KITTENHOOD.
There is nothing like beginning at the very commencement of a story, ifwe wish it to be thoroughly understood; at least, _I_ think so; and, asI wish _my_ story to be clear and intelligible, in order that it mayfurnish a hint or a warning to others, I shall at least act up to myopinion, and begin at the beginning,--I may say, at the very tip of mytale.
Being now a Cat of some years' standing (I do not much like rememberinghow many), I was of course a Kitten on making my entry into life,--myfirst appearance being in company with a brother and three sisters.
We were all declared to be "the prettiest little darlings that everwere seen;" but as the old Puss who made the remark had said preciselythe same thing at sight of every fresh Kitten she beheld, and she wasaccustomed to see ten or twelve new ones every week, the observation isno proof of our being very charming or very beautiful.
I cannot remember what passed during the first few days of my existence,for my eyes were close-shut till the ninth morning. I have an indistinctrecollection however of overhearing a few words which passed between mymother and a friend of the family who had dropped in for a little chat,on the evening of the eighth day.
The latter had been remarking on my efforts to unclose my lids, toobtain a little peep at what was going on, when my good parentexclaimed,
"Ah! yes, she tries hard enough to stare at life now, because she knowsnothing of it; but when she is as old as you or I, neighbour, she willwish more than once that she had always kept her eyes closed, or sheis no true Cat."
I could not of course, at the time, have any notion what my mothermeant, but I think, indeed I am _sure_, that I have discovered hermeaning long ago; and all those who have lived to have sorrow,--andwho has not?--will understand it too.
I had found my tongue and my legs, and so had my brother and sisters,before we got the use of our eyes. With the first we kept up a perfectconcert of sounds; the legs we employed in dragging our bodies about ourcapacious cradle, crawling over each other, and getting in everybody'sway, for we somehow managed, in the dark as we were, to climb to theedge of our bed and roll quickly over it, much to our astonishment andthe amusement or annoyance of the family, just as they happened to bein the humour.
Our sight was at last granted us. On that eventful morning our motherstepped gently into our bed, which she had left an hour before; and,taking us one by one in her maternal embrace, she held us down with herlegs and paws, and licked us with more affection and assiduity than shehad ever bestowed on our toilet before. Her tongue, which she renderedas soft for the occasion as a Cat's tongue can be made, I felt pass andrepass over my eyes until the lids burst asunder, and I could _see_!
And what a confusion of objects I first beheld! It seemed as ifeverything above was about to fall upon my head and crush me, and thateverything around was like a wall to prevent my moving; and when, aftera day or two, I began to understand better the distance that theseobjects were from me, I fell into the opposite error, and hurt my nosenot a little through running it against a chair, which I fancied tobe very much further off. These difficulties however soon wore away.Experience, bought at the price of some hard knocks, taught me better;and, a month after my first peep at the world, it seemed almostimpossible I could ever have been so ignorant.
No doubt my brother and sisters procured their knowledge in a similarway: it is certain that it cost them something. One incident, whichhappened to my brother, I particularly remember; and it will serve toprove that he did not get _his_ experience for nothing.
We were all playing about the room by ourselves, our mother being outvisiting or marketing, I do not know which, and the nurse, who wascharged to take care of us, preferring to chat to the handsome footmanin the tortoise-shell coat over the way, to looking after us Kittens.
A large pan full of something sticky, but I do not remember what, was ina corner; and as the edge of it was very broad, we climbed on to it andpeeped in.
Our brother, who was very venturesome, said he could jump over it to theopposite brim. We said it was not possible, for the pan was broad andrather slippery; and what a thing it would be if he fell into it! Butthe more we exclaimed about its difficulty, the more resolved he was totry.
Getting his legs together, he gave a spring; but, slipping just as hegot to the other side, his claws could not catch hold of anything tosupport himself, and he went splash backwards into the sticky mess.His screams, and indeed ours, ought to have been enough to call nurseto our assistance; but she was making such a noise herself with thetortoise-shell footman, that my brother might have been drowned orsuffocated before _she_ would have come to his assistance. As it was, hemanaged to drag himself to the edge without any help at all; and as wefeared that all of us would get punished if the adventure were known, mysisters and myself set to work and licked him all over; and then gettinginto bed, we cuddled up together to make him dry, and were soon fastasleep.
