Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1890-08-15
Her Cat and His Chickens.
BY MARGARET EYTTNGE.

BY MARGARET EYTTNGE.
dare say 'twould have come around
anyhow in the course of time, but law
sakes alivel her cat and his chickens
did hurry matters up the liyeliest and
quickest / ever seen in the hull of my
born days. You see, we'd lived in
Owltown nigh on TO sixteen years.
There wasn't another house in sight
when we built our little cottage there.
Jennie Wren 1--WE named her Jennie
first and tackled on the Wren after,
cause she proved to be the chccricst,
chirpiest little blessing that ever bright
ened the airth) was 3 years old when
we moved into it, and her 18th birth
day was due the 30th of that June.
She'd been away since the foregoin'
September, a-stayin' with her Aunt
Janet in Boston and a-finishin' off at a
good school there, and | tell you every
month she was gone 'pearcd like a
year to her father and me. But we
knowed from her letters, that come
reg lar twice a week, that our darlin',
our only darlin', for we'd never
had another child, hadn't changed a
bit.
We'd been leetle, just leetle,
feared at the goin' off that ci air and
influences might cha. ge her some, but
we'd got over that fear altogether and
was awaitin' to welcome her home
will sc llss'ss.s
trouble began at the cottage next door,
1t had been nigh on to year emp y
when, the very day after Jennie
started for her aunt's, the Rosemarys
moved in. There was only three of
'cm--the Widow Rosemary, her ia her
and her son. The son was a good
lookin' young fellow of about five and
twenty. He'd come to Owltown to be
overseer in the big carpet factory, and
when he wasn't to the factory he was
a-pottelin' around his garden, and he
hadn't been here morc'n week when
he put up hen-house in the back part
of it plumb again our fence.
Well, things went on agreeably
tween the two families, though we
never become what you might call
really acquainted with each other. the
widow bein' in deep mournin' and
seemin' TO want to live very much to
herself until this June. Then one
mornin' heard angry voices in the
next garden and, stoppin' to my
kitchen winder, ketched the words:
1.-TWO more chickens gone, and its
that cat takes 'em-Fll swear it is"
"Yes, no doubt of it," says old Mr..
Rosemary. GIVE chased him away
myself several times. He ort to be
pizened-that's what he ort to be-
Mercy me! my heart stood still,
cause there wasn't no cat but our
Frisky in the neighborhood, and he
was Jennie Wren's cat, and she
thought the world of him. Ills birth
day and her'n came on the same day
of the same month, though his'n was
ten years later, and she never writ a
letter to us that she didn't send her
love TO him.
never knowcd him to trouble our
chickens and didn't believe that he'd
took their'n. So | throwed on my
sun-bonnet and marched out into the
back yard and mounted an old chair
that si9od there an and pokln' my ,,,. heal
over tie fence, | says:
"If you're a-talkin' about our cat,
Mr.. Rosemary, I'll make bold to say
you're mistaken"
With that the old man speaks up
and says: "Wcll, Eve seen him prowl-
in round here and druv him away
several times
"And did lie have a chicken either
of them times?" says |.
"Well, no ma'am; | can't say he
did," says he. ''But they're disap-
pcarin' day arter day, and where can
they go?"
Gratis" says !, gettin' down from
the chair, and can't imagine, though
I've tried and tried, what made young
Mr.. Rosemary bust out a laughin'.
But that very afternoon, as l was
a-settin' on the back porch a-sewin',
over the fence come Frisky with a
chicken a-hangin' in his mouth.
Landsl l was taken aback. !
dropped my work and flew down the
stoop bout as fast as he'd come over
the fence, and i ketched him and made
him let go the chicken, and then
slipped off my slipper and Civ him a
Oood whinnin' which helm his first so