The Portland daily press., 1886-10-04
TWO CATS.
ROSE TERRY COOKE.

fou dearest, sweetest little dock, so i
was! Mann's pessus pet"
1t sounded much like 'manny's pessu
pet, but the voice was so young, SO fresh
50 cooling, that Joe Parker could not believe
his ears
There was something magnetic" about it
to use the slang of the day; at least it at
tracted Joe to the row of raSpberrieS that
flung their green arms all abroad on the ole
picket fence between his garden and the
next neighbors, and he irresistibly bent his
head to peep through those respectable pal
ings and see what he could see.
And this is what he saw: Such lovely
girl! Her hair was red, to be sure, but il
was that bronze red that looks brown in the
depths of its ripples and gold on their crests.
just now, in the blazing sunshine, it was all
a rich deep red, with gilt threads among it;
but then she had such eyes!-large, clear,
Ted.hazel eyes, as beautiful as robins or q
squirrels, fringed with dark lashes, and
oyerbrowed with delicate dark arches, lit
tie lifted with look of surprise that was
the result OF shape and outline.
| regret to say that her fair soft brow and
cheeks were slightly freckled; but in such a
fresh red and white the smallest spot will
show; and nobody is perfectly beautiful, not
even Mary Ann May, commonly called
NANNY May" For instance, her mouth
was large; but then it was so full, so red,
and parted over such firm white teeth that
1T seemed just to match the saucy little rose
above and the round dimpled chm below it.
Her waist was large, too, just as large as the
waist OF any sculptured goddess wrought by
Phidias or Praxiteles, for Nanny had never
been pinched in mind or body, OF, given over
girls to the torture of rack and boot from in
fancy, that they may be and do as They
do and are.
But she had tall, strong, shapely figure,
and Its movements were all instinct with the
untrammelled grace ofnature. As she stood
N har 1l1nthnr'c rdQ with both hands
clasping her pet to her bosom, basket OF
dandelion greens and an old caSe-knife at
her feet, she was perfect picture; and she
had not an idea of it.
Joe's theories fled as he gazed. The voice
had not miSled him; 1t was not mother S
voice; the darling on whom Nanny layished
her sweet words. her tender embrace. even
her kisses, was-a cat.
But such cat Peter was as great beau
ty as his mistress. His coat of deep blue
gray was striped and dashed with shining
black; ring of black encircled his massive
neck; his tail was ringed also with sable,
and five wide black stripes ran from between
his ears down to the very tip OF his tail,
merging as they went into one broad band !;
then there was snow white spot upon his
breast, and his powerful paws were black as
jet.
cat" was her fathers chronic growl; but,
since Nanny was all the child left to him,
anu III HIS SbCIGb U6dIb us ltNluS luOis Olliy
growled. He would not have uttered de-
rogatory word about Peter for anything; he
even remembered to get bit OF meat for
him whenever he went to the village, and
had once been known to turn back half
mile for that very purpose.
AS for Mother May, she spoiled the cat
just as she had spoiled Mary Ann. She was
a dear, kindly, tender-hearted woman, with
an utter inability to rule or order or mold
anybody or anything She took life as she
found it, and neither fretted at nor tried to
amend tia sort of moral feather bed, soft to
evaporation, but, after all, restful to the
eager, hard-worked and wiry people of her
race.
d "a proper nice woman" Semanthy Carri-
er said; "always an eternally good-natered.
No faculty in her, but one that rifles you con-
siderable when you want to have things gee;
but when you're sick or sorry, sort of COM
fortin' like poultice."
Peter knew his power and his position.
Petted from his early kittenhoed, he soon
learned, like the young of the human species,
that he could tyrannize over his betters, and
then the warmest, softest seat was given up
to him, the door opened at his first appeal,
the giblets of the rarely used fowls were
saved for him, his tastes gratified, and his
ed to half accept the masculine theory that
women like tyrants, when one sees how they
manufacture them for themselves.
Now Joseph Parker had just come to Meri-
den to live. A certain Mr. Webb, who had a
manufactory in Vermont, had moved to
Meriden to get more water power, and as
Joe Parker was his foreman in the
paper mill, he had moved, too, hired
a house little way out OF the vii
lage, next to Mr.. Mays homestead, and
brought with him his mother-and his moth
er's cat. Hence this story and whatever
tears may besprinkle it.
Mrs, Parker's cat was not at all like Peter
May; he was black, all black, with green
yellow eyes, and an aspect that made a Stran-
ger think of the regulation cat that was the
from Hanover to Meriden by rail, nailed up
in strawberry crate, kissing, splitting,
yowling and sharpening his claws
on his frail prison all the way,
car. Indeed, Joe was forced to carry crate
and all into baggage car at the third sta
ton, and ride with it the rest of the way,
for the brakemen refused to look after 1t, so
daunted were they by the wild animal with
in. Tiger was sent into solitary confinement
IN the cellar as soon as Mrs. Parker reached
her house, and was subdued by hunger and
darkness before they dared let him range
abroad in the new neighborhood.
, NOW Joe Parker had not been in Merlden
long enough to make much acquaintance
ttnere, and was very hard at work the first
went to sleep. in church on Sunday, and
missed any sight thereby of the blooming
damsels In the choir or in the pews; he was
ashamed of it, to be sure, but there was the
change OF air from, Vermont mountains to
the fiat meadowland and lew-lying pastures |
about the river, and then he was really over
worked for time in helping to place the |
new machinery, move the old, and settle his |
mother in this strange place, where he knew |
no enc to whom he could apply for help or |
suggestion. 1t was not Sunday TODAY when |
he peeped through the fence at NANNY. and |
suddenly, as if by stroke, lost his honest |
young heart; for, beloved reader, this is |
only love story; only record of the great |
world song; the event of so many lives, tile !
inaity of all
Love will find out the way" says an an
Gent song and Joe was no exception to the |
rule of the Pathfinder. He persuaded his |
mother to send him over to the neighbours and |