The Oregon daily journal., November 08, 1908, Page 36, Image 36

THB OJHSGOS SUNDAY; JOURNAL, PORTLAND; SUNDAY MORNING,1 NOVEMBER 8
i.n i i111"!'1
MMMMMMMmMi
Just enough pounded to be picturesque, rniles on miles
or iplendid .men, all bearing the trophies of glorious
war. and armed with lances and bows and arrows,
" falchions, a morg easterns, .-marteli-de-fer, and other
choice Implements of justifiable homicide, and the re
' verse, "such as hautboys and sackbuts and accordeons
and dudelsacks and Scotch bag-pipes a glorious sight!
- And, as has been said before the city gates rang with
H cheers Cf the crowd, crtouoa bashers waved over
By 3cbn ..' BeoitelL
m BOY ,hav!fjg a Pet Cat S?.bichhe Wished to t- and so mey were rrw to my faith fflta the city streets
l ?ed. Said to Her, "Come, Cat, Drink this and watch tH King's home-comlmr in erand oarade.
But the cat sat down on his tail in the corner and
looked cross. "Scat 1 said he, with an angry caterwaul.
It is not fair that you should go and that I should
not
Oh. yes, it is," said the gleeful turnspits; "turn and
turn about is fair play; you saw the rat that was killed
in tne parlor."
A
Wsh or Creamj it will Keep Your urs as
" Soft as Silk, and Make You Purr like a Cof
JL H fee-MitL"
He had no sooner said this than the Cat,
with a Great Glare of her Green -Eyes,
bristled her Tail like a Gun-Swab and went over the
I Back Fence, head first pop ! as Mad as a Wet Hen.
1 And this is how the came to do so; -
frHB CAT THAT GSQyHB COFFEE IN .THE KING'S KTTCHEW
'
The story is an old one very, very old. It may be
'Persian; it may be not ; that is of very little moment,
jit Is so old that if all the nine lives of all the cats that
have ever lived in the world were set up together in
line, the other end of it would just reach back to
"the tirne when this occurred.
And this is the sad story:
Many, many years ago, in a country which was quite
as far from anywhere else as the entire distance thither
and back, there- was a huge cat that ground the
coffee in the King's kitchen, and otherwise assisted with
Che meals,
Turn about fair olay. Indeed!" ! tk rf .
'Then all of you get to your spits ; I am sure that is
turn about I"
"Nay," said the-turnspits, wagging their tails and
Jaughlng. That is over and over again, which is not
fair pla Tis the coffee-mill that is turn and turn
about Saturn about to your mill,. Sooty WilL we ara
eff to see the King!" '
With that they pranced- out' into the courtyardt
turning hand-springs head-springs, and heel-springs
as they went, and, after giving three hearty and vocif
erous 'cheers in a grand chorus at the bottom of the
garden, went capering away for their holiday.
The cat soat'at their vanishing heeli, sat down on
his tail in the chimney-corner, and waa very glum in
deed, i
Just then the cook looked In from the pantry.
'Hullo I" he said gruffly. "Come, hurry up the coffee 1
That was the way he always gave his orders.
The black cat's whiskers bristled. He turned to the
mill with a fierce frown, his long tail going to and fro
like that of a tiger in its lair; for Sooty Will had X
temper like. hot gunpowder, that was apt to go off sis
whist, bang and no one to save the pieces. Yet, at
least while the cook was by, he turned the mill furi
ously, as If with a right good-will.
Meantime, out In the city a glorious day dame on.
The sun went buzzing up the pink-and-yellow sky with
a sound like that of a walking-doll's, works, or of a big
"HSU.O" he said gruffly, "coms hurry v thb coffer."
1 This cat was; In truth, the actual and very father Of
all subsequent cats, and his nam -was Sooty Will (for
his hair was as black as a night in a coal hole. He
was ninety years old, and his mustaches were like
whisk-brooms. But . the most singular thing about him
was that in all his life he had never fence purred' nor
humped up his back, although his master often stroked
him. The fact was that he never had learned to purr,
nor had any reason, so far as he knew, for humping
up his back. And being; the father of all the cats,
there was no one to tell him how. It remained for him
to acquire a reason, and from his example to devise a
habjt which cats have followed from that, time forth,
and no doubt will forever follow.
