nced another step.

Now their noses were but three inches apart; they stood sidewise, both
ready to clinch, but each waiting for the other. They glared for three
minutes in silence and like statues, except that each tail-tip was
twisting.

The Yellow began again. "Yow-ow-ow!" in deep tone.

"Ya-a-a--a-a!" screamed the Black, with intent to strike terror by his
yell; but he retreated one sixteenth of an inch. The Yellow walked up a
long half-inch; their whiskers were mixing now; another advance, and
their noses almost touched.

"Yo-w-w!" said Yellow, like a deep moan.

"Y-a-a-a-a-a-a!" screamed the Black, but he retreated a thirty-second
of an inch, and the Yellow Warrior closed and clinched like a demon.

Oh, how they rolled and bit and tore, especially the Yellow One!

How they pitched and gripped and hugged, but especially the Yellow One!

Over and over, sometimes one on top, sometimes another, but mostly the
Yellow One; and farther till they rolled off the roof, amid cheers from
all the windows. They lost not a second in that fall to the junk-yard;
they tore and clawed all the way down, but especially the Yellow One.
And when they struck the ground, still fighting, the one on top was
chiefly the Yellow One; and before they separated both had had as much
as they wanted, especially the Black One! He scaled a wall and,
bleeding and growling, disappeared, while the news was passed from
window to window that Cayley's Nig had been licked at last by Orange
Billy.

Either the Yellow Cat was a very clever seeker, or else Slum Kitty did
not hide very hard; but he discovered her among the boxes, and she made
no attempt to get away, probably because she had witnessed the fight.
There is nothing like success in warfare to win the female heart, and
thereafter the Yellow Tom and Kitty became very good friends, not
sharing each other's lives or food,--Cats do not do that way much,--but
recognizing each other as entitled to special friendly privileges.

V

September had gone. October's shortening days were on when an event
took place in the old cracker-box. If Orange Billy had come he would
have seen five little Kittens curled up in the embrace of their mother,
the little Slum Cat. It was a wonderful thing for her. She felt all the
elation an animal mother can feel, all the delight, and she loved them
and licked them with a tenderness that must have been a surprise to
herself, had she had the power to think of such thi