The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1894-11-24


from that day forth. His Wanting
spirit was dead, and he was humility
itself in the presence of his enemy,
who could send him bowling with
his tail between his legs by simply
giving utterance to single ear-split-
ting snarl.
Tige's general bearing was one of
dignity and reserve. He stalked
about like lord. He was never kit
tenish, never playfulal though some
times fairly amiable. He disdained
petting, and was entirely above lying
supinely in ones lap after the man
ner of most of his kind.
Becky Shannon, our maid-of' all
work, hated and feared Tige, and he
knew it. There was not a day that
they did not have tilt of some kind,
and Tige always came out victorious.
Becky despised hirc accordingly.
He would absent himself from
home for three or four days at time,
and once or twice during these alb
sences, jeff and l ran across him in
the woods, but he fled madly at our
approach and refused to have any
thing to do with us. His domestic
instincts seemed to be strangely COM
bined with the instincts of a wild cat,
and father predicted that Tige would
finally take up his abode in the woods
for good.
Once we saw him dart out of
strip of timber, and dash across the
road in front of us trailing long
dead snake behind him. The reptile
had evidently challenged Tige to
mortal combat and had met with the
defeat that attended all of Tige's
foes.
At another time when he had been
on the war-path for five or six days,
he returned in such an ugly mood
that even the valiant Becky felt that
it was best to treat him with courtesy,
and on this occasion he again mani
tested the contradictory elements in
his character.
He was lying out on back porch
in a strip of sunshine. Becky had
been scrubbing the porch, and had
gone over all of it but the spot on
which Tige was lying. He had fatty
refused to get up and allow Becky
to scrub this spot, and there was such
an evil light in his yellow eyes that
Becky had wisely refrained from u.s.
ing her mop on him, as she had done
on previous occasions.
While he was in this fierce mood
most wretched specimen of stray
cat of the lowest type of mongrel
breed came miauing around the cor
ner of the house.
JEFF and l were out in the yard, and
jeff said:
"Tige will shake the life out of that
stray in his present murderous
mood" but we were too curious to
see just what he would do to chase
the strange cat out of danger. The
scrawny, half-starved feline went
feebly up the porch steps, miauing
dismally. Tige sprang to his feet,
and assumed a warlike attitude, his
yellow eyes cleaning, his white
teeth showing.
The stray cat climbed the steps
weakly, and when it saw Tige it gave
utterance to the most pitiful miau
that ever came from the throat of a
cat. 1t was miau of such combined
entreaty, despair, and distress that it
touched jeff and me, unsentimental
as we were, and it appealed to Tige
in surprising way. The CLEAN in
his yellow eyes grew less fierce, his.
curved spine Strengthened; he stepped
softly forward toward the intruder,
and then, turning, led the way to a
saucer of milk in a corner of the
porch.
The alf-famished creature Tapped
the milk eagerly, and Tige walked
back to the strip of sunshine and
went calmly to sleep in its warmth
His attentions to the forlorn speci-
men of his own kind ended with this
bit of kindness and courtesy, and al
though the stranger fingered around
the house for three or four days, Tige
utterly ignored its presence.
He came to us mysteriously, and
he departed as mysteriously. He had
been at our house about year when
he suddenly left us with but scant
ceremony. 1t happened one quiet
summer evening. We had had a
house full of company all day, and
after tea our guests were sitting with
the family on long piazza in front
of the house. Tige was lying quietly
on the top step of the piazza. Sud
denly one of our friends asked,