Page:I am a Cat (1906).djvu/15



CHAPTER I.
a cat; but as yet I have no name. Where I was born is entirely unknown to me. But this still dimly lives in my memory. I was mewing in a gloomy damp place, where I got the first sight of a creature called man. This human being, as I afterwards learned, belonged to the most brutal class of his race, known by the name of “students,” who, as it is said, will not unfrequently seize, boil and devour us. But knowing at that time little of what he was like, I felt no fear in particular. Only when he lighted me lightly on his hand, I experienced a strange sensation of buoyancy passing through me. That was all.

It was at this instant that I, collecting myself a little, while thus perched on his palm, cast a glance at his face. This was my first contact with a human creature. I thought then how strange he looked. And I bear this