id a passing guardian of the night, from the
street, 'you had better pop your head in and stop your noise. If
you don't, you will rue it; now mind-I-tell-ye.'

''Look here, old Charley,' said I, in return, 'don't be
impertinent. It is your business to preserve the peace, and to
obviate every evil that looks disgracious in the city's eye. You
guard the slumbers of her citizens; and if you expect a dollar
from me at Christmas, for the poetry in your next annual address,
you will perform what I now request, and what it is your solemn
and bounded duty to do. Spring your rattle; comprehend that vagrom
cat, and take her to the watch-house, I will appear as plaintiff
against the quadruped, before the mayor, in the morning. Her
character is bad--her habits are scandalous.'

''Oh, pshaw!' said the watchman, and went clattering up the
street, singing 'N'hav p-a-st dwelve o'glock, and a glowdee morn.'

'I reverted to my pillow, and fell into a train of conjectures
touching the grimalkin. Possibly it might be the darling old
friend of Miss Dillon. Then I thought of others--then I slept.

'I cannot declare to a second how long my fitful slumber lasted,
before I was startled from my bed by a yell, which proceeded
apparently from a cat in my room. I had just been dreaming of a
great mouser, with ears like a jackass, and claws, armed with long
'pickers and stingers,' sitting on my bosom, and sucking away my
breath. I sprang at once into the middle of the room. I searched
every where--nothing was in the apartment. Then there rushed
toward the zenith one universal cat-shriek, which went echoing off
on the night-wind like the reverberation of a sharp thunder-peal.

'My blood was now _up_ for vengeance. One hungry and fiery wish to
destroy that diabolical caterwauler, took possession of my soul.
At that instant the clock struck one. It was the death knell of
the feline vocalist. I looked out of the window, and in the light
of a stray lot of moonshine, streaming through the tall chimneys
to the south-east, I saw Miss Dillon's romantic favorite,
alternately cooing and fighting with a large mouser of the
neighborhood, that I had seen for several afternoons previous,
walking leisurely along the garden wall, as if absorbed in deep
meditation, and forming some libertine resolve. In fine, they each