Read Live Toys; Or, Anecdotes of Our Four-Legged and Other Pets Page 13

  THE KITTENS--BLACKY AND SNOWDROP.

  "Guess what we have, Mamma! Guess!" cried I and my sister, as we raninto the dining-room, with something wrapped up in each of ourpinafores. So Mamma felt, and found that we had something alive; thenshe guessed guinea-pigs, then rabbits; at last we rolled out on thecarpet two little kittens.

  They were such soft, pretty little things; one was black and the otherwhite. I chose the black one, and my sister had the white. They livedchiefly in the nursery, and were soon very familiar, and quite at home.

  My black one, however, was pleased to be much fonder of my sister thanof me; it particularly insisted on sleeping on my sister's bed; and wesometimes changed beds to see if it would follow her. Blacky would jumpon the bed, come and look at my face, waving his tail about in the air,and seeing that it was his own master, he would bound off the bed andgo and look in the other, and being satisfied that my sister was there,he would curl himself up at her back. In consequence of some illness inthe nursery, my sister was sent to another room, and Blacky not findingher in the nursery, went and looked into all the bed-rooms until hefound her. Snowdrop, as we called the white cat, used to sleep in alarge wardrobe, rolled up upon some of the clothes. They were both veryfond of getting into cupboards and drawers, and often startled us, andothers, by springing out, when drawers and closet-doors were opened indifferent rooms; we were obliged to forbid them the drawing-room,because they would get on the chimney-piece, and on the top of abook-case where there was a good deal of china, and we thought theywould certainly throw down and break it all in their rough games.

  At the time we had these cats, we had also the jackdaw and hawk; andBlacky and Snowdrop often went to have a game with Jacky, who likedthem; they used to run after him round his bush, and amuse themselveswith whisking their tails about, and seeing him peck at them. But whenthey tried the same game with the hawk, they found a very differentcreature to deal with; for the savage bird darted at the playful littlecreatures, and very nearly bit off Blacky's tail; and afterwards, if hesaw them in the garden, although they did not offer to approach hisstump, he would slyly steal among the shrubs and bushes, till he gotnear enough to them to make a dart at their tails, and many a savagebite he gave them.

  We did not keep these cats long. Blacky disappeared entirely; whethersome one stole him for the luck of having a black cat, or what becameof the poor little fellow we did not know. Snowdrop was fond of runningon the top of the garden-walls, and of hunting little birds about theroads; and it seems strange that so active an animal as a cat shouldallow itself to be run over, but Snowdrop, in hunting a bird across therailway, which ran on the other side of our garden wall, was actuallykilled by the train.