'The Black Cat,' by Edgar Allan Poe

01The Black Cat Tomorrow I die.

02Tomorrow I die.

03And today I want to tell the world what happened, and thus perhaps free my soul from the horrible weight which lies upon it.

04But listen.

05Listen and you shall hear how I have been destroyed.

06When I was a child I had a natural goodness of soul which led me to love animals, all kinds of animals, but especially those animals we call pets, animals which have learned to live with men and share their homes with them.

07There is something in the love of these animals which speaks directly to the heart of the man who has learned from experience how uncertain and changeable is the love of other men.

08I was quite young when I married.

09You will understand the joy I felt to find that my wife shared with me my love for animals.

10Quickly she got for us several pets of the most likable kind.

11We had birds, some goldfish, a fine dog, and a cat.

12The cat was a beautiful animal, of unusually large size and entirely black.

13I named the cat Pluto, and it was the pet I liked best.

14I alone fed it, and it followed me all around the house.

15It was even with difficulty that I stopped it from following me through the streets.

16Our friendship lasted in this manner for several years, during which, however, my own character became greatly changed.

17I began to drink too much wine and other strong drinks.

18As the days passed, I became less loving in my manner.

19I became quick to anger.

20I forgot how to smile and laugh.

21My wife, yes, and my pets too, all except the cat, were made to feel the change in my character.

22One night I came home quite late from the inn where I now spent more and more time drinking.

23Walking with uncertain step, I made my way with effort into the house.

24As I entered, I saw, or thought I saw, that Pluto the cat was trying to stay out of my way, to avoid me.

25This action by an animal which I had thought still loved me, made me angry beyond reason.

26My soul seemed to fly from my body.

27I took a small knife out of my coat and opened it.

28Then I took the poor animal by the neck, and with one quick movement I cut out one of its fear-filled eyes.

29Slowly the cat got well.

30The hole where its eye had been was not a pretty thing to look at, it's true, but the cat no longer appeared to suffer any pain.

31As might be expected, however, it ran from me in fear whenever I came near her.

32Why should it not run?

33Yet this did not fail to anger me.

34I felt growing inside myself a new feeling.

35Who has not a hundred times found himself doing wrong, some evil thing, for no other reason than because he knows he should not?

36Are not we humans at all times pushed, ever driven in some unknown way, to break the law just because we understand it to be the law?

37One day, in cold blood, I tied a strong rope around the cat's neck, and taking it down to the cellar under the house, I hung it from one of the wood beams above my head.

38I hung it there until it was dead.

39I hung it there with tears in my eyes.

40I hung it there because I knew it had loved me, because I felt it had given me no reason to hurt it, because I knew that my doing so was a wrong so great, a sin so deadly, that it would place my soul forever outside the reach of the love of God.

41That same night, as I lay sleeping, I heard through my open window the cries of our neighbors.

42I jumped from my bed and found that the entire house was filled with fire.

43It was only with great difficulty that my wife and I escaped, and when we were out of the house, all we could do was stand and watch it burn to the ground.

44I thought of the cat as I watched it burn, the cat whose dead body I had left hanging in the cellar.

45It seemed almost that the cat had in some mysterious way caused the house to burn, so that it could make me pay for my evil act, so that it could take revenge upon me.

46Months went by, and I could not drive the thought of the cat out of my mind.

47One night, I sat in the inn drinking as usual.

48In the corner, I saw a dark object that I had not seen before.

49I went over to see what it could be.

50It was.

51A cat.

52A cat.

53A cat almost exactly like Pluto.

54I touched it with my hand and petted it, passing my hand softly along its back.

55The cat rose and pushed its back against my hand.

56Suddenly, I realized that I wanted the cat.

57I offered to buy it from the innkeeper, but he claimed he had never seen the animal before.

58As I left the inn, it followed me, and I allowed it to do so.

59It soon became a pet of both my wife and myself.

60The morning after I brought it home, however, I discovered that this cat, like Pluto, had only one eye.

61How was it possible that I had not noticed this the night before?

62This fact only made my wife love the cat even more, but I myself found a feeling of dislike growing in me.

63My growing dislike of the animal only seemed to increase its love for me.

64It followed me, followed me everywhere, always.

65When I sat, it lay down under my chair.

66When I stood up, it got between my feet and nearly made me fall.

67Wherever I went, it was always there.

68At night, I dreamed of it, and I began to hate that cat.

69One day, my wife called to me from the cellar of the old building, where we were now forced to live.

70As I went down the stairs, the cat, following me as always, ran under my feet and nearly threw me down.

71In sudden anger, I took a knife and struck wildly at the cat.

72Quickly, my wife put out her hand and stopped my arm.

73This only increased my anger, and without thinking, I turned and put the knife's point deep into her heart, and she fell to the floor and died without a sound.

74I spent a few moments looking for the cat, but it was gone, and I had other things to do, for I knew I must do something with the body, and quickly.

75Suddenly, I noted a place in the wall of the cellar, where stones had been added to the wall to cover an old fireplace, which was no longer wanted.

76The walls were not very strongly built, and I found I could easily take down those stones.

77Behind them there was, as I knew there must be, a hole just big enough to hold the body.

78With much effort, I put the body in and carefully put the stones back in their place.

79I was pleased to see that it was quite impossible for anyone to know that a single stone had been moved.

80Days passed.

81Still there was no cat.

82A few people came and asked about my wife, but I answered them easily.

83Then one day, several officers of the police came.

84Certain that they would find nothing, I asked them in and went with them as they searched.

85Finally, they searched the cellar from end to end.

86I watched them quietly, and as I expected, they noticed nothing.

87But as they started up the stairs again, I felt myself driven by some unknown inner force to let them know, to make them know, that I had won the battle.

88The walls of this building, I said, are very strongly built.

89It is a fine old house.

90And as I spoke, I struck with my stick the very place in the wall behind which was the body of my wife.

91Immediately, I felt a cold feeling up and down my back as we heard coming out of the wall itself a horrible cry for one short moment.

92the officers stood looking at each other.

93Then quickly they began to pick at the stones, and in a short time they saw before them the body of my wife, black with dried blood and smelling of decay.

94On the body's head, its one eye filled with fire, its wide open mouth the color of blood sat the cat crying out its revenge.

95shh.

96shh.

97shh.

98shh.

99shh.

100shh.

101shh.

102shh.

103shh.

104shh.

105shh.

106shh.