“O,” said Lucy. “Very well,—only I was thinking that it was true.”
“The boy,” continued Royal, “taught his cat to follow him like a dog. He would walk down into the fields and woods, and the cat would follow him all about. Sometimes she would climb up to the tops of the trees, trying to catch squirrels.”
“And could she catch them?” asked Lucy.
“No, indeed,” said Royal, in reply; “they were a great deal too nimble for her. Besides, they were light, and she was heavy; and so they could run out upon the light and slender branches, where she could not go. Once, she went out after one, and the branch was so slender, that it bent away down, and she came tumbling down upon Jeremiah’s shoulders.”
Here Lucy and Royal stopped to have a good laugh at this idea, which Lucy seemed to consider very amusing.
“But Jeremiah caught a great many mice with his cat,” said Royal, “although he could not catch squirrels. He caught field mice, in the grass. He would walk about, and whenever he saw a mouse, he would call, ‘Here, Merry Merry, Merry!’”
“What did he mean by that?” asked Lucy.
“Why, he meant his cat,” replied Royal; “her name was Merry.”
“And would Merry come?” asked Lucy.
“Yes,” said Royal, “she would come running along, with her red collar about her neck, and the large bow-knot under her chin.”