Chambers's Elementary Science Readers: Book IVarious
Science
Chambers's Elementary Science Readers: Book I
Various
Science -- Readers
5. As Harry was always kind to pussy, she let him pick her up and carry
her into the house.
6. He sat down on the rug with her, and stroked her glossy back. One of
her fore-paws rested on his hand, and he began to look at it.
7. 'Here are five toes,' he said, 'but what funny toes they are!' He
gently turned the paw over, and saw the sharp nails drawn in under the
fur.
8. The cat knew that he would not hurt her, so she kept her claws in,
and let him feel them on the outside.
9. He found under the paw a soft smooth pad. 'Now I know how it is that
she can walk so softly!' he said. 'This must help her to walk in that
way.'
10. Here pussy gave a great yawn, and stretched out both her paws, claws
and all. Harry saw the sharp nails like hooks, and watched them go back
into their sheaths. Then she curled herself up on his lap.
11. He took hold of one of her hind-feet, and found only four toes upon
it. 'I wonder if this is a mistake,' he said, 'or if the other one is
the same.' Yes, it was just the same: there were four toes, with a claw
at the end of each.
[Illustration: Cat's Paw.]
THE CAT
PART 2.
knives
bot'-tom
should
tear'-ing
poured
clean
sauc'-er
tongue
touch
rough
kit'-chen
cous'-ins
coun'-tries
peo'-ple
thought
be-lieve'
1. 'What long sharp teeth she has got!' cried Harry, as pussy sat up
and opened her mouth. 'They look like knives. There are two at the top,
and two at the bottom!
2. 'I should not like my finger to be in the way when you shut your
mouth. Your teeth must be for tearing and cutting: I am sure you do not
chew your food as I have to do.
3. 'And what a way you have of drinking!
'Here, pussy, would you like some milk?' said Harry, and getting up, he
poured a little milk into a clean saucer.
4. The cat ran to it, and Harry went down on the floor close by to watch
her drinking it.
5. He saw that pussy's tongue was not smooth like his own, but had tiny
points all over it. It came into his mind that she had once licked his
face, and her tongue had a 'scrapy' feeling.
6. 'Do it again, pussy, dear,' he said, but she went on lapping up the
milk.
'May I touch your tongue, then, with one of my fingers?'
7. But pussy did not like this. Then Harry took a drop or two of the
milk into the palm of his hand. And when the cat had taken all she had
in the saucer, she came and licked up the milk in his hand.
8. She went on licking even when all was gone, and Harry was able in
this way to feel how rough her tongue was.
9. Just then his mother came into the kitchen, and Harry told her what
he had been doing.
She asked:
'Have you looked at pussy's eyes?'
10. 'They are funny eyes,' he said; 'they are green, but there is not
much of them to be seen.'
'Not just now,' said his mother, 'but she can open them wide when she
likes. Then she can see even in the dark.'
11. 'In the dark, mother? Well, she is not a bit like me!'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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