LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
A FOUR-FOOTED FRIEND.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " EPHOTAEOft."J
basket large enough to hold him which came into the house, always gravely, and consulting the bystanders with his wistful eyes, as on a matter of duty not to be neglected or postponed. He instantly recognized any new article of dress worn by any member of the family, and he invented for himself a method of (aiding himself up so as to adapt his back to the arch of a new bonnet, with his legs stretched out in careful avoidance of the strings, which I venture to think has never been surpassed in effectiveness and ingenuity. Shortly after he took possession of our hearts and home we changed our residence. He was carried to our new house in a basket, and when set free went direct to his master, with eloquent gestures and expression of resentment and inquiry. The matter was gravely explained to him, for we never presumed to limit his intelligence to our perception of it, and he presently acquiesced. He led his master to the door of every room in the house in succession, deliberately made the tour of the apartments, was lifted up to each window-sill, whence he studied the front and back aspects of the house and the adjacent gardens, taking his time over it, and then, returning to the study, as yet unfurnished, recognized with manifest pleasure a standing-desk he was in the habit of seeing his master use, gave the little gasp which meant that he wanted to be lifted up, was placed upon it, went to sleep, and ever afterwards took to the new house with more than acquiescence, with enthusiasm. He had favourite rooms, and his especial place in each, and he resorted to them at different hours with unde- viating regularity. If he found a door shut, he went to the nearest person, made the sound which we all knew meant that he wanted to be followed, and then led the individual to the door, and stood aside until it was opened. If he wanted water, which he preferred to London milk, he went for a servant, conducted her to the pantry, and looked, and bleated, at the tap. His punctual attendance at meal times was always secured by the ringing of the dinner-bell at the pantry window, or if his walks abroad led him down the road, by tapping the lid of a sardine-box with a fork at the front gate. He was very fond of the dining-room balcony, which was known as his " fortification," and never shall I forget his tone and gestures of remonstrance, addressed, as usual, to his master, when we were so ill-advised as to adorn the balcony with some inconvenient flower-pots, which impeded his freedom of motion, and his view of every one who came to our gate or that .of either of our neighbours. Of course, the flower-pots were in- stantly removed, and he bounded into the balcony, with a joyous whisk of his magnificent tail, and sat there all day. He liked to know how everybody in the house was engaged, and much affected a commanding position on the stairs, which enabled him to see what the servants were about in general, and to observe everyone who went in or out of the sitting-rooms. During his master's absence he would sit with me a good deal in the afternoon, on my writing-table, his paws resting on the edge of my paper, and his eyes and head drowsily following the motion of my pen. He never upset, or broke, or spoiled anything, and his taste was fasti- dious. For some time a humble jam-pot contained drink- ing water for him beside my dressing-table, but one day I had a red Bohemian glass carafe and tumbler given me, which, as usual, Nero inspected. Henceforth, he declined the jam-pot, and the red tumbler was made over to him. However thirsty he might be, in that room he would not drink out of anything else, and if he missed it from its accustomed place, he instantly carried a complaint to the fountain of justice. He politely but steadily declined to drink water which had been standing for any time, and if his meaning were not at once understood, he would jump on the washing-stand and rub his head to the carafe. He was con- descending to other cats, but not familiar with them, and the finest of sights was his holding durbar in the back garden, which had been laid down in grass for his delectation. A few select animals would group themselves at a respectful distance, while he sat, his great paws folded up invisible under his swelling white breast, motionless, in the sunniest spot on the grass-plot, until the whole affair bored him, when he would rise, stretch himself, yawn, and saunter in, to seek the human society which, strange to say, did not bore him. He was also condescending to the servants, and in his days of decline he grew fond of them, but he was not familiar with them, and he rarely visited the kitchen, insisting upon the pantry window being kept open for his ingress and egress, and utterly disdaining the area steps. His breakfast was laid every morning beside the dining-room fire, a newspaper being neatly disposed under his own particular plate. Sometimes his master did this, sometimes the parlour-maid, and in the latter case, though he was very good friends with her, he would stand gravely by, and decline to begin to eat until she had left the room. He had a strange knowledge of the feelings of each and all of us, and he regulated his intimacies by it. He would give quite a fussy welcome to friends whom we loved, and be blandly indiffer- ent to mere acquaintances, and his perception of likenesses was most extraordinary. His master's brother, visiting our house for the first time, and arriving during his master's absence, was amazed to find himself met at the threshold by a large beautiful cat, who preceded him into the dining-room, jumped on the table beside him, and after gravely inspecting him for some time, fondly rubbed his face to his, and purred a loud welcome. A bust, bearing a decided resemblance to his master, was placed on a table within his reach, and shortly after its arrival Nero's master, watching his proceedings from an outer room, himself unseen, beheld him, after long and steady contemplation of the unfamiliar object, spring upon the table, lay his paws on the shoulders of the bust, and energetically rub his nose to the face, with the invariable sound sacred to his caresses of his master. He would no more have stolen anything to eat than you, Sir, would have been guilty of such an act. An ardent, but youthful admirer of his, with a somewhat undisciplined sense of humour, once