. St. Nicholas [serial] . might not make bumps in his the coffee-mill inside rolled over, and, as itrolled, began to grind—rr-rr-rr-rr-rr-rr-rr-rr-rr-rr! Oh, oh! you have swallowed the mill!cried the cook. No, no, cried the cat; I was only think-ing aloud. At that out stepped the Genius that Livedunder the Great Ovens, and, with his fingerpointed at the cat, said in a frightful voice,husky with wood-ashes : Miserable and pusil-lanimous beast! By telling a falsehood tocover a wrong you have only made bad mat-ters worse. For betraying mans kindness tocover your shame, a curse shall be upon youan
. St. Nicholas [serial] . might not make bumps in his the coffee-mill inside rolled over, and, as itrolled, began to grind—rr-rr-rr-rr-rr-rr-rr-rr-rr-rr! Oh, oh! you have swallowed the mill!cried the cook. No, no, cried the cat; I was only think-ing aloud. At that out stepped the Genius that Livedunder the Great Ovens, and, with his fingerpointed at the cat, said in a frightful voice,husky with wood-ashes : Miserable and pusil-lanimous beast! By telling a falsehood tocover a wrong you have only made bad mat-ters worse. For betraying mans kindness tocover your shame, a curse shall be upon youand all your kind until the end of the men stroke you in kindness, remem-brance of your guilt shall make you hump upyour back with shame, as you did to avoidbeing found out; and in order that the reasonfor this curse shall never be forgotten, when-ever man is kind to a cat the sound of thegrinding of a coffee-mill inside shall perpetuallyremind him of your guilt and shame! 1902.] HOW CATS CAME TO PURR. IO99. HE RETIRED TO A HOME FOR AGED AND REPUTABLE With that the Genius vanished in a cloud ofsmoke. And it was even as he said. From that day-Sooty Will could never abide having his backstroked without humping it up to conceal themill within him ; and never did he hump up hisback but the coffee-mill began slowly to grind,rr-rr-rr-rr! inside him; so that, even in theprime of life, before his declining days hadcome, being seized upon by a great remorse forthese things which might never be amended, he retired to a home for aged and reputablecats, and there, so far as the records reveal,lived the remainder of his days in charity andrepentance. But the curse has come down even to thepresent day, as the Genius that Lived under theGreat Ovens said, and still maintains, thoughcats have probably forgotten the facts, and so,when stroked, hump up their backs and purr asif these actions were a matter of pride insteadof being a blot upon their family record. PERHAPS YOU
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