A Cat Adopts Orphaned Chicks
A RESIDENT of Decorah, Iowa, vouches for the truthfulness of the following narrative, he having been an eye-witness of the singular facts which it exhibits. An old gentleman and his wife, who reside in the suburbs of a Western city, take great delight in raising chickens. Last spring, as the "setting" season came around, he procured a dozen eggs laid by hens of a valuable breed, to put under his favorite "Plymouth." She sat on them for two weeks, hatched the chicks, brought them off, and then died of chicken cholera. The chicks were placed in a basket by the kitchen fire, where, one afternoon when the family were out visiting, they were found by Tom, the large black cat, a pet of the household. One by one, Tom lifted each chick out of the basket and placed it on his own bed in the kitchen corner. When the old folks returned, what was their surprise to see their pet cat curled up and surrounded by the contented orphan brood. Tom was allowed to care for them, and when they were large enough to run in the yard, they would follow him wherever he went. In due time the brood was ready for the gridiron. The head of a killed chicken was one of Tom's perquisites; but when he was offered the head of one of his decapitated chicks, he took it, carried it to his bed, lay down near it, and howled. That was his lament over the death of his adopted children.—Sel.