"It's no more a wild cat than I am!" cried Peterkin, taking it in
his arms. "It's quite tame. Poor pussy, cheetie pussy!"

We now crowded around Peterkin, and were not a little surprised,
and, to say truth, a good deal affected, by the sight of the poor
animal's excessive joy. It rubbed its head against Peterkin's
cheek, licked his chin, and thrust its head almost violently into
his neck, while it purred more loudly than I ever heard a cat purr
before, and appeared to be so much overpowered by its feelings,
that it occasionally mewed and purred almost in the same breath.
Such demonstrations of joy and affection led us at once to conclude
that this poor cat must have known man before, and we conjectured
that it had been left either accidentally or by design on the
island many years ago, and was now evincing its extreme joy at
meeting once more with human beings. While we were fondling the
cat and talking about it, Jack glanced round the open space in the
midst of which we stood.

"Hallo!" exclaimed he; "this looks something like a clearing. The
axe has been at work here. Just look at these tree-stumps."

We now turned to examine these, and, without doubt, we found trees
that had been cut down here and there, also stumps and broken
branches; all of which, however, were completely covered over with
moss, and bore evidence of having been in this condition for some
years. No human foot-prints were to be seen, either on the track
or among the bushes; but those of the cat were found everywhere.
We now determined to follow up the track as far as it went, and
Peterkin put the cat down; but it seemed to be so weak, and mewed