history of the world had a man worked so hard to dig up a dead cat. Even
in ancient Egypt, where the cat was a sacred animal, they did not dig
them up when they had them planted. Quite the contrary: it was a crime
to dig them up; and Flannery, as he dug, had a feeling that it would be
almost a crime to dig up this one. Never, perhaps, did a man dig so hard
to find a thing he really did not care to have.

Flannery dug all that morning. At lunch-time he stopped digging--and
went without his lunch--long enough to deliver the packages that had
come on the early train. As he passed the station he saw a crowd of boys
playing hockey with an old tomato-can, and he stopped. When he reached
the office he was followed by sixteen boys. Some of them had spades,
some of them had small fire-shovels, some had only pointed sticks, but
all were ready to dig. He showed them where he had already dug.

"Twinty-five cints apiece, annyhow," he said, "an' five dollars fer th'
lucky wan that finds it."

"All right," said one. "Now what is it we are to dig for?"

"'Tis a cat," said Flannery, "a dead wan."

"Go on!" cried the boy sarcastically. "What _is_ it we are to dig for?"

"I can get you a dead cat, mister," said another. "Our cat died."

"'T will not do," said Flannery. "'T is a special cat I'm wantin'. 'T is
a long-haired cat, an' 't was dead a long time. Ye can't mistake it whin
ye come awn to it. If ye dig up a cat ye know no wan w'u'd want t' have,
that 's it."