zled to find that there were no Kittens
to come at her call, and the Rabbit would not partake of the Rat. Pussy
curled up to nurse the Rabbit, but she called from time to time to
summon the Kittens. Guided by that call, the negro crawled quietly to
the place, and peering down into the cracker-box, saw, to his intense
surprise, that it contained the old Cat, a live Rabbit, and a dead Rat.

The mother Cat laid back her ears and snarled. The negro withdrew, but
a minute later a board was dropped on the opening of the cracker-box,
and the den with its tenants, dead and alive, was lifted into the
bird-cellar.

"Say, boss, look a-hyar--hyar's where de little Rabbit got to wot we
lost. Yo' sho t'ought Ah stoled him for de 'tater-bake."

Kitty and Bunny were carefully put in a large wire cage and exhibited
as a happy family till a few days later, when the Rabbit took sick and
died.

Pussy had never been happy in the cage. She had enough to eat and
drink, but she craved her freedom--would likely have gotten 'death or
liberty' now, but that during the four days' captivity she had so
cleaned and slicked her fur that her unusual coloring was seen, and Jap
decided to keep her.

LIFE II

VI

Jap Malee was as disreputable a little Cockney bantam as ever sold
cheap Canary-birds in a cellar. He was extremely poor, and the negro
lived with him because the 'Henglish-man' was willing to share bed and
board, and otherwise admit a perfect equality that few Americans
conceded. Jap was perfectly honest according to his lights, but he
hadn't any lights; and it was well known that his chief revenue was
derived from storing and restoring stolen Dogs and Cats. The half-dozen
Canaries were mere blinds. Yet Jap believed in himself. "Hi tell you,
Sammy, me boy, you'll see me with 'orses of my own yet," he would say,
when some trifling success inflated his dirty little chest. He was not
without ambition, in a weak, flabby, once-in-a-while way, and he
sometimes wished to be known as a fancier. Indeed, he had once gone the
wild length of offering a Cat for exhibition at the Knickerbocker High
Society Cat and Pet Show, with three not over-clear objects: first, to
gratify his ambition; second, to secure the exhibitor's free pass; and,
third, "well, you kneow, one 'as to kneow the valuable Cats, you kneow,
when one goes a-catting." But this was a society show, the exhibitor
had to be introduced, and his miserable alleged half-Persian was
sco