th shut mouths; until the household cat, lost in
amazement at prolonged neglect, had ventured to creep from the
coal-hole, and take up a modest position on the floor, in the shadow of
its little old mistress.

There is no saying how long this state of things would have gone on, if
it had not been for the exuberant spirits of Otto, who, under an impulse
of maternal affection, sprang to his mother's side with intent to
embrace her, and unwittingly planted his foot on the cat's tail.

Then, indeed, the convoluted outline came to an abrupt end; for, with a
volcanic explosion, suggestive of thunder and lightning, inlaid with
dynamite, the hapless creature sprang from the room, followed by a
shriek from its mistress, and a roar of laughter from all the rest.

It is not certainly known where that cat spent the following fortnight.
The only thing about it that remains on record is the fact that, at the
end of that space of time, it returned to its old haunts, deeply
humbled, and much reduced; that it gradually became accustomed to the
new state of things, and even mounted the table, and sat blinking in its
old position, and grew visibly fatter, while the old lady revived old
times by stroking it, as she had been wont to, and communicating to it
some of her thoughts and fancies.

"Ay, pussy," she said, on one of these occasions when they chanced to be
alone together, "little did you and I think, when we used to be sitting
so comfortably here, that our darlings were being tossed about and
starved in open boats on the stormy sea! Ah! pussy, pussy, we little
knew--but `it's all well that ends well,' as a great writer that you
know nothing about has said, and you and I can never, never be thankful
enough for getting back, safe and sound, our dear old man, and our
darling boys, and our--our little Pauline, the Island Queen."

THE END.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Island Queen, by R.M. Ballantyne

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