es heard my cousin sing; and although I do not think so much
of them now as I did at the time, I preserved them from the flames, and
now insert them here in memory of so kind and gentle a Cat:--

With others I may frisk and play,
With others I may talk and sing,
With others pass the live-long day,
And find, time flies with rapid wing:
A friend (I seek not to deceive)
I may, perchance, to others be;
But, ah! my darling Puss! believe,
I purr, I only purr for thee!

Thy form is stamp'd upon that heart,
Which, true to thee, will beat till death;
Thy praises, dear one that thou art,
Will mingle with my latest breath.
Deign, then, to smile upon my suit,
Nor heedlessly my vows refuse;
But trust the honour of the brute
Who seeks to win thee with his muse!

The education I had received, and the advantages I possessed in the
way of books, joined to my present loneliness, induced me to carry out
an idea that had more than once entered my head, and which my kind
relation, when alive, had strongly encouraged. This was to get together
the Kittens of some of my friends who were anxious to obtain knowledge,
and impart to them some portion of that I had myself acquired,--in
brief, to keep a school.

I never ceased to remember the words of my poor cousin when speaking on
this subject. "My dear," she had often said, "it is the duty of every
Cat in this world to make herself useful; she is sent here for that
purpose, depend upon it; and although all Cats cannot be useful in the
same way or to the same extent, some being placed in very different
circumstances to others, _every_ Cat, rich or poor, _may_ do a certain
amount of useful work, which if she neglects, she is wicked. No
employment is so honourable as that of teaching to others the learning
we have ourselves attained; for learning destroys prejudice, makes us
better as well as wiser, and helps us to bear with greater fortitude
the calamities of life. As you have yourself acquired learning, you may
therefore show your usefulness by imparting it to others; and depend
upon it, no consolation will be greater to you in hours of misfortune,
and even on your bed of death, than the thought that you have not spent
your life in vain!"

It was with such sanction that I entered on my new career. Each day
might I have been seen, perched upon a high-backed chair, with book
in hand, examining my class as it stood up before me; a rod wit