The Book of the Cat

by Unknown

AND WITH STORIES AND VERSES
WRITTEN FOR THE PICTURES BY

Mabel Humphrey

New York
Frederick A. Stokes Company
Publishers

COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY.

PUBLISHED IN OCTOBER, 1903.

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Snowball and Ebony.

Down at my feet on the red tiles in front of a roaring great fire sit a great black cat and a soft white Angora pussy. They are named Ebony and Snowball and are as different in nature as they are in colour, but are devoted friends for all that. Possibly because of it! for where Snowball is timid, Ebony will bravely lead the way; while if Ebony is cross, Snowball will purr and coax and cuddle until he gradually grows peaceful and pleasant again.

From the time he was a tiny kitten Ebony had known no home, and such food as he had was picked up when and wherever he chanced to find it. He had won many and lost few of his many cat battles, but he did not like to fight and never did it unless obliged to.