The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1889-04-27
A BLACK CAT.
Their Tastes Were So Similar,
After All.

'.It's a strange. strengthening
place." said Mrs. Linfield. Il don't
think I'm going to like it here, Dick. "
81 thing you will, mother" said
Dick, cheerily. ''You see, the weather.
sort O. lowerin.' And this amt the
time of year for country place to
look pleasant. Besides, any house
that hasn't been lived in for a
year will smell trihe musty. And
when I've trimmed away the tree
branches that hang down over the
caves, and sickled down the hollyhock
stalks and high weeds, and got the old
grape vines trained up a bit, and
things in decent running order, why.
you won't know the place"
Mrs. Linfield sighed. Hers was a
sad nature, and had been from her
youth up. Dick, her only son, looked
at life from entirely different point Of
view.
.sSit down, mother, DEAR" said Dick.
"See how merrily the fire blazes up the
chimney. Listen! AS true as | live!
(holding up his finger) there's cricket
on the hearth! Hear it chirp! There's
luck for us, mother, all ready cut and
dried. And look! black cat!'
For, even as he spoke. stealthy
feline creature glided across the room,
her yellow eyes flashing like a pair oil
Oriental topazes.
"a black cat chr repeated Mrs.
Linfield, her detected countenance
Frightening up little. "Well, l dc
b'lieve there's good fortune in that!
Dye s'pose she'll stay here with us,
Richard?"
s'Stay herep OF course, she'll stay
here. Why shouldn't she stay here, il
we feed her and make her welcomed
Now, mother, you're set up, aren't you
with a cat? And a black one into the
bargain!''
81 seen a yellow dog a-skulkin
round the premises" observed Mrs.
Linfield, obviously. "Dogs is always
a-worryin' cats. It's their naturer'
Il don't care what their nature is, ,
said Dick, briskly. sIf any dog at
tempts to harm this black cat, I'll Kill
it, sure as live!"
He spoke the last seven words with
his head out of the window. trying tt
fasten back a refractory blind, thai
tapped to and fro against the north
siding of the house; and as he spoke
them. the black cat sprang past him,
clearing the window-sill with bound
and vanished into the mimic wilderness.
Of bushes that filed the door-yard with
their neglected luxuriance.
Isabel Vennor. from the ragged little
garden-patch, where she was gathering
the few last red tomatoes that hung
like monster knobs of coral from the
vines. saw old Jetspring into the misty
October air, and heard the voice and
its utterance. She stood still. with the
tomatoes in her apron, and her eyes
flashing with Indignation.
"Kill it, she cried. under her breath
Kill my Jet! So, that's the kind o
neighbors we're going to have! That
the new engineer in the button factory
that Mr.. Dilworth said was so nice ant
! amiable! Oh! I'm glad I've found hin
put from the very beginning!''
She dropped the scarlet burden o
tomatoes. embodied Jet in her apron
and hustled back into the house as i
an avenging angel had been in full pur
suit of her.
Dear me, Bellr' said Mrs. Vennor
who was quietly knitting by the fire
"what's the matterP"
'.lt's the new neighbors, mother!'
cried Isabel, breathing hard and
quick. Il know all about them, ani
they're perfectly hcrrid"
Half an hour later, when the twilight
had fallen darkly on the rocky New
England pasture lots, and the sluggish
course of the little river below, Rich
ard Linfield knocked at the door of tn,
Vennor house.
'sCould borrow box of matches?'
said he, his handsome face inclined
his hat in his hand. 1T seems to b,
i the one thing we're out of, and
1--WE have nothing to lend" sait
Isabel, hastily, as she closed the doc
in his face, with furtive glance at tn,
black cat, who was watching mouse
hole in the kitchen closet beyond.
Richard Linfield went away, consid
erably surprised, and not little hur
into the bargain.
II supposed country neighbors wer'
obliging," said he; s'at least, that
what I've always heard say"
And for moment he was almost in
clined to agree with his mother, in he
estimate of the the new home-that b,