He thought as he watched it, that it grew fatter under his eyes as it drank, and when the saucer was empty he took a jug and gave it some more. “I really am an old fool,” he said; “that is a whole pennorth of milk.” No sooner had he poured out the fresh milk than the grey cat raised itself, and sitting down by the saucer began to lap it as well, as if it were quite well. The old gentleman stared with surprise. “Well, this is the queerest thing,” he said. So he took some fish and gave it to the strange cat, and then, when he offered some to his own puss, it ate it as if there was nothing the matter. “This is most remarkable,” said the old gentleman; “perhaps it was the company of a creature of its own sort that my cat needed, after all.” And the grey cat purred and began to rub itself against his legs. [Illustration] So for the next few days the two cats lay together on the hearthrug, and though it was too late to send the grey cat to the show, the old gentleman never thought about it, so pleased was he that it had got well again. [Illustration] But seven nights after the stray cat had come in from outside, as the old gentleman lay asleep in bed at night, he felt something rub itself against his face, and heard his cat purring softly, as though it wanted to say “good-bye.” “Be quiet, puss, and lie still till the morning,” he said. But when he came down to have his breakfast in the morning, there sat the brown tabby, looking fat and comfortable by the fire, but the grey cat was not there, and though they looked for it everywhere, no one could find it, though all the windows and doors had been shut, so they could not think how it could have got away. The old gentleman was very unhappy about it, but he looked at the strange cat on his hearth and said, “it would be unkind now to send this poor thing away, so it may as well stay here.” When she heard him speaking of its being unkind, his old cook burst out laughing. “Perhaps,” she said, “’twas a fairy cat, as it could get away through bolts and locks, and nothing but a fairy could have taught my master to think of a thing being unkind or not. I only hope that now he’ll think of some one in this world besides himself and his money.” And sure enough from that time the old gentleman began to forget about his money, and to care for the people about him, and it was all the doing of the strange cat who had come from no one knew where, and gone away to no one knew where. [Illustration: DUMB OTHMAR]