subjected him to a test. She collected, and placed conveniently within his reach, sundry articles of food which he particularly liked, and then left him, seated on his own especial chair, exactly in front of them, and proceeded to watch him through the keyhole. He sat still, purred, got up, stretched his little white nose in the direction of the savoury meats, withdrew it, purred again, and finally removed himself, with grave slowness, to a distant arm-chair. He would no more have answered to the conventional appellation " Puss ! " than he would have noticed the cry of " Stop thief 1 " and, indeed, I hardly ever remember any visitor of ours being so deficient in judgment as to apply so silly a term to him. His names were Pisistratus Palseologus Porphyro- genitus Malachi Nero, and he looked them every one. I don't know whether in his youth he had heard of rats and mice, but he certainly never longed to fetch any of them out of our wainscots, and had only such a distant relation to the vermin-killing helots of his race as the mandarin has to the coolie. He did not like dogs, and he had a constitutional aversion to monkeys. We had an outdoor pensioner of the quadrumanona kind, who came every Saturday for a cake and a penny, and Nero invariably absented himself on those occasions, going quietly away before the monkey was announced, and returning, in subdued spirits, on his depar- ture. He had a most delicate taste in gastronomy, and I fear we rather over-cultivated it. In the privacy of domestic life he used to eat from his master's fork, catching it with his forepaw and guiding it dexterously to his mouth, and I have not seen anything neater than his method of eating green peas separately off the inclined edge of a plate. On solemn occasions of company his con- duct was sublime. He was always the first person in the drawing- room, where he installed himself on an ottoman and watched the arrivals. On the announcement of dinner he walked downstairs in advance of the party and took his seat in his own chair, beside his master, and there he would remain, perfectly quiet, not asking for anything, but apparently deeply interested in the appetites and conversation of the company. His good-breeding impressed every- body. " Oh, ma'am, he was such a gentleman !" said our cook, when he was gone from us ; and it was true. But, remarkable as he was for the sweetness of his manners and the dignity of his demeanour, it is not those qualities to which I particularly desire to direct your attention. It is rather to the wonderful loving heart with which this beautiful creature was gifted, and the way in which his affections cultivated his intelligence. (If I only knew how to get at your correspondent " Philozooist," I would tell him* about our Nero in these respects, in the hope that he might find another argument in the facts for the comforting theory that these beloved creatures, who help us on our journey more than we can tell to any one, so that we can only measure their aid by the anguish of their loss, may not be for ever absent from us when the journey is ended.) He loved us all, and had his different ways of showing us that he loved us; but, above all, and in a totally sepa- rate way, he loved his master. His ear was quicker to hear his step than the ear of wife or child, and so well was this known among us, that a glance at Nero was enough to tell us his master was coming. Two latch-keys are permitted in our house- hold ; one to its head, the other to a junior member. Nero used to distinguish the sound of his master's key in the lock so correctly, that it was an infallible guide to the ser- vants. "That's master,—look at Nero!" they would say. He would jump off his bed and run down-stairs in the night, to be * No, Bor.—Ea. Spectator.
in waiting at the door, long before we caught the sound of his master's tread in the stillness of the summer, and the storm and rain of winter could not whirl it away from his ears. The crea- ture's distress when signs of packing-up presented themselves was pitiable, and the ingenuity with which he arrived at a conclusion about what he had to dread, wonderful. If his master went away, carrying a small black bag, be was not restless or wretched until evening came, and then, if his return were deferred, Nero world run to the door which leads up to the garret where boxes are kept, and cry until some one came to open it, when he would rush fran- tically up the stairs, and search for a portmanteau which accom- panies his master in prolonged absences. If the portmanteau were forthcoming he would lie down upon it, and purr loudly, and then go to bed content, satisfied that his master would return, but if he could not find the portmanteau, he would know that his worst fears were realized, he would lie prone on the floor, and refuse food for twenty-four hours at a time. We had to be most careful, when his master was leaving home, to prevent his getting out. If he knew it, he would always try to hide himself in the cab, which must have been a tumbril in his eyes, or failing that, to run after it. If his master came into the room with his hat on early in the day he would make great efforts to push it off with his nose and his teeth, but in the evening he made no such efforts; he knew that in the one case he was going out, and that in the other he had come home, as well as we knew it. I might multiply instances and proofs of this great love of the four-footed for the human friend ; but I have told you enough in these two instances, which were habitual and invariable, and shall add only one more reminiscence of our Nero. They say that most animals, and especially cats, creep away into darkness and solitude to die. He had been ill for a long time, and in spite of all our care, we knew the end was near, and we dreaded that this instinct might assert itself. But, when the death agony was upon him, and we were looking on, helpless, he crept close to his master and bore his great pain with patient courage, responding always to the encouragement of his master's voice, and then, having lain for three hours, with his head pillowed in the palm of his master's hand, and the loving, wistful eyes fixed immovably upon his face, he died, good and gentle to the last. Do you believe that spirit was one of those which " go down into the earth ?" or that there is no promise of futurity for such love and such intelligence ?—I am, Sir, &c., A CONSTANT READER AND DISCIPLE.
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