Wehave a beautiful cat in our possession, so far
as one can be said to possess a cat (since the days of
witchcraft the title to possession is not quite so clear),
a he-cat of the striped or striated kind, striped like a
very squash. We were lying the other day on our back
in our orchard, staring up into a streaked-apple tree.
and thinking, as the apples fell, of little Isaac Newton
and the curious upcomes after falls. From Newton's
apple tree our thoughts fell off to Darwin, meanwhile
Rob lying on our lap, purring out his heart's content,
and probably thinking in his feline fashion. Near us
was a fence dividing our lot from neighbour Smith's,
and, even as we looked, over this fence a wild squash
was climbing. How often we had tried to keep it on
our own side. Noticing it again, we were puzzled by
the strange likeness between the squash (striped too)
and Rob, particularly as regarded Rob. It struck me
then that both were climbers. Often we had watched
them in sunshine and in moonlight, and day or night
Rob was just as difficult as the squash to keep on the
home side of the fence. Darwin in our thoughts, the
question arose — Why this? What is the cause of the
to Jenny, their bridal sacrament, is his own life-blood,
The dusk brown evening boasts its ruddy heaven, yet
ruddier than the early morning glow as Robin's blood
is of a richer tint than all the glory of his living coat.
