It is customary in large boarding-houses to announce the dinner-hour by sounding a bell. A cat belonging to one of these houses always hastened to the hall on hearing the bell, to get its usual meal; but it happened one day that she was shut up at dinner time in a chamber, and it was in vain for her that the bell had rung. Some hours afterward, having been released from her confinement, she hastened to the hall, but found nothing left for her. The clever cat then went to the bell, and ringing it, tried to call the family to a second dinner, in which she hoped to get her usual share.