Produced by Richard Tonsing, David Edwards and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
PUSSY BLACK-FACE or: the Story of a Kitten and Her Friends
Author of “Beautiful Joe,” “Beautiful Joe's Paradise,” “'Tilda Jane,” etc.
“When I play with my cat, who knows whether I do not make her more sport than she makes me?”
Boston ❧ L. C. Page & Company ❧ Mdccccxiii
_Copyright_, 1913, _by_ L. C. PAGE & COMPANY (INCORPORATED)
First Impression, May, 1913 Second Impression, June, 1913
THE COLONIAL PRESS C. H. SIMONDS & CO., BOSTON, U. S. A.
I DEDICATE THIS STORY OF A LITTLE CAT TO THAT WHOLEHEARTED FRIEND OF ANIMALS—MRS. HUNTINGTON-SMITH Of THE ANIMAL RESCUE LEAGUE, 51 CARVER STREET, BOSTON
“MY MOTHER BEGAN TO POLISH OFF MY HEAD” 39
“SHE PUT HER HEAD FIRST ON ONE SIDE THEN ON THE OTHER, 50 TILL SHE CRACKED IT ALL TO PIECES”
“'MONA,' I SAID CONFIDENTIALLY, 'I AM HAVING A DREADFUL 80 TIME'”
“SHE SLIPPED BETWEEN THE BIG DOG'S FRONT PAWS, AND SAT 150 THERE COWERING AND TREMBLING”
“OUT ON THE PLOUGHED LAND UNDER THE APPLE TREES, A FURRY 188 BALL WAS ROLLING OVER AND OVER”
“'MY FRIENDS, ... I STAND BEFORE YOU THIS EVENING QUITE 244 UNPREPARED'”
“THE ROOSTER KEPT SO FAR AHEAD THAT NO ONE BUT OURSELVES 281 SUSPECTED THE MISCHIEF SHE WAS DOING”
My name is Pussy Black-Face, and I am a naughty young kitten. I wish I were good like my mother. She is the best cat that I ever saw. I try to be like her, and sometimes I succeed, but most times I don't.
My mother's disposition is really lovely, but then she has a weak back. It seems to me that if I had a weak back I should be good, too, but when there is a spring in my spine that makes me want to jump all the time, and something curled up in my paws that makes me want to seize things, what can I do? How can I be good?
My mother purrs wholesome advice into my ears, and tells me to try, to try hard, and so I do, but usually it doesn't seem of any use. I might as well be bad all the time, and not worry about it.
Every night, as we sit around the fire before we go to bed, I think things over. You know how cats look and act when they are getting sleepy. Some people say that cats are stupid and can't think or feel. Don't you believe it. They are just as clever as any animals.