“Every day as regular as the sun.”
“It is a thoughtfulness on the part of the city to provide for homeless beasts.”
“The city! bless you, my boy, the city doesn’t do it.”
“Do you supply this food yourself?” asked Eugene in surprise.
“Yes, young sir; why not?”
“For cats, for vermin, or what I was formerly accustomed to call vermin?” continued the boy in polite astonishment.
“Vermin must live,” said the sergeant. “Brute vermin protect the human vermin. If I had time I’d tell you some of the uses of cats; but I haven’t, and I guess you’d get bored if I had. Let us go down to the lower cat-house. I have some more food in this other bag.”
“Unless you are a rich man,” said Eugene as they entered a shady path, “I think that the city should feed the cats that serve it.”
“The city might if it was asked,” said the sergeant good-naturedly; “but I’d like to see myself sending in a requisition for cats’ meat. It only costs a few dollars a week to feed them.”