(Curator here: In which a quick-thinking gentleman uses the most pragmatic of tools to save a kitty getting unfairly busted.)
HAVING missed two pounds of butter, fresh and fine, which he kept for his own use, he accused the maid of having eaten it, or, at least, used it, as in truth (he had, for herself and some kitchen company. The girl, to excuse the larceny, brought a young cat to her master, and declared that puss had eaten all the butter, and that she had caught her that moment in the act of finishing the last morsel. The excuse was plausible, but would not pass on the cunning citizen, who immediately put the young cat in the scales; when finding that the creature weighed but a pound and a half, he concluded she could not have eaten just two pounds of butter, and sent for a constable to carry the maid before an alderman. But the servant redeemed herself by paying for the butter.
Mr. Addison, Interesting Anecdotes, Memoirs, Allegories, Essays, And Poetical Fragments: Tending to Amuse the Fancy, And Inculcate Morality. London: Printed for the author, 1797. pp. 131-2. I think this is a book of collected items by Joseph Addison, one of the founders of the Spectator magazine, but he died in 1719. Hm.
HAVING missed two pounds of butter, fresh and fine, which he kept for his own use, he accused the maid of having eaten it, or, at least, used it, as in truth (he had, for herself and some kitchen company. The girl, to excuse the larceny, brought a young cat to her master, and declared that puss had eaten all the butter, and that she had caught her that moment in the act of finishing the last morsel. The excuse was plausible, but would not pass on the cunning citizen, who immediately put the young cat in the scales; when finding that the creature weighed but a pound and a half, he concluded she could not have eaten just two pounds of butter, and sent for a constable to carry the maid before an alderman. But the servant redeemed herself by paying for the butter.
Mr. Addison, Interesting Anecdotes, Memoirs, Allegories, Essays, And Poetical Fragments: Tending to Amuse the Fancy, And Inculcate Morality. London: Printed for the author, 1797. pp. 131-2. I think this is a book of collected items by Joseph Addison, one of the founders of the Spectator magazine, but he died in 1719. Hm.
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