and rocky,
overhanging a deep and narrow ravine. The bordering fences were veiled
by luxurious ailanthus shoots, chicory blossoms opened their sweet blue
eyes to every morning sun, and it was beside

"Rich in wild grasses numberless, and flowers
Unnamed save in mute Nature's inventory."

[Sidenote: _A NOBLE FOREST._]

In the air above, myriads of dainty white butterflies sported, ever
rising in little agitated parties of two or three, climbing gayly the
invisible staircase till at an immense height, and then fluttering back
to earth no wiser than they went up, so far as the human eye could see.

The forest, as I have called it, was, to be sure, by measurement of man,
not more than three or four feet high. But all things are relative, and
to the frequenters of that pleasant bit of woodland, far above whose
head it towered, it was as the deep woods to us. I chose to look at it
from their point of view, and to them it was a noble forest, resembling
indeed a tropical jungle, so thickly grown that paths were made under
it, where might be enjoyed leisurely walks, given up to quiet and
meditation. For there were inhabitants in plenty,--the regulars, the
transients, the stragglers,--in furs, in feathers, in wings.

In this nook, secluded from the world which every day swept by without a
glance, a constant drama of life went on, which I could see and be
myself unseen. I soon became absorbed in the study of it. The actors
were of that mysterious race which lives with us, and yet is rarely of
us; whose real life is to us mostly a sealed book, and of whom
Wordsworth delightfully sings,--

"Think of the beautiful gliding form,
The tread that would scarcely crush a worm,
And the soothing song by the winter fire
Soft as the dying throb of the lyre."

Yes, the cats, whose ways are ever the unexpected, and of whom I am so
fond that one of the most touching objects unearthed at Pompeii--to
me--is the skeleton of a woman holding in her arms the skeleton of a
cat, whom perhaps she gave her life to save.

The builder of the fences at the back of this Cat's Eden very
considerately capped them all with a board three inches wide, thus
making a highway for the feline race, not only across the back, but from
that to each house door. On this private path, above the heads of boys
and dogs, they spent much time. This was their Broadway, and at the same
time their point of outlook, where they might survey the landscape and
dec