What the Animals Do and SayFollen, Eliza Lee Cabot
History
What the Animals Do and Say
Follen, Eliza Lee Cabot
Animals -- Juvenile fiction; Mothers and sons -- Juvenile fiction; Natural history -- Juvenile fiction
A friend of his was setting out on a voyage to some place, I forget
where. Every thing was carried on board, and the two friends were in
the cabin about taking leave of each other. "I asked my friend
before parting," said Mr. W., "whether he had every thing that he
wanted; if there was nothing more that he could think of to make him
more comfortable or happy on his voyage." "One thing," he replied,
"would add to my pleasure very much, if you would bring it to me. In
the counting room of my store is a small white cat; I am very fond
of the poor thing, and she will miss me I know; I should like to
take her with me." I immediately went ashore and found his little
cat looking very sorrowful in his lonely room; I carried her to him.
They seemed mutually pleased at meeting."
When the vessel returned, Mr. W. received this account from the
officers of the ship. They said that his friend made a great pet of
the cat, and fed her always at his own meal times. He taught her to
stand on her hind legs and ask for her food; he made her jump over a
stick for his amusement; in short, he taught her to perform a great
many amusing tricks. The officers and men were all very fond of poor
little puss.
At length, the young man became very ill. The cat would not leave
him night or day. At last, one day, she left the cabin and began to
run about the ship, making the most terrible mewing. The sailors
offered her food; she refused it. She would not be comforted.
Finally, her cries turned into a complete howl. She manifested the
greatest suffering, and, at last, she ran off to the end of the
bowsprit and leaped into the sea. Just at the moment that the poor
little faithful, loving cat was swallowed up by the waves, her human
friend breathed his last, and they both entered the invisible land
together.
Such an extraordinary event, and the gloom which a death at sea
always casts over a ship's company, both together made the sailors
even more than usually superstitious. They all declared that, every
night at that same hour when the sick man died, a white cat was seen
leaping into the ocean. The white crests of the breaking waves might
easily thus appear to an ignorant person who lives, as a sailor
does, in the midst of the wonders and sublime scenes which the ocean
presents, in the awful terrors of its storms, or the serene glory of
its quiet hours. But the love of the poor dumb animal for its
master--that was a beautiful reality.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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