dispositions of children, as any one will tell you who has raised a
family of kittens. Well, Dinah made a quick recovery, and when her new
coat was grown it was blacker and more silky than the old one. She was
a handsome cat, not large, but beautifully formed, with a bright,
intelligent face and great yellow eyes that changed color in different
lights. She was devoted to me, and would let no one else touch her if
she could help it, but allowed me to handle her as I pleased. I have
tucked her in my pocket many a time when I went of an errand, and once I
carried her to the prayer-meeting in my mother's muff. But she made a
serious disturbance in the midst of the service by giving chase to a
mouse, and I never repeated the experiment.

"Dinah was a famous hunter, and kept our own and the neighbors' premises
clear of rats and mice, but never to my knowledge caught a chicken or a
bird. She had a curious fancy for catching snakes, which she would kill
with one bite in the back of the neck and then drag in triumph to the
piazza or the kitchen, where she would keep guard over her prey and call
for me till I appeared. I could never quite make her understand why she
was not as deserving of praise as when she brought in a mole or a mouse;
and as long as she lived she hunted for snakes, though after a while she
stopped bringing them to the house. She made herself useful by chasing
the neighbors' hens from the garden, and grew to be such a tyrant that
she would not allow a dog or a cat to come about the place, but rushed
out and attacked them in such a savage fashion that after one or two
encounters they were glad to keep out of her way.

"Once I saw her put a flock of turkeys to flight. The leader at first
resolved to stand his ground. He swelled and strutted and gobbled
furiously, exactly as if he were saying, 'Come on, you miserable little
black object, you! I'll teach you to fight a fellow of my size. Come on!