The Portland daily press., 1875-09-18

entity" And day after day feel more and
more like going.
Manx was waif cat, and, as had always
been of benevolent turn, / took him in.
He came mewing at the door about ten
o'clock one October night, little over a year
after Molly and l moved into the little one
story house few rods from the office, for
Molly would be near enough, so that she
could bring me my dinner when l was in
hurry, as l always expected to be.
He was large ManX cat, bony and angu-
lar, starved and-frowzy, with bob for tail,
but very distinguished in his way, ane was
without friends or relatives, for, through all
the leagues of travel incident to country
practice, traced over and over for years.
have never met with cat of that particular
species.
But was of particularly benevolent dis
position just then. The dear little Agnes had
recently made her debut as member of the
family, and felt kindlier than usual toward
all created things with the newness of the
blessing. So, though his coming at that
hour of the night was suspicious, and he had
no references, his mew;ng moved me as it
would not have done six months before, with
kind sense of the blessedness of home even
to a cat, and admitted him with the apollo
getic remark to Molly that there were rats in
the house, and that they kept me awake for
hOuls, oOiiiCblulOSS Win Soib6o-Oh Juoo
over my head in the garrett; an unnecessary
fiji to cover a benevolent transaction, for
Molly, sweet soul, was as softened as was
with the coming OF little Agnes, and would
not have turned dog out into The night, on
that October evening, with Aggie sleeping
placidly on her lap, and the freight flicker
ing costly in our faces. 1t was a habit with
Molly and me, after Aggie was born, to sit
and talk low in the dark for an hour or SO af-
for 7 oot homo from tho nffira op tho uronDd
that The light hurt the baby's eyes. Days
of sweet dreams. And now moonlight with
me is only another name for rheumatism.
l was declaring dividends of happiness
every day in those days, and Manx came in
for his percentage; and the odtlandish appar-
ition could purr il a manner indicative of the
rapt, poetic revery of a cat properly appreciate
ing its blessings Ihave often observed him I've
dreamily for hours, purring comfortably till
the air was full of rythmical vibrations, while
his large. yellow, uncanny eyes stared me
full in the face, and a kind of sleepiness came
over me; then start suddenly, with a kind of
nervous shock, and shudder, and take a turn,
or few rapid turns, up and down the room,
his eyes flaming in their sockets as l never
saw eyes fame before-not even my mothers
grand gray eyes when she was angry-and
light radiating about him like luminous
aura. In these attacks he developed singu-
in an atmosphere of his own that oppressed
Molly's sensitive nerves to terror, mingled
with a tendency to torpOr and sleepiness;
and / have observed him in the dark stealing
about like an elongated ball of fire, possibly two
feet through at its longest diameter and
foot and half at its shortest, with lighted
cat in the centre. One evening, as espec-
tally remember, when Molly and were sit
ting costly by the freight, Manx started up
I'M na of hic ont vnoIa 49,
i'd turns about the room, then whirled, leaped
the open CRATE, and vanished up the fue,
whence he presently emerged, little singed
and sooty, but as placid as he had been ten
minutes previous. Molly was frightened and
| insisted that he should be summarily dismissed
from his post; but had already begun to re-
gard him as a curious subject for inve,tiga-
| ton, and he lived on, unknowing that the
scissors of Atropos were daily dawding with
his destiny. Unknowing, did 1 say! OF that
am Eot so certain; for from that evening he
appeared to take sudden dislike to Molly,
and commenced following me like dog to
and from my office, where he would stay all
day seated on the dusty sofa, apparently in
an attitude Of observation, purring a little
now and then, but generally too deeply in
terested in the composition of my prepare
tions to trouble himself with musical per-
formances. So went on the world for some
duty as cat and dog, having his singular at
tacks occasionally, and rushing round the
room in circle, and eating pickles, and
drinking brandy -and-water with the ap>
preciative sip of professional expert.
was often tempted to kill him, and often
er tempted to experiment with his peculiar
electrical properties but recollecting the ten
| dency to sleepiness induced by coming within
| his atmosphere during the incubation of the
6rno IN oft
alone in my Office, and dreaded it the more
and more thought Of it. And 1 tried the
effect of sitting and looking fixedly into his
great yellow eyes, the uncanny orbS never
wincing tor an instant, although the pupils
appeared to dilate more and more as the
test went on, until they were great magnetic
balls that caused me 10 shudder. and then
grow, so diowsy that I should have dropped
| to sleep, had | not forced myself with a
strong effort of will to get up and walk about.
The spell broken, ManX started with a sud-
den spasm, rushed twice around the room
like mad creature, and curled himself down
on the sofa, where he lay in a kind of coma
for the rest of the afternoon; and it must
have been about three o clock when the ex-
pertinent began.
After that tried to poison Manx, but he
seemed to know and avoid deadly drugs by
instinct however masked as tidbits; and final
ly l carried my revolver to the Office with the
intention of shooting him in the course of
| the afternoon. But ManX kept away from
the office for several days, until my terror
went of, and l carried my revolver back to
| the house; and the very next morning he
came purring in as usual, and seated him
| self tantalzingly on the sofa. l offered him
some brandy and water, and he slipped it
like a gentleman at his club; and then a pipe
of Horandez, and he sat and pulled away
with it like an old smoker
Curse the cat!' hlssed under my breath,
'He's either an Egyptian or a dew but
something in the creatures eye stopped me
on the very tip of the syllable, and sudden
flame enveloped him and he dashed thrice
around the room and shot through the win
dow, taking pane of glass with him. After
this he got better, and was not troubled with
spasms for some months, Until Molly and l,
thinking he mad recovered from bis maiady,
began to be fond of him, and and Aggie tried
to call him Manx but only got so tar as to call
him Ma-a-a, with the q still fatter than nv
mothers in dangerous.
Agnes was little pearl of a baby, with all
the sunshine of her mother, that mild June
weather wherever she went; and two years
what with my toiling after the OF my life
equation, and my basking in The sunshine of
June weather at the homestead-passed so
rapidly that scarcely counted their footsteps
OF days; two sweet, dreamy years, for our
deepest heart-lfe is always dreamy and I'M
real, with kind of mystery in it; two fea-
ther-footed years, with many hard typhoid
to battle with, and many troublesomeset OF
nerves to dose with assafetida; and little
Sunbeam-that's what called her-had
learned to say papa, and the trundle-bed was
Brought into requisition, having long waited
in the attic for a customer. 1t was great
day at the homestead when the trundle-bed
went down, and Aggie toddled into it doz-
en- times in he course of the afternoon, with
the idea that she was going to set up house
keeping for herself. and have Manx for
huzzy-whch by the way, means husband,i in
the fairy-and where Molly and Aggie and
lived in those days, And Manx was as fasci-
mated with the trundle-bed as she was, for
had he not occupied it for two years up in
the attic, and are the habits of a lifetime to
be broken up in day? 81
Lost little Sunbeam! On the fourth morn
ing Molly lifted Der from the trundle-bed with
a grief that was heavier than dozen little
Agneses. and the sexton dug an everlasting
trunde-ped for the little darling in the old
graveyard under the hill!
was never myself after that. have been
addicted to the whimsical ever since, and the
has wasted and wasted in value until it is
nearly zero. For years my sleep was only
Il n,~I