The Cat and the Captain/Chapter 5
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EVERY fine morning at about ten, the Captain went to the docks to see his vessel, the Lively Ann. Onthe last voyage he had suffered a good deal from rheumatism, and his married daughter had persuaded him to stay ashore for a year or two. It was no distance from the house to the wharves, and the Cat often watched the sparrows fly from the hedge to the rigging of the schooners. When the Captain went to see the Ann, the Cat went, too, walking ahead with his tail proudly in the air. If he saw a dog, he stood on his toes, ruffled up his hair, made his back into an arch, and spit like a firecracker. The result was always thesame. The dog would suddenly remember something he had left on the other side of the street, well out of reach. At that the Cat would give one last look and spit once more, daring him to come on, and then trot off again ahead of the Captain with his tail in the air.
When they got to the wharves, they both went aboard the Lively Ann. While the Captain walked around the deck seeing that everything was in place, the Cat tried to help by going down into the cabin and the hold to make sure that there were no rats. He was a silent cat. His little feet moved without a sound and his eyes were like two lanterns. He looked into every corner and smelled at every hole. It would take a brave rat to bring his family on board the Lively Ann!
When the Cat had made quite sure about rats, he went on deck again and sat by the door of the ship's galley. Many a good dinner had he eaten there in past years. The last cook had been a Chinaman with slanting eyes like the Cat's. He, too, liked to be by himself and do things at his own time in his own way. But he, too, knew how to be fond of his friends. He sometimes gave the Cat the nicest things to eat. The Cat liked Chinamen. Susannah gave him only what was left after she and the Captain had eaten the best of everything. He often had to sit and watch her putting into her mouth things he was sure he'd like for himself. He didn't think much of Susannah, anyway.
While the Cat sat thinking about Chinamen, the Captain took a piece of newspaper out of his pocket (he always carried a great many things with him in case he might want them) and unlocked his locker in the cabin, and took out a can of white paint and put it on the paper. It seemed to him that the rail looked a little shabby and he loved to see the Lively Ann shipshape. He began painting the rail with a big brush. He was very careful not to get any paint on the deck. The Cat
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was curious. Pretty soon he had to jump on the rail to see what was going on.
"Scoot!" cried the Captain, and the Cat scooted. But every time he hit the deck, there were four little white pawmarks of fresh paint. The Captain was cross, but the Cat was crosser. The paint stuck between his toes. He had to sit down and spread each paw like a fan and lick and bite all the paint off. And what faces he made at the taste of it!
When he was all clean again he lay on a pile of rope and watched the sea gulls. They had long wings, and big sliding shadows. They floated over his head and mewed almost like kittens. When a shadow passed very near him, he always got ready to spring at it. But he knew in his heart that no sea gull would ever come within reach. And he knew that he couldn't hold a shadow for all his twenty claws. So after a while he grew tired of the sea gulls, and climbed out on the wharf to look through the cracks at the fish swimming around in the water below. When he saw one move, his eyes grew greedy and he licked his lips. He didn't even hear Susannah ringing the dinner bell from the house.
But the Captain did. He straightened his back with the aid of his hands, for bending over made him feel his rheumatism. Then he put away the paint and the brush and looked for the Cat.
"I wonder," he said when he saw him watching the fish so hard, "why cats love fish and hate water?"
The Captain often asked himself questions he couldn't answer.