THE LIFE AND DEATH OF LUCY 107 
the deer, which are known only to a few hunters 
and trappers. ‘The undergrowth is a dense mass 
of laurel, through which progress is difficult and 
even painful. Going my best, it takes me one 
and a half hours to make the fifteen hundred foot 
ascent to the top of the ridge. Now, the wildcat 
is, after all, a cat, and you know that the most 
domestic of pussies seldom cares for human 
society as such. It hangs around you because 
you feed it. (Of course, if you have a cat, you 
won't admit this—your cat is an exception!) 
It prefers to mind its own business, and often 
resents interference. The wildcat has these 
traits raised to the nth power. Furtive, sly, 
aloof, it wants to be let alone, to avoid contact 
with men, to go its own way. Though often 
heard yowling in the woods at night—it has a 
blood-curdling yell, a sort of meow—yang-yang- 
yang—it is seldom seen, and when it is seen, it is 
generally alone, sneaking along by itself, the 
very epitome of wild self-sufficiency. Hence, if 
a mother cat wished to retire from all danger of 
contact with man and other disturbing things, she 
could, in our country, hardly pick a better place 
