running along the wall from the dock, carrying a small Wharf Rat.
He had been ready to shoot her, too, but the sight of that Rat
changed his plans: a rat-catching Cat was worthy to live. It
happened to be the very first one she had ever caught, but it
saved her life. She threaded the lumber-maze to the cracker-box
and was probably puzzled to find that there were no Kittens to
come at her call, and the Rabbit would not partake of the Rat.
Pussy curled up to nurse the Rabbit, but she called from time to
time to summon the Kittens. Guided by that call, the negro
crawled quietly to the place, and peering down into the
cracker-box, saw, to his intense surprise, that it contained the
old Cat, a live Rabbit, and a dead Rat.

The mother Cat laid back her ears and snarled. The negro
withdrew, but a minute later a board was dropped on the opening
of the cracker-box, and the den with its tenants, dead and alive,
was lifted into the bird-cellar.

"Say, boss, look a-hyar--hyar's where de

little Rabbit got to wot we lost. Yo' sho t'ought Ah stoled him
for de 'tater-bake."

Kitty and Bunny were carefully put in a large wire cage and
exhibited as a happy family till a few days later, when the
Rabbit took sick and died.

Pussy had never been happy in the cage. She had enough to eat and
drink, but she
craved her freedom--would likely have gotten 'death or liberty'