The Slum Cat 
features in the Dog-scape now. She went 
faster, felt happier. In a little while surely she 
would be curled up in her native Orient —the 
old junk-yard. Another turn, and the block 
was in sight. 
But—what! It was gone! Kitty could n’t 
believe her eyes; but she must, for the sun was 
not yet up. There where once had stood or 
leaned or slouched or straggled the houses of 
the block, was a great broken wilderness of 
stone, lumber, and holes in the ground. 
Kitty walked all aroundit. She knew by the 
bearings and by the local color of the pavement 
that she was in her home, that there had lived 
the bird-man, and there was the old junk-yard ; 
but all were gone, completely gone, taking their 
familiar odors with them, and Pussy turned 
sick at heart in the utter hopelessness of 
the case. Her place-love was her master-mood. 
She had given up all to come to a home that 
no longer existed, and for once her sturdy little 
heart was cast down. She wandered over the 
silent heaps of rubbish and found neither con- 
solation nor eatables. The ruin had taken in 
several of the blocks and reached back from 
63 
