-and here she tapped her forehead
with one withered finger-''it isn't disorder
you're subject to Job. It never did run in
your fathers family, and you take alter the
Needhams."
the vanity of book learning in general, and
that of Job Needham, M. D., in particular,
concluding with an intimation to Molly that
if she ever had occasion to marry again,
which she didn'. think she would, as the
Needhams were long -livers, she could afford
her some valuable hints as to the selection.
"And the first is, Molly, never marry a
man with book -larnin'. Book-larnin' makes
fools of people; and, if his own mother
has to say it because nobody else ever will,
Job was sensible buy before he took to it.
1t wasn't my notion at all. His father would
have it So, and shan't ever take any more
comfort in Job, with his Greek, and his Lat
in, and his ologies, and pollywogs, and his
words OF fifty syllables. Polly sylables he
calls 'em. 1t cost his poor father mint O.
money-did Jobs educaton-but shouldn't
care about that if it hadn't made him all over
again, so that he isn't Job Needham any
more"
She spoke with unwonted sadness in her
grand gray eyes---a sadness that almost went
into liquidation in tears: and physician as
was, with fresh diploma, forgot my medi-
cal dignity, and tried to kiss her, and did.
"Pshaw! what fool you are, Job, just like
your father for all the worldp' said the elder
Mrs Needham, with soupcon of contempt,
wiping her face with the corner OF her apron.
But beware OF cats, Molly" she went on,
experimenting the protest with the old in
junction; "they're strange" la short again
creatures: and, if anything should happen,
you'd never forgive yourself"
remember the day so well, and the Sep
TENDER haze on the woodlands, and the ma
pies turning to cones of fire. and The old
Needham house doing in the sunshine, aud
my mother standing in the door and thinking
tenderly, as / reminded her of father, of a
grass-covered grave away beyond the woods.
Thence went forth to find the value of the
in my equation, the turns and windings
and transpositions of which were then I'M
comprehended 1t must have been an I'M
sovable quadratic, l think, with many surds
and negatives, for its C still eludes my analy-
sis, and the solution seems farther off than
ever, after all these years; while 7 have
waxed wrinkled and gray in long hunting for
the unknown quantity. Molly is gray too,
and the suggestion of daises and violets no
longer fingers about her, although the June
her 70 H. = Al
warm, placid soul with haze enough for per-
spective, that she was then and always has
been, expecting no unknown quantity in
this world. and content to wait for the I'M
I'll 1t comes. They are few-these souls of
sweetness and Highland how it rests a man
to meet them!
am DR.. Job Needham, at your service
ices reasonable. l have been announced to
the world as DR.. Job Needham by the same
little sign board ever since l began business,
and sign-board and doctor have wageed on
together for score and eighteen years, until
there is sort of sympathetic understanding
between myself and the little parallelogram,
with 'Job Needham, M. d." painted in
dingy gold letters on a black ground, and
bordered with dingy gold border, that rep
resents me. / am it transmitted into hui
manity, or it is 1 translated and written out
on bit of deal; and l have often fancied
that the appearance of every new weather.
crack fOreshadows the coming of a new
wrinkle in my face. never walk into my
Office OF morning without nodding to it
fami.iarly; nor even lock the office door of a
night without muttering, half to it and half
to myself, "Good-night, old 1riend; shall
lind you here in the morning, suppose :"
and half imagine it understands me, for it
OFTEN creaks, as talk to it. when there is no
A0nr1nJQhla Wi ind Tf Co. C.
no doubt, but still fancy sometimes that if
the rickerty paralelogram should fall down
OF night, or be torn away by the wind,
some now or other the twinge of it would
wake me up, and that, should it suddenly
disappear, should never be myself again,
and should move about in the world with a
sense ct having lost something. 1t will drop
away sometime, l suppose, and 1 shall drop
away with it, and sign-board and physician
will be gathered into the great waste-basket
OF the past, that contains many a sign-board
and its physician; but, in the meantime, its
decrepitude talies with my decrepitude. and
every spot where the paint is rubbed off. and
every corner gone from one of the gilt letters,
is in some dim sort of way landmark of the
old doctors senescense.
1t is well enough with the old sign-board
and the doctor in pleasant weather. But
when the rain beats against it, and the rick
erty old parallelogram swings to and fro on
its rusty hooks, and the wind is high. twinges
OF rheumatism in my old bones answer to
esefy creaking, and come with every swing
~ S;u tne mute witness of nv tOiiEg for the un
discovered C. And it will be so to the end, l
S oIa s, Tor l have strange moods when the
s Su S1gn- board is in trouble Bat if the wind
wbirl i HAPPEN TO tear it loose of night and
find the ~ a oid y what then? They mi ght not
, mnu .ue oia doctor dead in his bed the next
n mOiinins, Sue he would never be himself
Yut them the da mot with new sgn-boaId
for of late years always stop to , tast ,he
hinges OF night before start ior home me 'ne
hnger over these details because I have
an oaa dislike 70 tell the story. Molly and
to Molly and me out OF the night. lie ana
listen to them often for hours together whep
the raindrops tap against the pane like fin,
gers, and they always say, "PapaI papa p
Inen Turn over in the bed and answer,
haH drOWsily for thew are nerfocf1v rool ~