Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1886-09-03
TWO CATS.

"You dearest, sweetest little duck, 30 it was /.
Manny's pessus pet"
1t sounded much like "mammys pessus
pet" but the voice was 30 young, 80 fresh, SO
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 TaspbeTTies that
flung their green arms all abroad on the old
picket fence between bis garden and the next
neighbours and irresistibly bent his head to
peep through those respectable palings and
see what he could see.
And this is what he saw Such a lovely
girl! Her hair was red, to be sure, but it
was that bronze red that looks brown in the
depth of its rlpples 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,
red-haz-l eyes, IN beautiful as q robins or a
squirrels, fringed with dark lashes aud over
proved with delicate arches, a little lifted
with a 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 iu such a
fresh red and white the smallest spot will
show, aud nobody il perfectly beautiful not
even Mary Ann May, commonly called Man.
ny May" For instance, her mouth was
large but then il was so full, so red, and
parted over such firm white teeth, that it
seemed just to match the saucy little nose
above aud the round dimpled chin below it,
Her waist was large, too-just as large as the
waist of any scuptured goddess wrought by
Pnidias or PraXiteles, for NANNY had never
been pinohed in mind or body, or given over
to that awful tyrant They" who puts our
girls to the torture OF rack and boot from
their infancy, that they may be aud do Rs
They" do and are.
But she had tall, strong, shapely figure,
and its movements were all instinct with the
untrammeled grace of nature. As she stood
in her mothers garden, with both hands clasp
ing her pet to her bosom, basket of dande-
lou greens and an old case. knife at her feet,
she was perfect picture and she had not
an idea of it,
Joe's theories fed az be gazed. The voice
had not nised him, it was nat a mothers
voice the darling on whom Nanny lavished
her sweet words, her tender embrace, even her
kisses, was-a cat
Bat such cat Peter was as great beau
ty a. his mistress. His coat of deep blue
gray was striped and dashed with shining
black a ring Of black enoiroled his massive
neck his tail was also ringed with sable, and
five wide black stripes ran from between his
ears down to the very tip of the tail, merging
N they went into one broad band then there
was snowwhite spot upon his breast, and
his powerful paws were black as jet.
"Manny's dumb silly about that ere cat, "
was her fathers chronic growl but since
Nanny was the only child left to him, and in
his secret heart its living idol he only growl-
ed. He would not have uttered derogatory
word about Peter for anything he even re-
membered to get a bit Of meat for him when
he went to the village, and had once beer
known to turn back half mile for that very
purpose.
As for Mother May, abe spoiled the cat Just
as she had spoiled Mary Ann, Che was dear
kindly, tender hearted old woman, with an
utter inability TO rule or order or mould any
body or anything. She took life just as she
found 1t, and neither frettsd at nor tried "a
amend it-a sort of moral feather-bed, soft tC
evaporation, but, after all, restful to the ca
ger, hardworked, exasperated and wiry PEG
pie of her race
"a proper nice woman" Semanthy Carrier
said ''GliOdys and eternaly good natur'd.
No faculty IN her, and one that rifles you con-
sider'hle when you want to have things gee
but when you're sick or sorry, sort o com
fortin' like a poultioe,"
Peter knew his power and his position
Petted from his early kittenhoOd, he soor
learned, like the young Of the human species
that he could tyranniEs over his PETERS, and
then the warmest softeat seat was given az
to him, the door opened at his first appeal
the giblets of the rarely used fowls were saved
for him, his tastes gratiAed aud his notionI
respected. One is sometimes tempted to hal
accept the masculine theory that women like
tyrants, when one sees how they manufacture
them for themselves.
Now Joseph Parker had just come to Mer
iden to live. A certain Mr.. Webb, who haC
a mandatory in Vermont, had moved Il
Meriden to get more water-power, and IS jos