There were many people on the boat, and some children played with me and gave me cake and popcorn. I thought they must have cats at home, for they knew just what cats like.
But while the children were very polite to me, some of the older people were just the reverse. For instance, there was a woman who poked her umbrella into my side, saying: “There is a cat; what a nuisance!”
Mistress said to her very kindly: “It is my kitty.”
Then the woman asked mistress a good many questions about me: why she didn’t leave me at home; how she could be bothered with a cat when traveling; or, was it a new “fad.”
Mistress told her there was no one at home, and that she thought it cruel to desert a faithful domestic animal. Furthermore, she said, I had been no trouble to her so far, and that this was not the first time she had had a cat for a traveling companion.
Then the woman became more polite to me, and said I had a beautiful coat and a pleasing face.
After a while a big girl came over to where I lay. She came so quickly it frightened me, and I got up and started to run from her, but she grabbed me by the tail and pulled me back.
Of course, I cried out, not so much from pain, as because of the insolence of such treatment.
“What’s the matter, Tabby?” said she.
I said “Me-ow” just as loud as I could.