the cat - World eBook Library

THE CAT=
always interested him, and, until he understood it,
he wanted to hold the pen.
He always held himself in a kind of reserve with
his friend, as if he had said, " Let us respect our
personality, and not make a * mess ' of friendship."
He saw, with Emerson, the risk of degrading it to
trivial conveniency. " Why insist on rash per-
sonal relations with your friend? Leave this
touching and clawing.'' Yet I would not give an
unfair notion of his aloofness, his fine sense of the
sacredness of the me and the not-me. And, at
the risk of not being believed, I will relate an inci-
dent which was often repeated. Calvin had the
practice of passing a portion of the night in the
contemplation of its beauties, and would come into
our chamber over the roof of the conservatory
through the open window, summer and winter, and
go to sleep on the foot of my bed. He would do
this always exactly in the same way ; he never was
content to stay in the chamber if we compelled him
to go upstairs and through the door. He had the
obstinacy of General Grant. In the morning, he
performed his toilet, and went down to breakfast
with the rest of the family. Now, when the mis-
tress was absent from home, and at no other time,
Calvin would come in the morning, when the bell
rang, to the head of the bed, put up his forepaws
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