the cat - World eBook Library

THE CAT;
A Captain's Kitten
A most tragical incident fell out this day at
sea. While the ship was under sail, but making,
as will appear, no great way, a kitten, one of the
four feline inhabitants of the cabin, fell from the
window into the water. An alarm was immediately
given to the captain, who was then upon deck,
and who received it with many bitter oaths. He
immediately gave orders to the steersman in favour
of the poor thing, as he called it; the sails were
instantly slackened, and all hands employed to re-
cover the animal. I was, I own, surprised at this
less, indeed, at the captain's extreme tenderness,
than at his conceiving any possibility of success;
for if Puss had had nine thousand instead of nine
lives, I concluded they had all been lost. The
boatswain, however, was more sanguine; for hav-
ing, stripped himself of his jacket, breeches, and
shirt, he leaped boldly into the water, and, to my
great astonishment, in a few minutes returned to
the ship, bearing the motionless animal in his
mouth. Nor was this, I observed, a matter of such
great difficulty as it appeared to my ignorance, and
possibly may seem to that of my fresh-water
reader. The kitten was now exposed to air and sun
on the deck, where its life, of which it retained no
symptoms, was despaired of by all.
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