pets
before we got strength to interfere."

[Illustration: We near lost two pets]

"But, as I was saying, the cold nights played Keno with our happy home.
Neither Tommy nor Bob dared monkey with the Judge--he was the only
thing on top of the earth the cat was afraid of. Bob used to be very
anxious to sneak a hunk of meat from His Honour at times, yet, when the
Judge stood on one foot, cocked his head sideways, snapped his bill and
said 'Cree,' Robert reconsidered. On the other hand, Tommy and Bob
were forever scrapping. Lively set-tos, I want to tell you. The snake
butted with his head like a young streak of lightning. I've seen him
knock the cat ten foot. And while a cat doesn't grow mouldy in the
process of making a move, yet the snake is there about one
seventeen-hundredth-millionth part of a second sooner. And that's a
good deal where those parties are concerned. Now, on cold nights, they
both liked to get under the stove, where it was warm, and there wasn't
room for more'n one. Hence, trouble; serious trouble. Bob hunted
coyotes on moonlight nights. We threw scraps around the corner of the
house to bait 'em, and Bob would watch there hour on end until one got
within range. It was a dead coyote in ten seconds by the watch, if the
jump landed. If it didn't, Bob had learned there was no use wasting
his young strength trying to ketch him. He used to sit still and gaze
after them flying streaks of hair and bones as though he was thinking
'I wisht somebody'd telegraph that son-of-a-gun for me.'"

[Illustration: "I wisht somebody'd telegraph that son-of-a-gun for me."]

"Well, then he'd be chilly and reckon he'd climb under the stove. But
Thomas 'ud be there.

"'H-h-h-h-hhhh!' says Tom, in a whisper.

"'Er-raow-pht!" says Robert. 'Mmmmm-mm--errrrr--pht!' And so on for
some time, the talk growing louder, then, with a yell that would stand
up every hair on your head, Bob 'ud hop him. Over goes the cook-stove.
Away rolls the hot coals on the floor. Down comes the stove-pipe and
the frying-pans and the rest of the truck, whilst the old Judge in the
corner hollered decisions, heart-broke because he was tied by the leg
and could not get a claw into the dispute.

[Illustration: Bob 'ud hop him.]

"By the time we had 'em separated--Bob headed up in his barrel and Tom
tied up in his sack--put the fire out, and fixed things generally,
there wasn't a great deal left of that night's rest.

"But children