Page 136 (1/2)

"And I'm all alone, and not even a cat to care about me," I said to

myself; and, weak and miserable, the tears came into my eyes as I

stopped in one of the cross paths

I started, and dashed away a tear or two that irl,

for just then there was a rustle, and looking round, there was one of

Old Browns the path with curved back, and tail

drooped sidewise, and every hair upon it erect till it looked like a

drooping plume

The cat suddenly rushed at me, stopped short, tore round me, and then

ran a little way, and crouched, as if about toup in a very stately way to rub hier, old fellow," I said, "are you coood-bye?"

I don't think the cat understood me, but he looked up, blinked, and

uttered a pathetic kind of mew that went to my heart, as I stooped

down and lifted hi hi loudly, and inserting his claws gently intothereat sandy Tom, with stripes down his sides, but he

seemed to me just then to be the handsomest cat I had ever seen, and the