This is the story of a Quaker lad and his cat who lived in America when Pennsylvania was still an English province, and the Indians were saying, "Itah! Good be to you!"
Benjamin's father kept Door-Latch Inn in the County of Chester. Benjamin had four brothers-John, Thomas, Samuel and Joseph-and five sisters named Rachel, Sarah, Hannah, Mary and Elizabeth. He had a niece named Sally, too. Benjamin's family were all Quakers. Papa was the best Quaker of them all. When he prayed, his voice trembled and quaked until the very roof timbers shook!
Benjamin's fingers often itched to draw "images" of people or animals or landscapes. But Mama and Papa didn't approve. They thought pictures were needless. They said images should be carried in the heart, that pictures were gay and gaudy and showed a worldly spirit. Of course they had no pictures in Door- Latch Inn. Benjamin never saw one until he grew up to be seven years old and painted one himself. Grimalkin, the glossy black cat, suggested-for he could almost talk-that Benjamin make an image of little Sally, and after that he drew so many that everybody knew he could be nothing but an artist.
Some people say it was the Mohawk Indians who helped Benjamin win fame and fortune as an artist. Some say it was an artist and seaman by the name of William Williams. And some insist that it was Uncle Phineas, a merchant of Philadelphia.
But if Benjamin West himself could have settled the question, he would probably say it was his cat Grimalkin.
