desire; but, as he grew fat, he also grew
reflective, and the thought that the next moon
would bring with it the termination of
his life, was far from comfortable. So different
are the views respecting life and death
entertained by the same individual in a
state of desperation and a state of comfort!

As he was to be killed for his fatness,
Tom rationally concluded that any expedient
tending to reduce or check his growing obesity
would be as good as a reprieve. He therefore
began to scorn the dainty food set before
him. The roasted larks, and the stuffed
mice had lost their charm; so, likewise, had
the cushion, placed for the repose of his
luxurious limbs,—the wizard having wisely
considered that nothing is more favourable to
the increase of fat than absolute uninterrupted
laziness. Tom now preferred a run
upon the housetop, and such a meal as was
afforded by the capture of a live mouse or
sparrow. Thus he maintained himself in a
good vigorous state, but it was not the state
desired by the wizard, who wanted feline fat,
and not feline muscle.

Seeing the cat obstinately adhere to a
certain mediocrity of stoutness, the wizard,
like Rodrigo, began, at last, to suspect that
he was fobbed. He expostulated with the
cat, representing to him that he was bound
by all the laws of honour to get as fat as he
could by the appointed time, and explaining
that this morbid love of health was extremely
unhandsome. Tom sulkily defended himself
by remarking that there was no claim in the
contract binding him to adopt any particular
mode of diet, and that he had, consequently,
a right to live just as he pleased, which right
he most assuredly intended to exercise. This
reasoning was extremely cogent, but the
wizard deprived it of all practical value, by
declaring that he would kill the cat at the
appointed period—which had now only five
days to run—whether he were fat or not.
Tom would gain nothing by being thin, and
therefore it was hoped that his good taste,
unchecked by other considerations, would
induce him to enjoy himself.

Far from being ruled by the discourse of
the wizard, Tom no sooner found himself
alone, than he rushed out of the window upon
the tiles, and there devoted himself to such a
pugnacious existence, that when the moon
was at the full, and he returned home in
answer to the wizard's summons, he looked
in worse condition than ever: a dissipated,
abandoned, shaggy scamp of a cat, without
an ounce of fat upon his bones. Loud was
the indignation with which he was received
by the wizard, who, determined to be fooled
no longer, thrust him into an empty coop,
and placed before him a sausage of such
delicious odour, that abstinence was
impossible.

Want of exercise, and a course of irresistible
sausages at last brought Tom to the
degree of obesity required by the arch-wizard,
and awful preparations were made for carrying
out the contract to its full extent. The
kitchen fire was lighted, and a pot was
placed thereon to boil down the feline carcase,
and extract the precious material, while
poor Tom looked wistfully through the bars
of his coop, at the menacing blaze. Desperate,
indeed, seemed his case, when the
wizard sharpened a knife, and took him out
of his prison; nor was he particularly
touched by the considerate question of the
wise man, whether he would be beheaded
first, and skinned afterwards, or whether
the process of flaying should precede that of
decapitation. He decided, however, on
reflection, that it would be less painful to lose
his head before his skin, than to have the
operation reversed, and his choice was
generously allowed by the wizard.

Notwithstanding this satisfactory arrangement,
no sooner did Tom perceive the knife
waving over his head, that he began to utter
such singular expressions of contrition, that
the wizard was checked in his proceedings
by the sheer force of curiosity. For, the cat,
in wild terms, alluded to a certain sum of
ten thousand florins, the property of his late
mistress, which, he said, lay like a heavy
burden on his conscience; and then, suddenly
changing the subject, he hinted that it would
be expedient for the wizard to take a wife.
The conjuror, after staring for some time,
deliberately laid down the implement of death,
and requested an explanation of the cat's
meaning. Hereupon Tom most provokingly
uttered a wail of despair, and requested to be
beheaded without further questioning, nor
did he cease this tantalising conduct until
the wizard informed him that if he did not
reduce his wild ejaculations to something
like an intelligible narrative, the loss of his
head should be preceded by that of his ears
and tail.

Thus prompted to become historical, Tom
began an exceedingly long and dismal story
respecting his late mistress, who, it seems,
had been a great beauty in her younger days,
and who being, moreover, exceedingly rich,
suspected that every lover who solicited the
honour of her hand wooed her for her wealth
alone. To one young gentleman, whom she
really loved, she behaved very shabbily
indeed for the mere purpose of testing his
sincerity: answering his offer of marriage by
assuring him, most untruly, that she was
betrothed to a poor man, who could not
espouse her on account of his pecuniary
embarrassments. The deluded youth, in a
perfect frenzy of magnanimity, ruined himself
by placing in the lady's hands a sum sufficient
to cover the debts of her imaginary lover, and
even allowed himself to be cajoled into a
promise that he would be present at the
wedding of his rival, which was to take place on
such and such a day. The lady was, of
course, delighted to find that she had at
length met with a purely disinterested heart,