The King of the country had long been at war with
one of his neighbors, but one morning he sent back a
Dutch dock behind a door; banners waved from the
castled heights, and bugles sang from every tower;,
the city gates rang with the cheers of the enthusiastic
crowd. Up from cellars, down from lofts, off work
benches, and out at the doors of their masters' shops
dodging the thwacks of their masters' straps, "pop-popping-like
corks from the necks of so many bottles;
came apprentices, shop-boys, knaves and scullions, cry
ing: "God save the King! Hurrah I Hurrah! Mas-
ters and work may go to Rome; our tasks shall wait
on our own sweet wills; 't is holiday when the King
comes home. God save the King! Hurrah 1"
Then came the procession. There were first three
regiments of trumpeters, all blowing different tunes j
then fifteen regiments of mounted infantry on coal
black hprses, forty squadrons of greea-aad-bluo dra-
. TXTSSIKQ HAWS SPRINGS, HEAD SPRINGS AND HEEL SPRINGS AS THEY WENT
I will not stand it It Is not fair. A cat may look at
a king; and if any cat may look at a king, why, I am
the cat who may. There are no other cats in the
world; I am the only one. Pooh the cook may shout
till his breath give out, he cannot frighten me; for
once I am going to have my fling!"
So he forthwith swallowed the coffee-mill, box,
handle, drawer-knobs, coffecwcll, and all, and was off
to seftj the King, " - - -
I, M KA
FARTS OF TBI3 GREAT PROCESSION
the dry's pinnacled summits, and bugles blew, trum
pets brayed, and drums beat until it seemed that wild
uproar and rich display had reached its high millennium.
HB FORTHWITH SWALLOWED THE COFFEB MUX
The black cat turned the coffee-mill. "My oh 1 my
oh r he said. "It certainly is not fair that those bench-
i
AND WAS OFF TO SEE THE KINO
legged turnspits with feet like so much leather should
see the King marching home in his glory, while I, who
go shod, as it were, in velvet, should hear only the
"WHERE IS THE COFFEE?" SAID THE COOK
So far, so good. But, ah! the sad and undeniable
truth, that brightest joys too soon must end! Triumphs
cannot last forever, even in a land of legends. There
comes a reckoning.
drooping tall, stood by the- palace gate, dejected. He,
was sour and silent and glum. Indeed, who would not
be, with a coffee-mill on his conscience ? " To own up
to the entire truth, the cat was feeling decidedly un
well; when suddenly the cook popped his" head In at
the scullery entry, crying, "How now, how now, you
vagabonds! The war is done, but the breakfast is rior,;
Hurry up, scurry up, scamper and trot! , The cakes
are all cooked and are piping hot! Then why Is the
coffee so slow V
The King was In the dining-hall, In dressing-gown
and slippers, irately calling for his breakfast t ;
The shamefaced, guilty cat rail hastily down the'
scullery stairs and hid under the refrigerator, .with I
such a deep inward sensation of remorse that hai,;;
dared not look the kind cook in the face. It now really J
seemed to him as if everything had gone wrong with
the world, espedally his own insides. This any one' will 1 .
readily believe who has ever swallowed a toffee-milL j
He began to. weep copiously. -; I
The cook came into the kitchen. "Where is the cof-,
fee?" he said: then, catching sight of the seduded
cat, he stooped, crying, "Where is the .coffee?" ,',-'
The cat sobbed audibly. "Some one must have come
Into the kitchen while I ran out to look t the King!"
he gasped, for there seemed to him no way out of the
scrape but by telling a plausible untruth. "Some one
must have came into the kitchen and stolen it!" And
with that, choking upon the handle of the mill, which
projected into his throat, he burst into inarticulate sobs.
The cook, who was, in truth, a very kind-hearted
man, sought to reassure the poor cat. "There; it is
unfortunate, very: but do not weep; thieves thrive iir
king's houses!" he said, and, stooping, he began to i
stroke the drooping cat's back to show that he held the
weeping creature blameless. !
