Evening star., 1925-05-31
This and That
BY Charles E. TrdcetreU.

JACK Spratt, cato war, popped out
on the back porch. his eyes cleaning.
ears erect. tail held rather high-all
| signs Of the coming of night.
Night to a cat is what day is to a
man. 1t Is the time for achievement.
| filled with hours of elation, minutes
| of progress. Men go forth to their
labors; cats sleep. Men come home
with the setting sun; cats wake.
stretch, go forth to battle.
The CLEAN of combat shone in the
green depths of Spratts eyes, now
rapidly assuming a large and round
state, glowing darker and darker, as
nature opened them up for the dark
Of the night.
OF life missed he. He saw the waving
rose bushes, as a gentle wind swayed
their soft. pink blossoms TO and fro
by the wire fence.
Not thing that moved he failed to
see. S-h! What's that? All. nothing
put a bit OF paper, rustling there in
the alley. What was that? No fear;
just Robin Red Breast yankinS out
| worms in the next yard.
1ank away. Robin. ! am too busy
| now to attend to you. Tomorrow. in
my hours of leisure. I will see If I
can sneak up on you and devour you
t.. I2Ifan
yourself we'll on worms.
I am on the lookout for old Cant
Kidd, that white villain with the black
tall; that animated hunk of fat: that
sharp-clawed rascal from the next el-
ley, who made my life miserable all
last Winteri
1 was only a small cat then; not vet
secure in my growth. Today I have
oroadened out, my backbone no longer
sways downward; my forelegs are
Timber but strong, my claws sharp.
my teeth sharper yet, my stomach fill
ed with bracing beefsteak.
Come on, Capt. Kidd, | am ready for
you.
So Jack Spratt seemed to muse as
ne STOOD there on the porch for a
| minute, preparatory to sallyinS forth
on the immemoriaI quest Of his tribe
for battle. Every cats paw is ar
| rayed against every other cat. Every
cat walks by his lone. as kipling said.
The world Of men may be waiting
for the sunrise. but the cats are
waiting for sundoWn when every
feline seeks the great outdoors where
cats are cats.
1t would be presumptuous for any
| man to declare his intention Of setting
forth the true wanderings of q house
| cat on the warpath. In the first
place, no cat would stir a foot as
long as he felt any one was watching
him. In the second place, he would
soon give you the slip.
To follow him in imagination, how
evers. is another thing. and this is
what we shall do here on the trail of
old Jack Spratt, all of whose nine
lives hang In the balance as he fares
forth to meet Capt. Kidd.
Kidd Is veteran of the alleys.
The oldest, the largest, the strongest
tomcat in the neighborhood, he has
been the terror OF Catdom. He made
Spratt's life miserable for him for a
year. Tonight-how shall IL be?
Jack ran down the path, stopping
at the gate to peer up and down the
alley. AS If equipped with wings, his
1.-THE legs hoped him up on top of
the gate. He raised his head. He
looked intently afar. He saw-Kidd
There, more than a block away,
| called that freebooter, his black tail
the ground. He, too, was on the
trail!
Jack jumped to the alley and slid
along the fence to a garage. Darling
between the wires, he hid in the tall
grass there at the side of the tin
wall, waiting for Kidd.
n y 4
Then night and storm came down
with a rush. Thick clouds obscured
the stars and let down torrents of
rain. while we indoors could but
imagine what had become of Jack
Spratt and Capt. Kidd.
No doubt each hid himself under
porch, to wait the ceasing of the rain.
Even a fighting cat prefers dry air
10 wet. The time came, too, when
the rain ended: drain pipes went drip,
drip; bell in a distant steeple rang
out the hour of am.
Then, IL ever, tomcats issue forth
to battle.
Through the moist air a wall burst.
Surely no other cat had such a duicet
soprano, sang with so high a note.
ranging from high G to high E, as
Jack Spratt, cat % war.
There was no mistaking him. He
had met Capt. Kidd at last, and they
were telling their opinion Of each
other. Mingled with the piercing
screams of Spratt came the deeper
rumblings of Kidd, ominous, menacing