Miss Elliots Girls | Page 5

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!
Come on!' Dinah crouched low, and eyed her antagonist for a moment,

then she made a spring, and when he saw the 'black object' flying
toward him, every hair bristling, all eyes, and teeth, and claws, the old
gobbler was scared half out of his senses, and made off as fast as his
long legs would carry him, followed by his troop in the most admired
disorder.
"I was very proud of one feat of bravery Dinah accomplished. One of
our neighbors owned a large hunting dog and had frequently warned
me that if my cat ever had the presumption to attack his dog, Bruno
would shake the breath out of her as easy as he could kill a rat. I was
inwardly much alarmed at this threat, but I put on a bold front, and
assured Mr. Dixon that Dinah Diamond always had come off best in a
fight and I believed she always would, and the result justified my boast.
"It happened that Dinah had three little kittens hidden away in the
wood-shed chamber, and you can imagine under these circumstances,
when even the most timid animals are bold, how fierce such a cat as
Dinah would be. Unfortunately for Bruno he chose this time to
rummage in the wood-shed for bones. We did not know how the attack
began, but suppose Dinah spied him from above, and made a flying
leap, lighting most unexpectedly to him upon his back, for we heard
one unearthly yell, and out rushed Bruno with his unwelcome burden,
her tail erect, her eyes two balls of fire, and every cruel claw, each one
as sharp as a needle, buried deep in the poor dog's flesh. How he did
yelp!--ki! ki! ki! ki! and how he ran, through the yard and the garden,
clearing the fence at a bound, and taking a bee-line for home! Half-way
across the street, when Dinah released her hold and slipped to the
ground, he showed no disposition to revenge his wrongs, but with
drooping ears and tail between his legs kept on his homeward way
yelping as he ran. Nor did he ever give my brave cat the opportunity to
repeat the attack, for if he chanced to come to the house in his master's
company, he always waited at a respectful distance outside the gate.
"It would take too long to tell you all the wonderful things Dinah did,
but I am sure you all agree with me that she was a remarkable cat. She
came out in a new character when I was ill with an attack of fever. She
would not be kept from me. Again and again she was driven from the

room where I lay, but