ll stick to her.

"'That, my dear, is the story of my life, so far as it has gone. I tell
it you to show you how easy it is to be "taken in." Fix on your house,
and mew piteously at the back door. When it is opened run in and rub
yourself against the first leg you come across. Rub hard, and look up
confidingly. Nothing gets round human beings, I have noticed, quicker
than confidence. They don't get much of it, and it pleases them. Always
be confiding. At the same time be prepared for emergencies. If you are
still doubtful as to your reception, try and get yourself slightly wet.
Why people should prefer a wet cat to a dry one I have never been able to
understand; but that a wet cat is practically sure of being taken in and
gushed over, while a dry cat is liable to have the garden hose turned
upon it, is an undoubted fact. Also, if you can possibly manage it, and
it is offered you, eat a bit of dry bread. The Human Race is always
stirred to its deepest depths by the sight of a cat eating a bit of dry
bread.'

"My friend's black Tom profited by the Chinchilla's wisdom. A catless
couple had lately come to live next door. He determined to adopt them on
trial. Accordingly, on the first rainy day, he went out soon after lunch
and sat for four hours in an open field. In the evening, soaked to the
skin, and feeling pretty hungry, he went mewing to their door. One of
the maids opened it, he rushed under her skirts and rubbed himself
against her legs. She screamed, and down came the master and the
mistress to know what was the matter.

"'It's a stray cat, mum,' said the girl.

"'Turn it out,' said the master.

"'Oh no, don't,' said the mistress.

"'Oh, poor thing, it's wet,' said the housemaid.

"'Perhaps it's hungry,' said the cook.

"'Try it with a bit of dry bread,' sneered the master, who wrote for the
newspapers, and thought he knew everything.

"A stale crust was proffered. The cat ate it greedily, and afterwards
rubbed himself gratefully against the man's light trousers.

"This made the man ashamed of himself, likewise of his trousers. 'Oh,
well, let it stop if it wants to,' he said.

"So the cat was made comfortable, and stayed on.

"Meanwhile its own family were seeking for it high and low. They had not
cared over much for it while they had had it; now it was gone, they were
inconsolable. In the light of its absence, it appeared to them the one
thing that had made the place home. The sha