212 WITH THE U. S. NATURALISTS 



Colorado Potato Beetle, if all the young should 

 live, would have sixty million little ones in a single 

 season. If each pair of your two trillion insects 

 should have sixty million children, you'd have 

 60,000,000,000,000,000,000 more insects left alive 

 in the world every season, as a result of allowing 

 that one cat to hunt. Then, if you figure all the de- 

 structive cats which would be raised from kittens 

 in those ten years of the cat's life and all the 

 helpful birds that would be hatched in the same 

 time, the figures would be a lot bigger, I reckon 

 bigger than I could figure. There 's the difference 

 between my bird and your cat." 



He stopped, short of breath and a little dizzy 

 with his own calculation. 



Bull refilled his pipe, and gave judgment. 



'^Yo've made a good excuse for yo'self in killin' 

 Bob," he said, *'an' I reckon, as yo' caught him in 

 the act, I'll have to let yo' go. But that ain't 

 a-goin' to save yo' birds. There's a right smart 

 bunch o' kittens other cats must have had, run- 

 nin' around in the woods. How are you-all goin' 

 to keep them away?" 



"I've thought of that," said Shan, eagerly, 

 thankful to have escaped so easily. "You know 

 that old rusty wire behind the cabin?" 



