Now, although the cat can be abused like a toy doll by the children without losing his temper, yet he has the most curiously composed disposition of all the domestic animals.  Although extravagantly domesticated, and although he shares our beds and tables with impunity, yet he is, to the mouse, as cruel and treacherous as a man-eating tiger.

However, we did not take up our pen to discuss cat psychology.  Upon entering the strange person’s house so unceremoniously, I sat me down upon a vacant chair, also uninvited, and began to make myself at home.

The strange persons did not seem to take any exception to my strange behavior, but, kept on talking as though nothing extraordinary had taken place in the human social regulations.  I was more interested in the cat than I was in the people, and I could not keep my eye from him, he was so much like our “Teddy” at home.

At last I convinced myself that it was Teddy.

“Where did you get that cat?” I asked.

“Why, we have always had him.  We raised him.  He sleeps with the children every night, and gets up with them in the morning—­when he is here,” said the mother.

Our Teddy had the same weakness, and I was so positive that this was he that I called him by name.

In a moment he came to me and was on my knee—­it was indeed Teddy.

Now, here was one of the most unique situations on record.

“This is my cat,” I said demandingly.

“It is ours,” said the chorus of children’s voices.

It suddenly occurred to me that Teddy was in the habit of leaving home and would be absent for several days at a time.  Could it be possible he had two homes?  Did this cat actually accept the affections and hospitality of two distinct families, at the same time, without once breathing the truth or giving himself away?

I went home puzzled to my wife and said: 

“Do you know, Teddy is not all ours?”

“What do you mean?”

I was just about to tell my strange story when I awoke, and, behold, it was a dream.

BITS OF HISTORY

Of the Foolhardy Expedition

The people who inhabited this globe during the year 1725 undoubtedly obtained a different view of things terrestrial than we do who claim the world’s real estate in 1915, because they had no telegraph, no telephone, no electric light, no automobile, and no aeroplane.  How they managed to live at all is a mystery to the twentieth century biped.  Fancy having to cross the street to your neighbor’s house when you wanted to ask him if he was going to the pioneer supper, and just think of having no “hello girl” to flirt with.  The condition seems appalling.  But what they lacked in knowledge and in indolent conveniences we beg to announce that they made up in foolhardiness which they called bravery.  Well, if it can be called brave to make a needless target of oneself to a bunch of savage Indians, why then they had the proper derivation of the term.