"Was he there the next morning, 

 Auntie?" asked Bessie. 



"Yes, but he would not let the girls 

 catch him. Later in the day, however, 

 we saw the two old birds around in the 

 yard and the little ones flying near them. 

 They would light only a few feet from 

 us and twice I caught the smallest one; 

 and when I placed him in the palm of 

 my hand, he seemed to think that I ought 

 to feed him. He drooped his little wings 

 and opening his tiny mouth, he begged 

 me, as he had his mamma, to give him 

 something to eat. Then, Teddy, we 

 tried to feed him from a spoon, giving 

 him a few drops of sweetened water ; 

 but I fear that he did not enjoy it as he 

 did when his mother fed him. These 



little birds were around in the yard all 

 summer and we called them our Hum- 

 mingbirds. They soon had red spots on 

 their throats just under their bills, so 

 we knew that they were the Ruby Throat- 

 ed Hummingbirds. We often saw them 

 sitting upon a branch, and heard their 

 plaintive little song. 



"Why didn't you bring me a baby 

 bird, Aunt Julia?" asked Teddy. 



"It would not have lived, Teddy, and 

 I thought too much of the little birdies 

 to shut them up in the house. There, 

 mamma is calling us to tea," replied 

 Aunt Julia. 



"I'll beat you to the house," cried Ted- 

 dy, and away the children ran, leaving 

 Aunt Julia to follow at her leisure. 



Harriet William Myers. 



MY ENCOUNTER WITH A WILDCAT. 



An encounter with an American wild- 

 cat is always well spiced with excite- 

 ment and lively interest. Although in 

 this instance there was no harm done, it 

 was indeed interesting (at least to me). 

 The locality of this narrative was in 

 northwestern Tennessee, about one and 

 one-half miles from my native town, a 

 place of 4,500 inhabitants. There is a 

 large lake called Reelfoot, only twenty 

 miles from there, and occasionally a wild- 

 cat is still caught in the dense woods near 

 the lake. The winter had been an un- 

 usually hard one and had driven a good 

 many animals from the lake woods into 

 the more open country in search of food, 

 which probably accounts for his being so 

 near the town. 



One pretty clear day in the dead of 

 winter I was out hunting and while going 

 through a small thicket noticed a hickory 

 tree under which there was very little 

 snow and the ground was thickly covered 

 with fine large nuts. I determined to get 

 the nuts, so next day went out again with 

 a sack, leaving my gun at home. After 

 gathering my sack full, I started to re- 

 turn to town and was trudging cheerfully 

 along the public road, with my sack of 

 nuts swung over my shoulder, when all 

 at once I heard a peculiar noise in the 



cornfield on my left. It sounded like some 

 animal crunching bones, so I stepped to 

 the fence to investigate. About twenty 

 feet from me was what I at first thought 

 to be a great, grav torn cat, with his back 

 toward me and half hidden by the crab- 

 grass, munching on a rabbit and snarling 

 with very evident satisfaction. 



I do not know what prompted me to 

 do so, but I took a nut out of my sack 

 and tosed it at him. My aim was some- 

 what truer than usual and the nut struck 

 him fairly on the back. He suddenly 

 whirled round with a spit and snarl, his 

 back humped, his bobtail and pointed ears 

 sticking straight up, his eyes glistening 

 with surprise and anger, and emitted the 

 most unearthly, blood-curdling yell I ever 

 heard, that no longer left me in doubt as 

 to his personality. Then I gave a yell 

 and we both turned to run, but in oppo- 

 site directions. It would be a hard matter 

 to tell which was the most frightened, the 

 cat or myself. I know that for my part, 

 I never stopped running till I reached the 

 town, but when the cat stopped I cannot 

 say for I did not follow him to see. 



I suppose some passerby feasted on mv 

 hickory nuts, for in my hurry I forgot to 

 bring them along, and did not care about 

 going back to secure them. 



Louis P. Zimmerman. 



20 



