Daisy: the autobiography of a catSwan, Miranda Eliot
General
Daisy: the autobiography of a cat
Swan, Miranda Eliot
Cats -- Fiction
I know how I felt, for I wanted my mistress to go abroad; and when her
friend sent her a card decorated with wild flowers and edelweiss from
Chamonix, I was just crazy to see this beautiful place that she wrote
about so charmingly.
I was very wicked, I fear, for I got the card off of the table and sat
upon it. I said to myself, "It is just as nice to sit upon the picture
flowers as it would be to have the real ones." I thought how nice it
would be to go with my mistress, for I was sure she would take me with
her, and then I could run up and down the mountains just as I pleased.
When she took me on her lap, showing me the card, and told me how many
miles of ocean separated her from her friend, it made me shiver at the
thought of crossing it. But then, in her arms I would not be afraid to
go to Jericho. I do hate water; there is too much used on me when I am
washed, and I wish I could be washed with land instead.
All this is not telling about Freida, whose story I started to tell you.
The beautiful house was closed, and Freida was taken to the home of her
mistress's brother near Boston. Two of her sisters, who were very fond
of Freida, were there, making it homelike for her. But for all their
petting she was homesick. They were obliged to keep her very close, for
fear she would run away.
She was a great care to them, and one day they missed her, and on going
to the furnace they saw a strange sight. A fluffy ball was turning over
and over in the ashes, and on drawing it out they found it was Freida.
She was almost suffocated, but the master, a charming man, just like his
sister in kindness of heart, went at once for a doctor. He said they
must take her where the air could blow over her, and also give her
brandy.
Her tongue was hanging out of her mouth, and she was a wretched
creature. They worked over her for hours, and then the sisters brushed
off the ashes and tended her as kindly as they would a baby. Soon she
looked as nice as ever, and that cat never tried cremation again.
It proves how good and kind people can be to their dumb friends.
Poor Freida! she was destined to die in a violent manner. She returned
to her beautiful home only to meet her fate.
The man who carried groceries to the house had a very gentle and kind
horse. Strange to say, a friendship sprang up between Freida and this
nice horse. She was always on hand to greet him every day, rubbing
against his legs and showing her fondness for him in many ways, while he
would put down his head for her to caress. It was a very funny sight.
One day when the man came out he turned the wagon quickly, and it
crushed over poor Freida, breaking her back and killing her instantly.
The man was very much troubled about it, and he said, after that, the
horse would try not to go up the hill.
She was buried near the place where she was killed, and they all mourned
for her, and still remember her with affection.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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