Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-02-26
THE POsTMAsTER'S CAT.


said, by his cat, she was such an I'M
commonly smart one; and, then, she
thought so much of him. He was the
Postmaster, and the cat lived in the
post-office. She had come to him
where from he never knew. She just
walked in one morning. poor, for
lorn, half-starved creature, showing by
her looks that she had been abused by
somebody-went directly up to him,
rubbed herself against his feet, then
climbed to his shoulder and there turned
round and round, wiping his face first
with her whiskers then with her tail,
and purring loudly in his ear. That
was just the kind of confidence to please
him; and, being man who was fond
of animals, he patted her, and seeing
the butchers cart going by, ran out and
bought her piece of meat. That was
the beginning of their friendship. From
that hour her home was in the
post-office; every body knew her and
petted her, and admired her, for, I'M
der such good treatment, she soon be-
came plump and beautiful, and her fur,
which had been dingy, grew to be as
white as snow. She had not any but
white hair on her; from the point of
her dainty ears to the tip of her tail.
Mr.. Potter began to call her "Char-
lotte," while he could be thinking of a
suitable name for her; and the result
was that he fell into the way of saying
"Sharley'' when he spoke to her, and
that settled the matter. She became a
fixture of the Office, never wandering
off, but slept there, and there took her
meals, which he brought to her three
times day as regularly as he had his
own. Her bed Was in cushioned chair
in the inner room; but her usual place
of taking nap in the daytime was in
the little opening through which the
mail was handed out, where there was
a place just wide enough and long
enough for her to curl herself up in
without being in any body's way, and
as all the towns people who came for
letters had become used to seeing her
there she did not have to apologize.
When she was awake, however, she
was thoroughly so, and full of pranks,
especially about the time the mail was
being made up, when she would walk
over the letters Mr.. Potter was stamp
ing, if she could get a chance, some
times getting her paw stained with the
blue ink he used, and blurring the post
mark; so that if you ever received let
ter from Georgetown with suspicious
looking track across the name, you may
be sure that Sharley had hand, or
rather, foot in the business.
One day-it happened to be the first
of Aprll-the Postmaster had an unu-
sual amount of packages to send off,
being garden seeds and cuttings for a
florist who did business through the
mail, and he was very much hurried
and fiurried or he would have seen what
Sharley was about. That enterprising
animal was poking her head into the
mailbag, smelling the various kinds of
seeds and things that went in; and
finally, exploring further, she went in
herself, working herself out OF sight, so
that by the time he had pushed the last
parcel in not so much as a wag of her
tail betrayed that she was there. So the
bag was locked, shouldered by the boy
in waiting and carried down and put
into the express car just in time, and
nobody was the wiser.
Sharley had her ride of 80 miles to
jackson, when the bag was tumbled out
on the platform, picked up as the train
went on, and tossed into the office there.
Then she gave desperate cry, for that
last thump hurt; and the contents were
poured out quickly enough by the as
tonished Postmaster and his clerk, who
were still more astonished when they
saw this unusual object among the par