The Animal Story Book Part 10

'Did I say so? I think you are making a mistake, Madame Lamarque.'

'Indeed, sir, you did say so. Then I said to myself, "Providence has sent us the cat which my master wishes for." And now there is one question I must ask you, sir. What shall we call the cat?'

'We will call it Mysouff, if you have no objection. And please be careful, Madame Lamarque, that it does not eat my quails and turtle-doves, or any of my little foreign birds.'

'If M. Dumas is afraid of that,' said Michel, coming in, 'there is a method of preventing cats from eating birds.'

'And what is the method, my good friend?'

'You have a bird in a cage. Very well. You cover three sides of the cage, you make a gridiron red-hot, you put it against the uncovered side of the cage, you let out the cat, and you leave the room. The cat, when it makes its spring, jumps against the hot gridiron. The hotter the gridiron is the better the cat is afterwards.'

'Thank you, Michel. And what of the troubadour and his monkey?'

'To be sure; I was coming to tell you about that. It is all right, sir; you are to have Potich for forty francs, only you must give the boy two white mice and a guinea-pig in return.'

'But where am I to find two white mice and a guinea-pig?'

'If you will leave the commission to me, I will see that they are found.'

I left the commission to Michel.

'If you won't think me impertinent, sir,' said Madame Lamarque, 'I should so like to know what _Mysouff_ means.'

'Mysouff just means Mysouff, Madame Lamarque.'

'It is a cat's name, then?'

'Certainly, since Mysouff the First was so-called. It is true, Madame Lamarque, you never knew Mysouff.' And I became so thoughtful that Madame Lamarque was kind enough to withdraw quietly, without asking any questions about Mysouff the First.

That name had taken me back to fifteen years ago, when my mother was still living. I had then the great happiness of having a mother to scold me sometimes. At the time I speak of, I had a situation in the service of the Duc d'Orleans, with a salary of 1,500 francs. My work occupied me from ten in the morning until five in the afternoon. We had a cat in those days whose name was Mysouff. This cat had missed his vocation--he ought to have been a dog. Every morning I started for my office at half-past nine, and came back every evening at half-past five. Every morning Mysouff followed me to the corner of a particular street, and every evening I found him in the same street, at the same corner, waiting for me. Now the curious thing was that on the days when I had found some amus.e.m.e.nt elsewhere, and was not coming home to dinner, it was no use to open the door for Mysouff to go and meet me.[5] Mysouff, in the att.i.tude of the serpent with its tail in its mouth, refused to stir from his cushion. On the other hand, the days I did come, Mysouff would scratch at the door until someone opened it for him. My mother was very fond of Mysouff; she used to call him her barometer.

[5] A remarkable instance of telepathy in the Cat.--A. L.

'Mysouff marks my good and my bad weather,' my dear mother would say; 'the days you come in are my days of sunshine; my rainy days are when you stay away.'

When I came home, I used to see Mysouff at the street corner, sitting quite still and gazing into the distance. As soon as he caught sight of me, he began to move his tail; then as I drew nearer, he rose and walked backwards and forwards across the pavement with his back arched and his tail in the air. When I reached him, he jumped up upon me as a dog would have done, and bounded and played round me as I walked towards the house; but when I was close to it he dashed in at full speed. Two seconds after, I used to see my mother at the door.

Never again in this world, but in the next perhaps, I shall see her standing waiting for me at the door.

That is what I was thinking of, dear readers, when the name of Mysouff brought back all these recollections; so you understand why I did not answer Madame Lamarque's questions.

Henceforth Mysouff II. enjoyed the same privileges that Mysouff I. had done, although, as will be seen later, he was not distinguished by similar virtues, but was, in fact, a very different sort of cat.

IV

The following Sunday, when my son Alexandre and one or two intimate friends were a.s.sembled in my room, a second Auvergnat boy, with a second monkey, demanded admittance, and said that a friend having told him that M. Dumas had bought his monkey for forty francs, two white mice, and a guinea-pig, he was prepared to offer his for the same price. My friends urged me to buy the second monkey.

