The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1886-10-29
TWO CATS.
ROSE COOKE.

70 it was! Mans pessus pet"
1t sounded much like "manny's
2essus pet" but the voice was SO
young. SO 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 attracted Joe to the row OF
;aspberries that flung their green
arms all around on the old picket
ence between his garden and the next
neighbors, and he irresistibly bent his
aead to peep through those respectable
palings and see what he could see.
And this is what he saw: Such a
lovely grill Her hair was red, to be
sure, but it was that bronze red that
ooks brown in the depths of its rip
pies and gold on their crests. just
now, in the blazing sunshine, it was
all a deep red, with gilt threads among
it; but then she had such eyes!--large,
clear, red-hazel eyes, as beautiful as
robins or a squirrels, fringed with
dark lashes, and overbrowed with del
icate dark arches, a little lifted with a
look of surprise that was the result of
shape and outline.
Iregret 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 MAN
ny 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 nose above and the round
dimpled chin below il. Her waist was
large, too. Just as large as the waist
of any sculpturedgoddess wrought by
Phidias or Praxiteles, for NANNY had
never been pinched in mind or body,
or given over to that awful tyrant
"They," who puts our girlst to the tor
ture of rack and boot from infancy,
that they may be and do as 'aThey"
do and are.
But she had a tall, strong, shapely
hgure, and it's movements were all in
stinct with the untrammelled grace 0f
nature. AS she stood in her mothers
garden with both hands clasping her
pet to her bosom, a basket of dande-
lion green's and an old case-knife at
her feet, she was a perfect picture; and
she had not an idea of il.
Joe's theories fed as he eaz,d. The
voice had not misled him; it was not
Q mothers voice; the darling,o n whom
nanny lavished her sweet words, her
lender embrace, even her kisses Is, was
cat.
But such a catl Peter was as great
Q beauty as his mistress. HI s coat Of
deep blue gray was striped ar d dashed
with shining black; a ring of black en-
circled his massive neck; his tail was
ringed also with sable, and live wide
black stripes ran from between his
ears down to the very tin OF his tail,
merging as they went into n Eroad
band; then there was q snow whISs
spot upon his breast, and his power
ful paws were black as Jet.
"Manny's dumb silly about that
there cat" was her fathers chronic
growl; but, since Nanny was all the
child left to him, and in his secret heart
It's living idol, he only growled. He
would not have uttered q derogatory
word about Peter for anything; he
even remembered to get o bit of meat
Tor him whenever he went to the vii
iage, and had once been known to
turn back hall a 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 o. mold anything. She took
LIE as she found 1t, and neither fretted
at nor tried to amend tia sort OF
moral feather bed, soft TO exaspcra-
ton, but, after all, r~estfulto the eager,
lard worked and wiry people q her
Z "Aproper nice woman" Semanthy
Carrier said; always an e~ternally
good-natured. No faculty In her, but
one that rifles you considerable when
Q want to have things gee; but when
you're sick or sorry, sort ofcomfortin'
like q poultice.n
Peter knew his power and his posi-
lion. Peter from his early kittenhocd,
ne soon learned, like the young OF the
human species, that he could tyran-
nize over his betters. and then the