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the cat - World eBook Library

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THE CAT:<br />

The Young Man and His Cat<br />

A young man owned a <strong>cat</strong> with which he was<br />

wont to sport, and which he greatly loved. Day<br />

and night he prayed to Venus, that she would show<br />

favour to him and to his cherished pet. The kindly<br />

goddess heard his prayer, and changed <strong>the</strong> <strong>cat</strong> into<br />

<strong>the</strong> most beautiful of maidens, whom <strong>the</strong> youth<br />

married that very day. But alas! even on <strong>the</strong>ir<br />

wedding night, when <strong>the</strong> bride lay clasped in her<br />

husband's arms, she heard a mouse scamper across<br />

<strong>the</strong> room, and leaped lightly from her bed to pur-<br />

sue it. Venus, angry at this profanation of wife-<br />

hood, and perceiving that, however altered in form,<br />

a <strong>cat</strong> remains a <strong>cat</strong> at heart, changed her back into<br />

a beast, in order that soul and body might be in<br />

conformity.<br />

131<br />

Msop's Fables.

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