The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-01-02
s.scoTTY."
The story of n Cat.


 was surrounded by a group of admiring
 children on the veranda of summer
 cottage in Maine. The youngsters
 stroked his fur and pulled his tail, and
 arranged and re-arranged blue ribbon
 on his neck. and the big cat evidently
 enjoyed it all. for, instead of running
 away, he marched about with arched
 back and tail erect, rubbing his sides
 against the legs of his playmates.
 For week or two after this I often
 saw this cat, an enormous gray fellow,
 with black bars, romping good-natured- | ly with any member of the household who would play with him. But one day
 a telegram came for the an who lived in the cottage, and he and his family
 made immediate preparations to leave ] for the west. In the general excitement
 nobody thought of the cat until the
 question, "Is pussy goin too,' called at tention to the baby, who now appeared with "Scotty," his head clasped tight to | her bosom, and the rest of his body
 trailing on the floor. All. the children wanted to take him, of course, but their
 mother and father. realizing the diff culties in the way of taking the cat, de- cided to leave him, believing that he was popular enough to be we'll looked after by the neighbors. And in this ! they were partly right, for as soon as the house was vacant the big gray cat found a warm welcome at any of the other cottages he chose to visit But by and by the autumn came, and with it, chilly days, which drove the cot tagers, few at time, back to the cities. On the first of October the last family left the place, and "Scotty" was alone.
 For little while he got along with out hardship. The weather was not very cold yet, and in a barrel at the l back of one of the houses he found scraps which lasted for several days. 1 After that he began to get hungry for 1 the first time in his life, and he wan dered from one deserted garden to an- other, hunting for something to eat. Now and then he would leap to the win dow-sills of houses where he had often been fed, and meou plaintively in hopes
 of gaining admittance.
 One morning when he had been with
 out food for two days. there came a furry of snow, and with it flock of juncos, which alighted in the yard where the scraps had been. "Scotty'' was crouching close to the back steps when they arrived, and in an instant his whole body took on an attitude of attention. He was hungry, and there was breakfast close before him--if he could only catch it. silently he pressed his body closer to the ground, and, slow ly as the hand of clock he moved to- ward the busy group of slate-colored
 birds In his eyes there was cruel look which had never been there before, and which became intensified as he drew nearer to his prey. At last he
 gathered his legs well under him and, leaning forward, he sprang forward as though thrown from a catapult. There was ''whirr'' of small wings amongst l the scattering snow, and fiickering of white tail-feathers as the juneos flew away-that is, as all but one flew away; Scotty crouched on the spot where he 1 landed, switching his tail angrily from side to side, and growing as we'll as he could with his teeth buried in the body iof his victim. In that hour self-reli- ance was born in him. No longer did 1 he prowl about the gardens or 1neou be- jseechingly OH the window-sill; he | seemed to realize that he could satisfy his hunger only by capturing living
 creatures, and these he hunted from daylight until dark. And it did not take lhim long to find out that more game was to be had in the woods than near the houses, so into the woods he went and made his home in the hollow of a fallen tree, into which enough leaves 1 had drifted to make him a bed. Often
 he went desperately hungry, and once l he almost straved to death, but rab- bit now and squirrel then kept the life grant birds began to return, and when 1 they came in, tired and listless from 1 their long journeys, he found them easy prey after the wary creatures he had hunted during the winter. And when they began to nest his work became easier still, and he could either devour them in the nest or fall upon them as they blundered about on the ground. As destroyer he was worse in some i respects than fox or a skunk, for he l could climb, and nothing was safe from 1 him. Among other birds he killed pheasants and grouse, and during the spring, summer and autumn he de- stroyed more game than any other crea- lture in his territory.
 l The following wianter was very 1 hard one, and in spite of "Scotty's'' great cunning and ability he often went hungry for days at a time. One bitter night, as he was stalking, half fam ished, over the snow, he started across
 an open space in the forest. Next morning that open space looked like a 1 battle field, and indeed it was one, for
 the snow was ploughed up for many yards around, and dyed with blood. l Feathers and gray fur were strewn in a wide circle, on the outer edge of whicl, Hay mangled horned owl, with his mighty talons buried to the hilt in the 1 back of gray tom cat.
 ERNEST HAROLD BAYNES.