y were often there, but now they were viewed
with new eyes. The steady pressure of hunger had roused the wild hunter
in the Kitten; those Sparrows were game--were food. She crouched
instinctively and stalked from cover to cover, but the chirpers were
alert and flew in time. Not once, but many times, she tried without
result except to confirm the Sparrows in the list of things to be eaten
if obtainable.

On the fifth day of ill luck the Slum Kitty ventured forth into the
street, desperately bent on finding food. When far from the haven hole
some small boys opened fire at her with pieces of brick. She ran in
fear. A Dog joined in the chase, and Kitty's position grew perilous;
but an old-fashioned iron fence round a house-front was there, and she
slipped in between the rails as the Dog overtook her. A woman in a
window above shouted at the Dog. Then the boys dropped a piece of
cat-meat down to the unfortunate; and Kitty had the most delicious meal
of her life. The stoop afforded a refuge. Under this she sat patiently
till nightfall came with quiet, then sneaked back like a shadow to her
old iron-yard.

Thus the days went by for two months. She grew in size and strength and
in an intimate knowledge of the immediate neighborhood. She made the
acquaintance of Downey Street, where long rows of ash-cans were to be
seen every morning. She formed her own ideas of their proprietors. The
big house was to her, not a Roman Catholic mission, but a place whose
garbage-tins abounded in choicest fish scrapings. She soon made the
acquaintance of the meat-man, and joined in the shy fringe of Cats that
formed the outer circle. She also met the Wharf Dog as well as two or
three other horrors of the same class. She knew what to expect of them
and how to avoid them; and she was happy in being the inventor of a new
industry. Many thousand Cats have doubtless hung, in hope, about the
tempting milk-cans that the early milk-man leaves on steps and
window-ledges, and it was by the merest accident that Kitty found one
with a broken lid, and so was taught to raise it and have a satisfying
drink. Bottles, of course, were beyond her, but many a can has a misfit
lid, and Kitty was very painstaking in her efforts to discover the
loose-jointed ones. Finally she extended her range by exploration till
she achieved the heart of the next block, and farther, till once more
among the barrels and boxes of the yard behind the bird-man's cellar.

The old iron-y