She screamed, and down came the master and the mistress to know what was the matter.
"'It's a stray cat, mum,' said the girl.
"'Turn it out,' said the master.
"'Oh no, don't,' said the mistress.
"'Oh, poor thing, it's wet,' said the housemaid.
"'Perhaps it's hungry,' said the cook.
"'Try it with a bit of dry bread,' sneered the master, who wrote for the newspapers, and thought he knew everything.
"A stale crust was proffered.

The cat ate it greedily, and afterwards rubbed himself gratefully against the man's light trousers.
"This made the man ashamed of himself, likewise of his trousers.

'Oh, well, let it stop if it wants to,' he said.
"So the cat was made comfortable, and stayed on.
"Meanwhile its own family were seeking for it high and low.

They had not cared over much for it while they had had it; now it was gone, they were inconsolable.

In the light of its absence, it appeared to them the one thing that had made the place home.