esting by differing opinions, and discus- 

 sions over the habits and identity of our 

 noisy neighbors. There are, of course, 

 many birds and a few animals who sleep 

 at night, and are met with only in the 

 daytime. These were not considered in 

 our discussions. 



One night at Muskrat City, both Bige 

 and I were suddenly awakened by most 

 unusual sounds coming from the direc- 

 tion of the hillside across the valley. Bige 

 sprang up to a sitting posture, exclaim- 

 ing, "Sufferin' Cats ! Did you hear that 

 noise ?" I did ; and expressed the opinion 

 that "the suffering of the cats was acute/' 

 Immediately, the sounds were repeated, 

 if possible louder than before. It would 

 be difficult accurately to describe those 

 sounds. We were reminded of disputes 

 we had heard, in the back yard, between 

 two Thomas cats, whose wordy argu- 

 ments over their respective claims to 

 "Mariah" often ended in scratching and 

 hair-pulling. I, however, never met any 

 torn cat who could produce one-tenth of 



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