William Adolphus is my favourite among my six cats . He is black , with a white dicky and beautiful white paws . He sat up on the seat beside me and looked far more like a gentleman than many a man I 've seen in a similar position . Alexander Abraham 's place was about three miles along the White Sands road . I knew the house as soon as I came to it by its neglected appearance . It needed paint badly ; the blinds were crooked and torn ; weeds grew up to the very door . Plainly , there was no woman about THAT place . Still , it was a nice house , and the barns were splendid . My father always said that when a man 's barns were bigger than his house it was a sign that his income exceeded his expenditure . So it was all right that they should be bigger ; but it was all wrong that they should be trimmer and better painted . Still , thought I , what else could you expect of a woman hater ? `` But Alexander Abraham evidently knows how to run a farm , even it he is a woman hater , '' I remarked to William Adolphus as I got out and tied the pony to the railing . I had driven up to the house from the back way and now I was opposite a side door opening on the veranda . I thought I might as well go to it , so I tucked William Adolphus under my arm and marched up the path . Just as I was half-way up , a dog swooped around the front corner and made straight for me . He was the ugliest dog I had ever seen ; and he did n't even bark -- just came silently and speedily on , with a business-like eye . I never stop to argue matters with a dog that does n't bark . I know when discretion is the better part of valour . Firmly clasping William Adolphus , I ran -- not to the door , because the dog was between me and it , but to a big , low-branching cherry tree at the back corner of the house . I reached it in time and no more .
First thrusting William XXXXX on to a limb above my head , I scrambled up into that blessed tree without stopping to think how it might look to Alexander Abraham if he happened to be watching .
Abraham Adolphus Sands arm corner dicky hater house right valour