at the top, where she could
just peep through the banisters. When I opened the door, she would give
a funny little mew, something like the mew cats make when they call
their kittens. Then as soon as I stepped on the first stair to come up
to her, she would race away at the top of her speed, and hide under a
bed; and when I reached the room, there would be no Pussy to be seen. If
I called her, she would come out from under the bed; but if I left the
room, and went down stairs without speaking, in less than a minute she
would fly back to her post at the head of the stairs, and call again
with the peculiar mew. As soon as I appeared, off she would run, and
hide under the bed as before. Sometimes she would do this three or four
times; and it was a favorite amusement of my mother's to exhibit this
trick of hers to strangers. It was odd, though; she never would do it
twice, when she observed that other people were watching. When I called
her, and she came out from under the bed, if there were strangers
looking on, she would walk straight to me in the demurest manner, as if
it were a pure accident that she happened to be under that bed; and no
matter what I did or said, her frolic was over for that day.

She used to follow me, just like a little dog, wherever I went. She
followed me to school every day, and we had great difficulty on Sundays
to keep her from following us to church. Once she followed me, when it
made a good many people laugh, in spite of themselves, on an occasion
when it was very improper for them to laugh, and they were all feeling
very sad. It was at the funeral of one of the professors in the college.

The professors' families all sat together; and when the time came for
them to walk out of the house and get into the carriages to go to the
graveyard, they were called, one after the other, by name. When it came
to our turn, my father and mother went first, arm-in-arm; then my sister
and I; and then, who should rise, very gravely, but my Pussy, who had
slipped into the room after me, and had not been noticed in the crowd.
With a slow and deliberate gait she walked along, directly behind my
sister and me, as if she were the remaining member of the family, as
indeed she was. People began to smile, and as we passed through the
front door, and went down the steps, some of the men and boys standing
there laughed out. I do not wonder; for it must have been a very comical
sight. In a second more, somebody sprang for