 | Life and sayings of Mrs. Partington and others
of the family |  |
IKE IN THE COUNTRY.
During the last winter Ike was sent to visit some of
Mrs. Partington's relatives, who live on the borders of
the Great Bay. Squid River, which empties into the
bay, is a very beautiful stream in summer, but in winter
it is dreary enough, with the tall trees, stripped of their
foliage, standing, as it were, shivering upon its brink.
But it is a rare skating course from Moose village to the
river's junction with the bay.
Ike had used up all his resources for fun at the end
of the third day. He had snowballed the cattle into a
frenzy, caught all the hens in a box trap, tied the pigs
together by the legs, sucked all the eggs he could find,
and was looking round for something else to do, while
the boys were at school. He was just calculating, as he
poised a snowball, how near he could come to a tame
pigeon on the window-sill without hitting it, when the
glass was saved by the appearance of the house-cat outside
the sacred precinct of the kitchen.
Ike had watched this cat wistfully ever since he had
been there, and the cat had manifested a strange repugnance
to him ever since he trod on her tail as she lay by
the stove. He immediately seized upon her, and expedients,
never wanting, soon suggested themselves to
him.
There were plenty of clam-shells about the yard, and,
selecting four of the smoothest, he, by the aid of some
with clam-shells and on the way to the river. Ike's idea
was to learn her to skate!
The river was smooth as glass, and a sharp wind blew
along its surface towards the bay. “Now, Puss,” said
Ike, as he pushed her upon the ice, “go it!” An
instinct of danger instantly seized upon her. Her claws,
which Ike had found so sharp a short time before, were
now useless to her, and, with a growl of spite, she
swelled her caudal appendage to an enormous size
which, taking the wind, impelled the poor feline like a
clipper over the slippery path. The tail stood straight
as a topmast, and grew bigger and bigger, and faster and
faster flew the animal to which the tail belonged. Ike
laughed till he cried to see the cat scudding before the
wind. But now the bay lay before her, and far out
over the smooth ice was the blue water of the sea.
The result can be guessed. The cat never came back,
and everybody wondered what had become of her, and
thought it augured ill luck for a cat to leave a house so
suddenly. Ike thought so, especially for the cat.
Ike's conscience reproached him sadly, but he compromised
the matter by leaving the tenants of the barn-yard
in peace all the while he staid there, and came home
with a pocket full of doughnuts and an enviable reputation
for propriety.
| Life and sayings of Mrs. Partington and others
of the family | |