A BRAVE MOTHER
At the burning of an apartment house in Kansas City, early one morning, the firemen and onlookers were astonished to see a cat leap in at the door, though she must pass through fire and water to enter.
Some one called out, “Look at that cat—she must have gone crazy.”
While they watched she returned, bringing a kitten held up as high as she could lift it by throwing back her head.
She hurried through the crowd, and after a few moments again appeared, and dashed once more into the flames. Soon the brave creature came back with another kitten in her mouth. By this time the people were watching to see what she would do next, for she was giving a wonderful exhibition of mother love.
When she tried to enter once more there were many cries of “Stop her—don’t let her go in—it’s sure death!” But she would not be stopped; she slipped through the crowd and went in again.
The firemen turned their attention now almost wholly to the part of the building where she was; but the walls fell, and the noble little self-forgetting mother was buried beneath them.
A search was made for her kittens; they were found in a place of safety. There were four of them.
The janitor of the building remembered that there had been five. How well the mother cat knew the number! and how bravely she had saved them—all but one! Do you suppose she was with it, to cover it and guard it to the last moment?
The motherless kittens were taken to the central fire station and tenderly cared for. The firemen had been very eager to own an Angora kitten; but when one was offered to them, they decided not to take it.