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Great Small Cat and Others

<div class="tnbox"> Transcriber's Note: Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation in the original document have been preserved. </div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/cover.jpg" width-obs="377" height-obs="600" alt="Cover" /></div> <h1> THE GREAT SMALL CAT AND OTHERS </h1> <div class="figcenter p6"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-004.jpg" width-obs="354" height-obs="375" alt="" /> JIMINY CHRISTMAS: HIS FIRST APPEARANCE He Was Probably a Graceless Vagabond, Born in the Gutter, With no Pretensions to Breeding or Even Good Looks </div> THE GREAT SMALL CAT · AND OTHERS Seven Tales <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-005.jpg" width-obs="414" height-obs="276" alt="" /></div> BY MAY E. SOUTHWORTH ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS AND DECORATED BY PEDRO J. LEMOS PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY PUBLISHERS · SAN FRANCISCO Copyright, 1914 Paul Elder and Company San Francisco IN LOVING MEMORY OF THURSDAY MY OWN [v] <h2> INTRODUCTION </h2> Everyone knows that there are all kinds of people; also there are all kinds of cats, worthy and unworthy. No two are exactly alike, and by those who do not class them in a bunch, but study them as individuals, they are found to have decided characteristics all their own, ever presenting strange surprises in a mixture of the unexpected higher qualities of civilization and the evils of lowest barbarism. The appeal of the kitten is almost universal, as there are few men, women or children, even those who "shudder" at a real cat, who can resist the subtle charm of these fuzzy lumps of playfulness. But cats, the alley cat, your cat, my cat, anybody's cat, all cats are in need of some brave champion, someone who will endeavor to portray their better side and be able to so increase for them the appreciation of mankind that they will come to what is only rightfully their own. Whatever your faith or practice may be touching cats, you are bound to admit that they must surely have some kind of mission here on earth. The trend of modern beneficence shows the day of even the cat is on the way, the day when they shall be better understood, making the world kinder to them in recognizing that these often sadly abused little creatures, have the feelings common to flesh and blood and are times without number, actuated by human thoughts and impulses. Recent years have done much in the way of atonement for persistent error in regard [vi] to their nature, by thrusting upon them a balance long their due in the form of many happy literary tributes, proving, in spite of much withering scorn, that environment has much more to do with their lack of worth than has original sin. The lowly state of the average cat, just tolerated for its usefulness as a natural rat executioner, is unworthy of its better capabilities, and to the heart of a lover of the species, a cruelty. It is companionship which counts the most with cats, and when, instead of being a comfortable family institution as was intended, their nature being of the warmest and most sociable kind, they are mercilessly relegated to the cold cellar or outhouse to battle for life and sustenance, they are more miserable than anyone can imagine who does not know how a cat longs for home life and company. If left in this way to struggle for a meager existence, without a word of kindness, and chased for their very lives if they presume, in their lonely longing, to timidly enter the family refinement, is it a wonder that under these conditions, these dwellers in solitude develop only the worse and uglier traits in their disposition? Although cats are brimful of human whims and moods and are also very human in their devotion to home, order and cleanliness, they are decidedly slow in attaching themselves to humans and not quick to give them their friendship. Unlike a dog, they maintain a rather haughty independence in the matter of reciprocity, and after they have decided that you are worthy of the honor of their confidence, and they have given it, [vii] it can only be retained by constant entreaty and on the strictest terms of obligation, never forced. To know something of the queer brain and really glowing heart beneath the mystery of their graceful furry coats, a heart which they guard almost fiercely against mere "curious" intimacy, it is necessary to make an effort; but as every cat lover knows, they will surely repay such effort in lavish response. And above all, in trying to get acquainted with cats, show them the compliment of companionship which they truly and cordially appreciate, for they, too, are in various ways "also human" and their readiness to respond to intimacy of this kind is a most gratifying surprise to the skeptical. [ix] <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-013a.jpg" width-obs="352" height-obs="166" alt="" /></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> The cat tails spring up in the hollow But where can their late owners be? The tale of their tails does not follow When cat tails spring up in the hollow. But the stream many secrets must swallow So it may be their ghosts that we see. So when cat tails spring up in the hollow We surmise where their owners may be. </div> <div class="stanza"> Thomas Grant Springer </div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter p2"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-013.jpg" width-obs="200" height-obs="213" alt="" /></div> [xi] <h2> THE TALES IN THIS BOOK </h2> <table summary="Table of Contents"> <tr> <td colspan="2"> </td> <td class="tdr s08">PAGE</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">The Great Small Cat</td> <td class="tdr">3</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td>The tale of the black "stray," whose mother-love and home-love steeled her to repeatedly brave the waters of the dark, swift-flowing river, and how this "bunch hard to beat" overcame the cold heart of the "widow lady" of the ranch.