Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1909-11-12
,"MARKED NIT
CATS"
By CAROLINE LocKHART
Copyright, by J. 2. Lippincott Coz

81 vas marked NIT cats-by my mud
der" Mr.. Vogel, observed. each time
that he stood with his hands deep IN
his trousers pockets at either his
kitchen or dining-room window ana
watched the neighborhood Tables
trotting briskly along the perilously
narrow top of the high board fence
which inclosed the Vogel's back yard.
"They gif me such crawliness up
my back along-I don't know what"
Miss Josephine Vogel, angular and
austere in her print morning gown,
always echoed, as she stood beside
her father and regarded the antics OF
the sleek Thomases.
"You get it from me, Chosaphine; I
hat chust dose feelings"
The neighborhood cats seemed
aware of the Vogel antipathy for them
selves, and, with feline malevolency,
assembled each night in sort of cat
congress in the cement alley directly
under the Vogel's sleeping apartments.
eff I should not get in the prisons
for firing guns inside the city limits, I
should shoot somebody or Something's"
declared Mr.. Vogel savagely.
Each night he hurled portions of his
wardrobe and all the movable furni-
ture in his room into the alley. but
the cats dispersed only to reconvene
and attack the subject under discus
sion with renewed vigor.
One morning after one of the usual
midnight experiences, Mrs. Vogel went
out in the alley to gather up Mr..
VogePs ammunition. There was a
cake of soap and her curling-tongs
Mr.. Vogels CATERS and his camers
hair fesh-brush. Mrs. Vogel was load
ing these articles and others, OF q
personal nature, into her apron when
a pack OF street ours. urged on by
gamins. whirled into the alley in pur-
suit of black kitten; before Mrs.
Vogel could protest, the kitten had
run up her skirt and was glaring a
wild-eyed defiance at its pursuers from
Mrs. Vogel's plump shoulder.
The instant that lady felt its soft
fur against her cheek and heard the
frightened beating of its heart, she
became passionate partisan. The
leading dog received swift kick from
Mrs. Vogel's square-toed shoe which
staggered it, and the rest of the pack
swerved outside the danger line.
"You touch dis kitten and make II
hot by you!" declared Mrs. Vogel te
the jeering gamins in the street enc
of the alley.
The kitten chung to her like a frigh
ened child, mewing piteously. Mrs
vogel listened until she heard 10
sephine moving about on the SECOND
floor and then she stealthily opened
the kitchen door. It was not hand
some kitten, this outcast; 1t was
black with cleaning yellow eyes. {
head shaped like triangle, and I
squawk which seemed to come from
rusty throat. But its wafer-lik'
thinness was the thing which appealed
to Mrs. Vogels heart. On the aler
for Josephine's step on the stairway
she hurriedly emptied the contents o
the cream-pitcher into saucer ant
set it by the stove. Her round fac
was radiant as the starving kittel
Tapped the cream with incredible
rapidity, almost strangling in its eager
ness for food. When the cream wa
gone, Mrs. Vogel felt the kittens sid
critically to note If there was any az
preciable difference in its thickness.
The outcast thrived astonishinsl,
on the cream which formerly wen
into Mr.. Vogel's coffee, and 1t grew Il
length and height and thickness witt
rapidity which was constant sourc
of amazement to Mrs. Vogel, VIII
robbed the table of cream withou
conjunction.
While Mr.. Vogel was at his offic
and Josephine shopping or payinl
visits, the black cat, kitten n
longer, sat on the back step with Al
arrogant air of proprietorship an
washed its face or regarded with
certain aloofness the vulgar fence
walking Tables, who no longer tres
passed by day, at least, on the Voge
premises. At night the cat was shu
in the cellar, and if his voice mingle
with the discords which made the mid
night hours hideous, MI. Vogel neve
/ suspected that he harbored one of tn
disturbers of his peace.
There were times. during MI
Vogel's more amiable moods, whe
his wife contemplated Kidding hersel
of her secret, and to that end sh
adroitly switched the conversation t
cats. But the immediate effect upo
her husbands temper was such tina
it stayed the confession on her lips.
II would b1ant the sweet peas there,
said Mr.. Vogel earnestly, one Sabbat
afternoon, as he and Mrs. Vogel stoo
in their restricted back yard, ian
dose vines there. Ach, Colt! wher
did dot cat come frem?"
A black streak had shot from th
cellar window and, seating itself
the sunshine, had commenced car
full toilet. Mrs. Vogel, In dismay, sa'
that the coal man had left the vii
dow open.
"Gif me BROOM" commanded M
Vogel sternly. mo cats sits in m
back yard ven am awake"
"He does no harm; he makes n
noise; he only washes his face" plea,
ed Mrs. Vogel.
"You know dot cat?" demanded M
vobel suspiciously.
81 hat seen him before, I dink," sh
0 replied. His face seems familiar"
STAND back, Rachel. l will swil
: him." Mr.. Vogel snatched a conven
ent lath and swung it.
The cat gave him one injured loo
side-stepped and bounded lightly
Mrs. Vogel's shoulder, where it sat s.
B cure, glazing its old-time defiance {