eson was
a kind-hearted man--my wife and I had both noticed little acts of
kindness to animals as well as to persons--and he seemed concerned at
the state of fury to which the cat had wrought herself.

'Wall, now!' he said, 'I du declare that that poor critter seems quite
desperate. There! there! poor thing, it was all an accident--though
that won't bring back your little one to you. Say! I wouldn't have had
such a thing happen for a thousand! Just shows what a clumsy fool of a
man can do when he tries to play! Seems I'm too darned slipperhanded
to even play with a cat. Say Colonel!' it was a pleasant way he had to
bestow titles freely--'I hope your wife don't hold no grudge against
me on account of this unpleasantness? Why, I wouldn't have had it
occur on no account.'

He came over to Amelia and apologised profusely, and she with her
usual kindness of heart hastened to assure him that she quite
understood that it was an accident. Then we all went again to the wall
and looked over.

The cat missing Hutcheson's face had drawn back across the moat, and
was sitting on her haunches as though ready to spring. Indeed, the
very instant she saw him she did spring, and with a blind unreasoning
fury, which would have been grotesque, only that it was so frightfully
real. She did not try to run up the wall, but simply launched herself
at him as though hate and fury could lend her wings to pass straight
through the great distance between them. Amelia, womanlike, got quite
concerned, and said to Elias P. in a warning voice:

'Oh! you must be very careful. That animal would try to kill you if
she were here; her eyes look like positive murder.'

He laughed out jovially. 'Excuse me, ma'am,' he said, 'but I can't
help laughin'. Fancy a man that has fought grizzlies an' Injuns bein'
careful of bein' murdered by a cat!'

When the cat heard him laugh, her whole demeanour seemed to change.
She no longer tried to jump or run up the wall, but went quietly over,
and sitting again beside the dead kitten began to lick and fondle it
as though it were alive.

'See!' said I, 'the effect of a really strong man. Even that animal
in the midst of her fury recognises the voice of a master, and bows to
him!'

'Like a squaw!' was the only comment of Elias P. Hutcheson, as we
moved on our way round the city fosse. Every now and then we looked
over the wall and each time saw the cat following us. At first she had
kept going back to the dead kitten