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">Thursday</td> <td class="tdr">27</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td>The orphan foundling, fed from a spoon; her coquettish tyranny over her friend and playmate, a magnificent Irish setter; and the story of her tragic end when answering the home-call.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">A Mine, a Miner, and a Cat</td> <td class="tdr">43</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td>The story of the loyal comradeship of the miner and the cat, and of how Puss proved to be the cleverer prospector of the two and discovered the bonanza mine.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">Aïda and Saadi</td> <td class="tdr">61</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td>Twin blue-blooded aristocrats, whose temperamental pranks and mischievous adventures caused startling surprises and frequent shocks; their marauding, murderous transgressions and how they were finally cured.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">Marooned</td> <td class="tdr">77</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td>The story of the intense hatred of the shanghaied cat; his dignified aloofness; his "tabasco temper" over the pranks of the sailors; and his final survival of the wreck, from which, after braving the ocean waves, he reached the shore and gained his freedom amid the mystery of the wild.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">Maida</td> <td class="tdr">99</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td>The strange but true story of the Maltese mother-cat who adopted a brood of white rats, and the record of her disciplinary methods in raising and controlling her alien foster-children.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">A Memory</td> <td class="tdr">109</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td>The tale of Jiminy Christmas, a tramp cat, whose wild and vagabond nature caused him to yield, intermittently, to the call of the open, and to leave, unceremoniously, his protected home of plenty and comfort; his last pathetic return.</td> <td></td> </tr> </table> [xiii] <h2> THE PICTURES IN THIS BOOK </h2> <table summary="List of Illustrations"> <tr> <td colspan="2">Jiminy Christmas: His First Appearance</td> <td class="tdr">Frontispiece</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td>He was probably a graceless vagabond, born in the gutter, with no pretensions to breeding or even good looks.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> </td> <td class="tdr s08">FACING PAGE</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">The Great Small Cat</td> <td class="tdr">8</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td>Although the small stray was minus all signs of pedigree, she held her head high and was accorded the respect and good treatment due a lady.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">Thursday</td> <td class="tdr">34</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td>As she never attained the full stature of an ordinary cat, she always looked but half-grown, but was the very perfection of dainty symmetry, her coat a solid black, almost blue in its depths.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">The Cat</td> <td class="tdr">52</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td>Handsome, shining and saucy, the kitten had grown into the most splendid bigness of his race: all muscle and nerve, unusually broad of chest and looking as if bred to the mountain fastness and able to endure all sorts of pioneer hardships.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">Aïda and Saadi</td> <td class="tdr">72</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td>"Oh, lady! You do not suspect us of having seen any of your birds this morning?"</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">Marooned</td> <td class="tdr">84</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td>Neither disappointment nor ugly temper had broken his fierce sense of injury or his indomitable spirit.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">Maida</td> <td class="tdr">102</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td>In long-suffering patience Maida would stretch herself in a streak of sunshine and survey the riotously incorrigible mites, indulging in their favorite pastime of playing tag all over her body.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">Jiminy Christmas, the Free Spirit</td> <td class="tdr">120</td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td>Born free, he kept his own wanton will free from enslavement to the end, living his own life in honor and honesty in an out-doors all his own.</td> <td></td> </tr> </table> [xiv] THE GREAT SMALL CAT [3] <div class="figcenter p6"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-021.jpg" width-obs="402" height-obs="159" alt="" /></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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