Sooty Will's heart leaped into his throat v .
"Oh, ohi" he half gasped, "oh, oh I If he rubs his
great hand down my back he wUl feel the. corners of ;
the coffee-mill through my ribs as sure as fate I Oh,
oh! I am a gone cat!" And with that, in an agony
of apprehension lest his guilt and his falsehood be thus ,
presently detected, he humped up his back as high in
the air as he could, so that the corners of the mill
might not make bumps in his sides and that the mill,
might thus remain undiscovered.
But, alas! he forgot that coffee-mills turn. As he
humped up his back to cover his guilt, the coffee-mill .
inside rolled over, . and, as it rolled, began to grind
rr-rr-rr-rr-rr-rr-rr-rr-rr.
"Oh, ohl you have swallowed the mill!" cried the
cook. - ' " -t
"No. no," cried the cat; "I was only thinking aloud.
At that out''steppcd the Genius that Lived under tha
Great Ovens, and, with his finger pointed at the cat, ,
said,Jn a frightful voice, husky with wood-ashes: "Mis
erable and pusillanimous beast! By telling A falsehood
to cover a wrong you have only made bad matters
worse. For betraying man's kindness to cover , your
shame, a curse shall be, upon you and all your kind
until the end of the world. Whenever men stroke you
in kindness, remembrance of your guilt shall make you
hump up your back with shame, as you did to avoid
being found out; and in order that the reason for this
curse shall never be forgotten, whenever man is kind
to a cat the sound of the grinding of a coffee-mill in
side shall perpetually remind him of your guilt and,
shame 1" ,
With thstthe Genius vanished In a cloud of smoke.1
And it was even as he said. From that day Sooty
Will could never abide having his hack stroked without
tiumping it up to conceal the mill within him; and'
never aa ne nump up ins nacK dui inc conec-nuu, pc
fran slowly to grind, rr-rr-rrfr t. inside him; ' sa
that, even in the prime of life, before his declining days
had come, being seized upon by a great remorse- for
these things which might never be amended, he re
tired to a home for aged and reputable cats, and there,
so far as the records reveal, lived fa remainder of
his days ill charity and rsQCBtancCt . .
r
RFC-Aim
OUT STEFTED THE CINIUS THAT LIVED UNDER THS GREAT OVEN 3
THE CAT WAS FEELING DECIDEDLY UNWELL
sound through the scullerv windows. It is not fair.
It is no doubt true that 'The cat may mew, and the
dog shall have his day,' but I have as much right to
When the procession Was past and gone, as all pro
cessions pass and go, vanishing down the shores of
forgetfulness ; when barons, marquises, dukes, and dons
were gone, with their pennants and banners; when the
-last 1-aneers had gone prancing past and were lost to
sight down the circuitous avenue, Sooty Will, with
But the curse has come dawtt even tfl thft present
day, as the Genius that Lived'under the Great Ovens
said, and still maintains, though cats have probably for
gotten the facts, and so, when stroked, hump ,up their
hacks and purr as if these actions were a matter of
pride instead of being a blot upon their family record,
)
messengtfto say that he had beaten his foeman at
last, and that he was coming home for an early break
fast as hungry as three bears. "Have batter-cakes and
coffee,,, he directed, "hot,, and plenty of 'em!"
At that the turnspits capered and yelped with glee,
for balterkesrul.coff5eotcooked upon spits,
IT SEEMED A3 IF EVERY THTNCI HAS GONE WR0N0
goons, and a' thousand drummers and fifers in, scarlet
and blue and gold, making a thunderine- dia with their
rootle-te-tootle-fe-tootle-te-rootle; and a prettyjveH-upT-. - ' 1
to the front in the ranks was the King himself, bowing my day as he; and Has it not been said from Imme
... and smiling to the populace, with his hand on his mortal that 'A ct may look at a king? Indeed it
breast and after him the army, all in shining arrnori has, quite as mufljjs that the dog may have his day.
'
-4JvL tin
t i4 '
EX RETIRED TO A HOME. FOR AGED JkSO RESPECTABLE CAT)
CORYItlG
m BY THC CCMTUBY COMPANY
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