The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1903-10-29

''''...'..
Then PEBBLES went on the road as a
Snowman, the whistling cat being the
show. The exhibition was a notable
success. Money came fast to the pro-
prietor, and it was a poor afternoon
and evening when it did not take in
$40 or $50 The doctors made some
trouble for him in the towns where he
exhibited the cat by urging that he
permit them to examine her vocal or
gans, but he insisted that they might
dislocate it's whistling apparatus by
their researches. and so managed to
hold them off. Thereupon the doctors
talked, and SO some suspicion was cast
on his show. However, the people still
paid their money to see the cat, and so
Bob was satisfied
He was in the very heydey Of his
prosperity when he returned to Fire
Steel where the cat had begun to whis-
tie. He housed the animal in his little
dwelling and then sailed forth to meet
the Inhabitants in his new role of
cOnquering hero. He rather overdid
the part, and this it was that led to
his downfall, for, although his old
neighbors did not object to his prosper
ity, they did object to his throwing it
in their faces
One evening he was sitting in Or
mund's place Of business, and, as
usual, was talking about his remarka-
Bile cat and its still more remarkable
owner. After while Doc Lee, Tom
Bowker and Bill Collins got up and
went out, one at a time, but as eight
OF ten of the boys were left he paid no
attention to that and just kept on brag-
ging.
1t must have been an hour or two
before they returned and sat down,
looking rather mysterious, but Bob
did not mind them; he went right along
with what he was saying:
Il tell you, gents, when that Yank-
ton audience of 5000 people came to
look at the cat"
"Oh, blame the catr'
Tom Bowker said that, and Bob
looked at him reproachfully before he
continued:
"As l was saying, when rudely inter-
rupted, gents, the cat
I'm sick of your drafted cat 1t
doesn't amount to a whoop, anyway"
The boys, except Doe Lee and Bill
Collins, didn't know what Tom meant
by these Interruptions, but they were
middling sick of the cat themselves,
and so they welcomed them Bob
could see on their faces how they felt.
and he recognized that the time had
come for him to defend his source Of
income, so he said:
That's the most remarkable cat
"It's nothin' of the kind"
cts the only cat ever known that
whistles instead Of yowling; positively
the only feline that MARBLES like can
airy an chirps like silver-throated
nightn-"
''The deuce it is! I've got plain. Or
binary yaller cat of no special peder-
gree, an that never was advertised at
all, that kin whistle all round your cat
an not half try"
AOu-JoU-WA dl . tIdl you Say
"I've got cat that I've been tryin'
to give away that kin whistle better
than yours kim"
How much money you got that says
SOP
'sWell, I've got a hundred or two"
"I'll bet you thousand that your cat
can't whistle in the same day with
mine"
Bob didn't expect the proposition
would be taken, but that amount just
sized up the pile that Tom had brought
with him for the emergency, SO he said
Done" and the money was put up.
PEBBLES would have been very well
satisfied to have had that end the mat
ter, but it didn't, for Doc and Bill then
offered to bet five hundred each,
and he, hoping that he had sure
thing, and knowing that he must main
tain the reputation of his cat anyway,
took the bets. Some of the other boys,
too, got an idea or so, and within ten
minutes Bob had put up $1,000, which
was pretty near the total Of his avail
able capital.
Then Tom went out and got his cat,
which looked as if it had lost eight of
it's nine lives and was considering the
ACCESSIBILITY of letting the other go,
and the crowd Immediately adjourned