'Do buy this charming creature,' said my artist friend Giraud.

'Yes, do buy this ridiculous little beast,' said Alexandre.

'Buy him, indeed,' said I; 'have I forty francs to give away every day, to say nothing of a guinea-pig and two white mice?'

'Gentlemen,' said Alexandre, 'I am sorry to tell you that my father is, without exception, the most avaricious man living.'

My guests exclaimed, but Alexandre said that one day he would prove the truth of his a.s.sertion. I was now called upon to admire the monkey, and to remark how like he was to a friend of ours. Giraud, who was painting a portrait of this gentleman, said that if I would let the monkey sit to him, it would help him very much in his work, and Maquet, another of my guests, offered, amidst general applause, to make me a present of it.[6] This decided me.

[6] Maquet. The immortal Augustus MacKeat.

'You see,' said Alexandre, 'he accepts.'

'Come, young man,' said I to the Auvergnat, 'embrace your monkey for the last time, and if you have any tears to shed, shed them without delay.'

When the full price was paid, the boy made an attempt to do as I told him, but the Last of the Laidmanoirs refused to be embraced by his former master, and as soon as the latter had gone away, he seemed delighted and began to dance, while Mademoiselle Desgarcins in her cage danced, too, with all her might.

'Look!' said Maquet, 'they like each other. Let us complete the happiness of these interesting animals.'

We shut them up in the cage together, to the great delight of Mademoiselle Desgarcins, who did not care for Potich, and much preferred her new admirer. Potich, indeed, showed signs of jealousy, but, not being armed with the sword which he used to have when he fought duels, he could not wash out his affronts in the blood of his rival, but became a prey to silent melancholy and wounded affection.

While we were still looking at the monkeys, a servant came in bringing a tray with wine and seltzer water.

'I say,' said Alexandre, 'let us make Mademoiselle Desgarcins open the seltzer-water bottle!' and he put the bottle inside the cage on the floor. No sooner had he done so, than all three monkeys surrounded it and looked at it with the greatest curiosity. Mademoiselle Desgarcins was the first to understand that something would happen if she undid the four crossed wires which held down the cork. She accordingly set to work, first with her fingers, and then with her teeth, and it was not long before she undid the first three. She next attacked the fourth, while the whole company, both men and monkeys, watched her proceedings with breathless attention. Presently a frightful explosion was heard: Mademoiselle Desgarcins was knocked over by the cork and drenched with seltzer water, while Potich and the Last of the Laidmanoirs fled to the top of their cage, uttering piercing cries.

'Oh!' cried Alexandre, 'I'll give my share of seltzer water to see her open another bottle!' Mademoiselle Desgarcins had got up, shaken herself, and gone to rejoin her companions, who were still howling lamentably.

'You don't suppose she'll let herself be caught a second time,' said Giraud.

'Do you know,' said Maquet, 'I should not wonder if she would. I believe her curiosity would still be stronger than her fear.'

'Monkeys,' said Michel, who had come in on hearing their cries, 'are more obstinate than mules. The more seltzer-water bottles you give them, the more they will uncork.'

'Do you think so, Michel?'

'You know, of course, how they catch them in their own country.'

'No, Michel.'

'What! you don't know _that_, gentlemen?' said Michel, full of compa.s.sion for our ignorance. 'You know that monkeys are very fond of Indian corn. Well, you put some Indian corn into a bottle, the neck of which is just large enough to admit a monkey's paw. He sees the Indian corn through the gla.s.s----'

'Well, Michel?'

'He puts his hand inside, and takes a good handful of the Indian corn.

At that moment the hunter shows himself. They are so obstinate--the monkeys, I mean--that they won't let go what they have in their hand, but as they can't draw their closed fist through the opening, there they are, you see, caught.'

'Well, then, Michel, if ever our monkeys get out, you will know how to catch them again.'

'Oh! no fear, sir, that is just what I shall do.'