hat Joe and 'is wife
'ad words all night long, and next morning old Clark, coming in from the
garden, was just in time to see 'im kick the cat right acrost the
kitchen.

He could 'ardly speak for a minute, and when 'e could Joe see plain wot a
fool he'd been. Fust of all 'e called Joe every name he could think of--
which took 'im a long time--and then he ordered 'im out of 'is house.

"You shall 'ave my money wen your betters have done with it," he ses,
"and not afore. That's all you've done for yourself."

Joe Clark didn't know wot he meant at the time, but when old Clark died
three months arterwards 'e found out. His uncle 'ad made a new will and
left everything to old George Barstow for as long as the cat lived,
providing that he took care of it. When the cat was dead the property
was to go to Joe.

The cat was only two years old at the time, and George Barstow, who was
arf crazy with joy, said it shouldn't be 'is fault if it didn't live
another twenty years.

The funny thing was the quiet way Joe Clark took it. He didn't seem to
be at all cut up about it, and when Henery Walker said it was a shame,
'e said he didn't mind, and that George Barstow was a old man, and he was
quite welcome to 'ave the property as long as the cat lived.

"It must come to me by the time I'm an old man," he ses, "ard that's all
I care about."

Henery Walker went off, and as 'e passed the cottage where old Clark used
to live, and which George Barstow 'ad moved into, 'e spoke to the old man
over the palings and told 'im wot Joe Clark 'ad said. George Barstow
only grunted and went on stooping and prying over 'is front garden.

"Bin and lost something?" ses Henery Walker, watching 'im.

"No; I'm finding," ses George Barstow, very fierce, and picking up
something. "That's the fifth bit o' powdered liver I've found in my
garden this morning."

Henery Walker went off whistling, and the opinion he'd 'ad o' Joe Clark
began to improve. He spoke to Joe about it that arternoon, and Joe said
that if 'e ever accused 'im o' such a thing again he'd knock 'is 'ead
off. He said that he 'oped the cat 'ud live to be a hundred, and that
'e'd no more think of giving it poisoned meat than Henery Walker would of
paying for 'is drink so long as 'e could get anybody else to do it for
'im.

They 'ad bets up at this 'ere _Cauliflower_ public-'ouse that evening as to
'ow long that cat 'ud live. Nobody gave it more than a month, and Bill
Chambers