class="smcap">A Loving Father and Devoted Husband.”

TWELFTH CATERWAUL

I’ve been sitting in the gutter and wondering—
Strange dreams come to me in strange places—
The glare of approaching motor
Bewildered my thoughts still more.
I saw stranger things in the shadows
Than the glow of the lights revealed.
And the deepest shadows
Close behind the gleaming arcs of the motor
Showed heads that were snuggled close.
Edith Horton was one
And Brough—who is married—the other.
No matter how dark the night its shame is refulgent
To Heaven.
The chain of my reverie was broken
As the lash will draw blood from the purest....
And yet I am only a cat that was nearly
Run over!

THIRTEENTH CATERWAUL

Jack Horton has taken me back—
His father’s boots are now mouldy.
Edith does charity work and teaches in
Sunday-school. Brough is the superintendent....
The mortgage on Mallory’s house
Was foreclosed on Saturday morning.
Mallory, wife and six children
Were sitting out on the street,
Their shabby trappings about them....
A syndicate bought the house
From Brough—his profit was ten thousand dollars.
Brough is rolling in wealth.
But Mallory now and Brough
Will seem to me much more alike:
Neither will pay his bills.
... But Jack is kind to me
And Brough’s not the milk
That I drink!

FOURTEENTH CATERWAUL

When Mallory worked in the shops
He drank up the wages he earned.
Now that he’s out of a job
He’s docile and kind to his wife
And dawdles the baby all day.
Old Horton used to say that Mallory
Was a good mechanic and a bad father.
Thus do critics fall out—Now that Old Horton
Is dead
He could not reverse his opinion
Nor the marble slab on his grave.
Joe Mallory was always Jack’s chum; so Jack got after
His friends.... Now he’s delighted and proud
For he found Mallory a job
Which Mallory thoroughly liked and took
For the price of giving up drink.

FIFTEENTH CATERWAUL

Edith was reading the paper
Breakfasting on the couch
At the foot of which I sat.
Her face was as pale as a ghost.... She read
Something twice out loud:
“James Brough in the Bankruptcy Court.
Squandered his fortune on women;
Many society girls in his net.”
She fainted just as her mother came in; so I
Quietly left the room....
And yet there is now a law
That the lamps of motors be dimmed!

SIXTEENTH CATERWAUL

Jack and his older brother went to the wharf
As Ralph Dimon is going abroad.
He’s going to stay for some time....
Irene’s been released
From a very long engagement.
Not only for mourning it seems
That weddings are postponed.
Irene looks dejected and weary—
She came to see Edith this morning.
The two are off for the mountains together....
They say Ralph was richer than Brough.

SEVENTEENTH CATERWAUL

They are sending Jack to boarding-school—
He debated long should he take me?
If only I were a dog!—but grown boys
Don’t make pets of cats....
He doesn’t know why he’s going away—
But I do: Alice, the maid, is in trouble
And Mrs. Horton is shocked—and doesn’t
Want Jack to know.

EIGHTEENTH CATERWAUL

Ever since Jack went away
Mrs. Horton has looked after me.
The day he left
She came to the window
And threw out Old Horton’s boots.
At first I thought they were thrown
At me—but it seems that she threw them
Wide of the window!
When I voiced my surprise
She hurried to me and now
I sleep on her divan!

NINETEENTH CATERWAUL

Clarence Horton, Jerolamon Jones and a few
Of the other young bloods had a party last night—
Hunt breakfast they called it, I think.
They started by talking of dogs—hounds and
Horse-flesh and mounts. I gathered that sort of sport
Leaves all the toil to the dogs
And the glory and brush to the hunter.
For this kind of thing
They were well fit—
And none of them went home too sober!

TWENTIETH CATERWAUL

Mrs. Horton sent Alice away—she left last night
After dark.
It was better the neighbors
Shouldn’t see!
There was no reason therefore
To send poor Jack away!—
Perhaps it was just as well?
Mrs. Horton wouldn’t have Alice around
Lest it embarrass Edith and—her....
I followed Alice some way and she seemed
Quite cheerful enough.
Waiting is much the same
No matter what one expects.

TWENTY-FIRST CATERWAUL

Brough is through with the Courts
And continues to ride in his car.
He called for Edith last night
When Mrs. Horton was out—she had gone
To the hospital where Alice was