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abuilding. And Silvergray, what said 

 she, as the evil thing was brought? She 

 had no clear ideas, no logic from the other 

 ill-starred home. She could not say: 

 "There was hoodoo on it, and this ragged 

 woollen mitt seems hoodoo-like to me." 

 But these were her strange reactions. 

 "The smell of that other nest was like 

 this; that smell is linked with every evil 

 memory. I do not want it here." Her 

 instinct, the inherited wisdom of her fore- 

 bears, indorsed this view, and as she 

 sniffed and sniffed, the smell inspired her 

 with intense hostility, a hostility that in 

 the other nest was somewhat offset by the 

 smell of her loved brood, but this was not 

 — it was wholly strange and hostile. 

 Her neck hair rose, her tail trembled a 

 little, as, acting under the new and grow- 

 ing impulse of violent dislike, she hurled 

 the offending rag far from the threshold 

 of her nest. Flop it went to the ground 



[122] 



