The Nomad of the Nine Lives | Page 9

her see what a great advantage it would be to him. She said that my brother Teddy had grown fat and lazy and was not very valuable to her, thus making it harder to spare Tom, but that she would not stand in his way. So Tom went in and spruced up a bit and I took him home with me. The cook took a liking to him at once, and that meant a good deal for his future welfare. The master and mistress liked his looks and were satisfied with my choice, and the cook allowed me to take him upstairs, whenever our people were out. Thus I taught him many things, so that when I passed away he could take my place in the household.
I began to settle down into a calm middle age, happy and contented; my working days were over and I felt that I had earned a rest.
Lord Roberts' people went to the same seashore resort that ours did and, to my delight, I was to go also, leaving Tom with the caretaker to protect the house from rats and mice in our absence. I enjoyed myself every summer by going down to the beach and watching the children in bathing and then sunning myself on the piazza. I did not have much to do, but an occasional mouse would find to his sorrow that I slept with one eye open. We did not remain very late in the fall, but one summer, as Lord Roberts' family wished to make a longer season, we stayed also. I had noticed that after the houses were closed there were many cats about. Some would come to the back door and our cook, who was tender-hearted, would throw food out to them. I did not understand this at first but soon found out what it meant. Their owners had returned to the city and had left them to look out for themselves; the only excuse was that it was too much trouble to carry them back or, very possibly they were forgotten in the moving. Oh, what a hungry horde we saw them become as we stayed through October! Their gaunt bodies and hollow eyes which glowed like coals of fire, would have been a reproach to the ones who had left them.
Our people finally began to pack up and word was given that the next day we should all go back to the city. I was pleased for it did seem good to think of returning to my beautiful home. Lord Roberts announced that his people were going the same day, and was as pleased over it as I was. While the things were being put on express teams I went out to say good-by to some of my friends, as I had made the acquaintance of a number of cats during my stay at the shore. It astonished me to find them in such a pitiable condition, and to find that they had given up hopes that their people would ever return for them. I could not understand this state of things and spent some time trying to console and cheer them. They paced wildly up and down, their thin bodies and hungry faces revealing their inward sufferings and they now began to realize that cold weather was approaching. Their plight was a serious thing to me and the time passed on for I hated to leave them to their misery, going back as I was to a comfortable home. When at last I hurried back, what was my horror to find that the family had gone and that the house was boarded up.
I walked around the house several times but no one was there. I became frenzied with fear. The wind was North and it was getting colder with the approach of night. I thought of Lord Roberts and proceeded to his house where I found that not only had his people gone but that he had been left locked up in the house.

CHAPTER VII
I tried to be brave, but when I heard the pitiful cries of Lord Roberts, I broke down and almost gave up in despair. This, then, was the end of my dreams of a happy life during my old age. Oh, human beings! Could you realize how dependent we are upon your kindness, you would never forget us in a time like this. I wished that I was a human being possessed of a soul, and could pray to God for deliverance from such misery as I had witnessed, when suddenly I remembered that I had heard a teacher in one of the class-rooms read from the Bible one morning that not even a sparrow could fall to the ground and He not heed. It gave me courage for I thought