St. Paul daily globe., 1886-09-26
LOOKED LIKE A ZULU

who had took first prize at county fair for
givin' the largest quantity of milk. l con-
graduated him on his dark-blue appearance.
but he wouldn't take any notice of me at
all. He seemed to forget all about the
times | had got up in the middle of the
night and united different kinds of boot
jack from around his neck, where it had
been thrown by nervous and irritable
neighbors. 1t seemed to have slipped his
memory that [ had often let the hogs go
without their supper jest to stay out in the
corn crib and devote myself to pickin' No.
2 shot and ScipiO beans out of him. jim
used to catch more bOOtjacks, shot, beans
and coarse salt than any fOur-footed animal
that / ever heard Of. The neghbors seemed
to take to him better than to any other cat
in the neighbOrhood, and he would hardly
ever go out to spend the evening
without coming home loaded to
the hurricane deck with tokens of
regard that had been presented him by the
different members of the little community
in which we lived. This sort of treatment
seemed to have depressing effect on Jim
for time. and 1t cost me a good deal of
money for carboic Salve and cod liver oil to
keep up his spirits, but he soon got used to
the treatment and sort of gained flesh on it.
and he came back to the farm chuck full of
new tangled notions and nothin' that me or
your mother could do seemed to please him.
He would go out in the road where the wind
could blow through his whiskers and flap
the ribbons. and would pass up and down
in front of the house for an hour at time
with proud. arrogant stride. Your mother
and l would call him, but he wouldn't pay
more attention to us than as if we was q
Thousand miles away. The only way could
get an interview with him at all, was
to borrow dog and put him on his trail
AS soon as the dog would get action in his
direction, Jim would seek the SecIuSIOn of
the old elm tree that stands by the door.
then | would climb up and throw my arms
affectiOnateiy around him and bring him
down to the kitchen where your mother
and | would try and reason with him on his
high-strung ways, but 'twasn't any Use; he
wouldn't listen to nOthin' we sad and your
mother and felt hurt over such treatment.
At first | thought probably the drOuth had
good deal to do with his actions and then
as he seemed to- be off his feed. [ concluded
that he had bots and managed to get some
condition powders into him under dis
guise, but all this didn't seem to do anv
good.
lt ran along LhlS way Tor several weeks
and jim kept gettin' more Offish and kept
growin paler and Iosin' flesh and me and
your mother was about worried to death TO
know what to do with the critter He had
grown very dear to us since you left the
farm and seemed almost like our own child.
and we couldn't bear 10 think OF losn' him
One night / had managed, with the helm
Of Joe Browns dog. to catch Jim and he.
nd
kitchen. Your mother went and mixed nm
some condition powders and loaded linn
with them. l sat in front of the firepIace
readin' the Weekly Handpress: jim cnm
over and set down by the side of ME and
begun to look at the fire in his old. bnsi-
ness-like way. l kept on readin'. not
payin' much attention TO him. when / was
suddenly attracted by squawk from linn
and lookin down at him | see at once that
there was sumpthn' up. He was settin,
up and lookin' into my face with