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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.