108 ON THE EDGE OF THE WILDERNESS 
than the dens amid the boulders far up on the 
steep mountain shoulder, with a half mile of 
trackless laurel and dense forest below, and two 
hundred feet of precipice above, and all around, 
for concealment, the dense hemlocks, the ferns 
which drape the rocks, the dead, fallen tree 
trunks, the caked masses of last year’s leaves still 
upheld on the fallen limbs which always litter a 
virgin wood, making little thatched roofs under 
which to creep. 
This is the spot that Lucy’s mother chose late 
one winter for her home, running far from the 
male cat who was Lucy’s father, because the male 
wildcat is anything but a gentleman and has a 
fondness for killing his offspring after they are 
born, if he can find them when their mother is out 
foraging. If the mother is at home, he is wise 
enough to leave them alone! Lwucy’s mother, 
however, had:no intention of bringing her family 
into the world where father would be likely to 
find them. She ran away from him ten miles, 
crossed a river on the ice, a swamp on the has- 
socks, and went up the mountain till she came to 
the fallen boulders. There, in a nice warm den, 
