person, beginning judiciously with her paws, and fetching amazing tongues at her hind hips. Anon she scratches her neck with a foot of rapid delight, leaning her head towards it and shutting her eyes, half to accommodate the action of the skin and half to enjoy the luxury. She then 5 rewards her paws with a few more touches. Look at the action of her head and neck; how pleasing it is, the ears pointed forward and the neck gently arching to and fro ! Finally, she gives a sneeze, and another twist of mouth and whiskers, and then, curling her tail towards her front 10 claws, settles herself on her hind quarters, in an attitude of bland meditation.

What does she think of? of her saucer of milk at breakfast? or of the thump she got yesterday in the kitchen for stealing the meat? or of her little ones, some 15 of whom are now large, and all of them gone? Is that among her recollections when she looks pensive? Does she taste of the noble sorrows of man?

That lapping of the milk out of the saucer is what one's human thirst cannot sympathize with. It seems as if there 20 could be no satisfaction in such a series of atoms of drink. Yet the saucer is soon emptied, and there is a refreshment to one's ears in that sound of plashing with which the action is accompanied, and which seems indicative of a like comfort to Pussy's mouth. Her tongue is thin and 25 can make a spoon of itself. This, however, is common to other quadrupeds, and does not, therefore, particularly

belong to our feline consideration. Not so the electricity of her coat, which gives out sparks under the hand, her passion for the herb valerian (did the reader ever see a cat roll in it? it is a mad sight) and other singular deli5 cacies of nature, among which perhaps is to be reckoned her taste for fish, a creature with whose element she has so little to do that she is supposed even to abhor it, though lately we read somewhere of a swimming cat that used to fish for itself. And this reminds us of an exquisite 10 anecdote of dear, dogmatic, diseased, thoughtful, surly, charitable Johnson, who would go out of doors himself and buy oysters for his cat, because his servant was too proud to do it! Be assured that he thought nothing of "condescension" in it, or of being eccentric. He was sin15 gular in some things, because he could not help it, but he hated eccentricity. No, in his best moments he felt himself simply to be a man, and a good man too, though a frail, -one that in virtue as well as humility, and in a knowledge of his ignorance as well as his wisdom, was 20 desirous of being a Christian philosopher; and accordingly he went out and bought food for his hungry cat, because there was nobody in the way whom he had a right to ask. What must anybody that saw him have thought, as he turned up Bolt Court! His friend Garrick could 25 not have done as much! He was too grand, and on the great "stage" of life. Goldsmith could, but he would hardly have thought of it. Sir Joshua Reynolds, with

his fashionable, fine-lady-painting hand, would certainly have shrunk from it. Burke would have reasoned himself into its propriety, but he would have reasoned himself out again. Gibbon!-imagine its being put into the head of Gibbon! He and his bagwig would have started with 5 horror; and he would have rung the bell for the cook'sdeputy's-under-assistant-errand-boy.

Cats at firesides live luxuriously and are the picture of comfort; but, lest they should not bear their portion of trouble in this world, they have the drawbacks of being 10 liable to be shut out of doors on cold nights, beatings from the "aggravated" cooks, overpettings of children (how should we like to be squeezed and pulled about in that manner by some great patronizing giants?), and last, not least, horrible, merciless tramples of unconscious 15 human feet and unfeeling legs of chairs. Yet Pussy gets in the way again, as before, and dares all the feet and mahogany in the room. Beautiful present sufficingness of a cat's imagination! - confined to the snug circle of her own sides and the two next inches of rug or carpet.

Abridged

nice particularly careful; overscrupulous. Johnson: a learned but eccentric English scholar of the eighteenth century. Bolt Court: a court off Fleet Street, London. - Garrick a famous actor. Reynolds: a great painter. Burke: a celebrated orator, who endeavored to persuade the English government to conciliate America at the time of the breaking out of the Revolution. Gibbon: an eminent English historian. — aggravated: used here in its colloquial sense of "irritated," but quoted because such use is not defensible. The true meaning of the word is intensified " or " increased.”

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THE PURLOINED LETTER-I

EDGAR ALLAN POE

EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849) was an American poet and story-teller of unusual power. The melody of his verse has rarely been surpassed. Poe's career was a brief and tragic one, but he belongs with the most famous of the writers of his time.

NOTE. The story from which the following selection is adapted is one of the most original and ingenious of Poe's tales.

At Paris, just after dark one gusty autumn evening, I was enjoying the twofold luxury of meditation and a meerschaum in company with my friend Dupin in his little 10 library. Suddenly the door of our apartment was thrown open and admitted our old acquaintance, the prefect of the Parisian police.

We gave him a hearty welcome, for there was nearly half as much of the entertaining as of the contemptible 15 about the man, and we had not seen him for several years. "I have called to consult you," he explained, "about some official business that has occasioned a good deal of trouble."

"What is the difficulty now?" I asked. "Nothing very 20 serious, I hope."

"Oh, no!" he said. "The business is very simple indeed, and I have no doubt that we can manage it sufficiently well ourselves; but I thought Dupin would like to hear the details of it because it is so excessively odd."

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Simple and odd," said Dupin.

"Why, yes; and not exactly that, either. The fact is, we have all been a good deal puzzled because the affair is so simple and yet baffles us altogether."

6.

Perhaps it is the very simplicity of the thing which 5 puts you at fault," said my friend.

"What nonsense you talk!" replied the prefect, laughing heartily.

"And what, after all, is the matter on hand?" I asked. The prefect gave a long, steady, contemplative puff 10 and settled himself in his chair.

"Before I begin," said he, "let me caution you that this is an affair demanding the greatest secrecy. I have received personal information from a very high quarter that a certain document of importance has been purloined from 15 the royal apartments. The individual who purloined it is known beyond a doubt; in fact, he was seen to take it. It is known also that it still remains in his possession."

"How is this known?" asked Dupin.

"It is clearly inferred," replied the prefect," from the 20 nature of the document. The holder of it has great power over a certain illustrious personage."

"But," said I, "this power depends upon the robber's knowledge of the loser's knowledge of the robber. Who would dare—”

"The thief," said the prefect, "is the Minister D, who dares all things. The method of the theft was not

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