me. At last, taking a pan in his hand, he returned to
his brother with one of the cats following him. Immediately upon our
entrance, the boy exclaimed, 'Oh, now I know what I will do: I will tie
a piece of string to its tail, and teach the cat to jump for it.' No
sooner did this thought present itself than it was put into practice,
and I again was obliged to sustain the shocking sight of a brother put
to the torture. I, in the mean time, was placed upon the table, with a
pan put over me, in which there was a crack, so that I could see as well
as hear all that passed: and from this place it was that I beheld my
beloved Brighteyes suspended at one end of a string by his tail; one
while swinging backward and forward, at another pulled up and down, then
suffered to feel his feet on the ground, and again suddenly snatched up
as the cat advanced, then twisted round and round as fast as possible
at the full length of the string: in short, it is impossible to describe
all his sufferings of body, or my anguish of mind. At length a most
dreadful conclusion was put to them, by the entrance of a gentleman
booted and spurred, with a whip in his hand. 'What in the world,
Charles!' said he, as he came in, 'are you about? What have you got
there?' 'Only a mouse, sir,' replied the boy. 'He is teaching the cat to
jump, sir,' said Peter, 'that is all.'

Brighteyes then gave a fresh squeak from the violence of his pain. The
gentleman then turning hastily round, exclaimed eagerly, 'What, is it
alive?' 'Yes, sir,' said the boy. 'And how can you, you wicked, naughty,
cruel boy,' replied the gentleman, 'take delight in thus torturing a
little creature that never did you any injury? Put it down this moment,'
said he, at the same time giving him a severe stroke with his horse-whip
across that hand by which he held my brother. 'Let it go directly,' and
again repeated the blow: the boy let go the string, and Brighteyes fell
to the ground; and was instantly snapped up by the cat, who growling,
ran away with him in her mouth, and, I suppose, put a conclusion to his
miseries and life together, as I never from that moment have heard any
account of him.

As soon as he was thus taken out of the room, the gentleman sat down,
and, taking hold of his son's hand, thus addressed him: 'Charles, I had
a much better opinion of you, than to suppose you were capable of so
much cruelty. What right, I desire to know, have you to torment any
living creature? If it