OUR[1]PETS
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS,
LONDON AND NEW YORK.
[2]Kronheim & Co., London.
OUR PETS.
This is Pol-ly's own cat, Top-sy. She looks ve-ryprim and quiet; but if you play with her, you willfind she is a ve-ry mer-ry lit-tle cat. She will jumpup-on the ta-ble at break-fast, and run off withPol-ly's toast; and if mam-ma be wri-ting a let-ter,Top-sy will steal soft-ly a-long the arm of the so-fa,and rub her paw o-ver the last word mam-ma haswrit-ten, and make a great blot in the let-ter.Some-times she will sit as still as a mouse on Un-cleTom's shoul-der while he is read-ing, and lookso grave-ly on the book that you might think shewas read-ing too: but she is not quite wise e-noughfor that.
Car-lo is Har-ry's dog, and a ve-ry good dog heis. If you were to throw a stone twen-ty timesin-to the foam-ing sea, Car-lo would plunge in, with-out[5][4]a-ny fear, and bring the ve-ry same stone outto you. And if Har-ry loses his ball a-mong thelong grass, Car-lo brings it in a mi-nute. And hecan do bet-ter things than these, for one day inwin-ter, when the ri-ver was fro-zen, and Har-rywas ska-ting on it ve-ry nice-ly, he came to a placewhere the ice was thin, for a hole had been bro-kenthe day before, and there had not been time for itto get hard a-gain. Poor Har-ry broke throughthe ice and sank down in-to the wa-ter; he wouldhave been drown-ed, but Car-lo di-ved down, andbrought him out safe. No won-der Car-lo is a pet.
These pi-geons be-long to lit-tle Pol-ly. Theyhave a ve-ry pret-ty house to live in, and Pol-ly feedsthem e-ve-ry morn-ing with bar-ley or peas. Whenthey see her come with her lit-tle bas-ket, they allfly down from the roof of the dove-cot, and willhop round her, perch on her should-er, and eatfrom her hand. But if they see Top-sy steal-ingun-der the Trees, or Car-lo run-ning o-ver the grass-plot,a-way they all fly. The Pi-geons trust Pol-ly,but they will not trust sly puss, nor rough Car-lo.[6]Pret-ty, shy pets, are Pol-ly's pi-geons.
Rab-bits are pret-ty mild crea-tures. Some-timesthey live on moors, where they hide in bur-rows,which are holes in the ground, t