“Nor I either,” chimed in Jules; “for it must eat.”
“Buffon says the cat does not become attached to its master, that it shows no signs of affection. I appeal the case to your own memories of the matter. When Minette, our gentle cat, installs herself with loud purrings on Emile’s knees in the chimney-corner and rubs her pretty red nose on his cheeks, then on his forehead, and higher still until it makes his cap fall off, are not those, I ask you, kisses and caresses of the most affectionate sort? Emile is transported with delight when his cap tumbles to the floor under the poking of that delicate nose. He puts it on again and the friendly rubbing begins afresh.”
“Certainly,” Emile assented, “the cat gives me caress for caress. Her look is affectionate, not [[262]]treacherous and distrustful, as the author says, that you have just been reading. And then Minette never steals, and always has velvet paws for me. She hasn’t once given me a scratch in all the time we have played together.”
“Emile forgets one very good quality,” put in Jules. “Minette is a splendid hunter. Let her hear the slightest rustle anywhere, and there she will sit for hours and hours on the watch, motionless, patient, all eyes and ears. A mouse heard is for her a mouse caught. But it isn’t hunger that gives her that love of hunting, for she kills her mouse and then leaves it lying there, with no desire to eat it.”
“Minette has other talents too,” Emile hastened to add. “When there is going to be a change in the weather, she licks her paws and washes her ears and nose over and over. Then you say, that is a sign of snow, or a sign of storm. And the cat’s prediction is hardly ever wrong. When the north wind blows cold and dry, I like to rub my hand over her fur and make the bright sparks fly. In the evening I like to hear her rerr-rerr, which makes me sleepy.”
“Why,” asked Uncle Paul in conclusion, “do not Minette’s good qualities agree with what Buffon says? Because you love the cat and the cat loves you in return. Animals, my dear children, are what people make them. Good master, good servant.” [[263]]
CHAPTER XXVII
SHEEP
“Concerning the cat’s origin there are surmises, probabilities; concerning the sheep’s origin nothing is yet known. But if we are ignorant from what wild species the sheep descends, we are at least certain it came to us from Asia, where man has raised flocks of these useful animals from the earliest recorded times.”