to lift the long-barrelled and exceedingly heavy gun, talking with each about Bunker Hill, and Yorktown, and Washington, till I half fancied that I had listened to the war-thunder of battle, and looked upon the god like form of the Pater Patriæ.
The domestic animals I considered friends. With their different lineaments of character I acquainted myself, and, being early accustomed to see them well fed and kindly cared for, have never been able through life to lay aside an earnest desire for quadruped welfare, and an almost morbid distress at their discomfort or oppression.
A large black horse, of mild temperament, two noble cows, in dark red coats, with graceful horns, a flock of poultry, crowing, brooding, or peeping, all in different degrees awakened interest and regard. But my chief intimacy was with the feline race. Pussy was always so pliant, so companionable, so pleased with attentions, and prompt in her way to reciprocate them. I studied cat-nature like a philosopher. I believed that the world had never done justice to its capacities, and that a fostering tenderness would elicit new powers; whereupon I made a cat my favorite and prime minister.
It sat in my lap, and gambolled by my side, and stretched itself upon my bed, and was to me as a sister. I took charge of its diet, that it might be fed at stated times, and with fitting aliment. When the maid had