Although the accident was not known at the time, we all suffered for it;for my brother caught a dreadful cold, and myself and sisters were illfor several days, through the quantity of the stuff we had licked off mybrother's coat, and one of us nearly died through it.
As we grew stronger and older, we were permitted, under the care of ournurse, to go into the country for a few hours to play. It may be perhapsthought, from what I have said, that nurse's care was not worth much,and that we might just as well have looked after ourselves, as thepoorer Kittens of our city were accustomed to do. But this was notprecisely the case; for when nurse had nobody to chat with she was verystrict with us, I assure you, and on such occasions made up for herinattention at other times. That unlucky fondness of hers however forgossiping, was the cause of a great deal of mischief; and about thistime it partly occasioned a sad misfortune in our family. I said_partly_, because the accident was also due to an act of disobedience;and as the adventure may serve as a double warning, I will brieflyrelate it.
It was a lovely morning in early summer; the sun shone gaily upon thecity, looked at his brilliant face in the river, danced about among theleaves of the trees, and polished the coats of every Cat and Dog whichcame out to enjoy the beautiful day he was making.
To our great delight we were allowed to take a long walk in the country.Two of our cousins, and a young Pussy who was visiting at our house,were to accompany us; and nurse had strict charge to prevent our gettinginto mischief. Before we started our mother called us and said, that,although she had desired nurse to look after us, and take care that noharm should happen while we were out, she desired also that we shouldtake care of _ourselves_, and behave like Kittens of station andgood-breeding, not like the young Cats about the streets, poor things!who had no home except the first hole they could creep into, no food butwhat they could pick up or steal, and no father or mother that they knewof to teach them what was good. Such creatures were to be pitied andrelieved, but not imitated; and she hoped we would, by our behaviour,show that we bore her advice in mind. "Above all," she added, "do notlet me hear of your climbing and racing about in a rude and extravagantway, for a great deal of mischief is often done by such rough modes ofamusement."
We hastily promised all and everything. If we had kept our words, weshould have been perfect angels of Cats, for we declared in a chorusthat we would do only what was good, and would carefully avoideverything that was evil; and with these fine promises in our mouths,we started off in pairs under the guidance of nurse.
We soon came to the wood, situated at some distance from the city; and,walking into it, shortly arrived at an open space, where some largetrees stood round and threw broad patches of shade over the grass.
We at once commenced our gambols. We rolled over one another, we sprangover each other's backs, and hid behind the great beech trunks for thepleasure of springing out upon our companions when they stealthily cameto look for us.
In the midst of our fun we observed that nurse had gone. We had beenso busied with our own diversions that not one of us had observed herdeparture; but now
that we found it out, we set off to discover whereshe had strolled to. We observed her, after a few minutes, cosily seatedon a bank of violets, near the very same tortoise-shell footman, wholived opposite our house, although how _he_ came there we could notimagine. Nor indeed did we much trouble ourselves to guess. Seeing shewas so engaged we returned at once to our sport, and played none theless heartily because nurse was not there to curb us.
I remember, as if it were only yesterday, the scene which followed.I was amusing myself with one of my pretty cousins, who was dressed inwhite, and was about my own age. I had thrown her down on the grass, andwas patting her with my paws, when I heard a scream; I turned quicklyround, just in time to see one of my sisters falling from a tall tree,to which she had climbed with our young visitor, when, all of us runningup, we discovered that, on reaching the ground, she had struck her headagainst a sharp stone, and was now bleeding and without motion.
Our cries brought nurse to the spot, who, as soon as she discovered allthe mischief that had been done, without saying a word started off withall swiftness, with her tail in the air. We thought she had gone tofetch assistance or to inform our mother of what had occurred; but asshe did not come back, and evening was fast setting in, we thought itbest to proceed towards home, although we did not much like meeting ourparents after what had happened.
There was no help for it however; so, giving a last frightened look atour poor little sister, who was now quite dead and cold, we walked sadlyhomewards, and reached the house just as night was falling.
I pass over what ensued,--my mother's grief, and her anger againstnurse, who, by the bye, never came back to express her sorrow; I passover also my mother's remarks upon the occasion; but I may observe,that they, added to the sad accident itself, made so deep an impressionupon me, that whenever I felt inclined to disobey my good mother'sadmonitions, the image of my dead sister would rise up before me, and,although it did not, alas! _always_ prevent my being wicked, it oftendid so, and on every occasion made me feel repentance for my error.