132 ON THE EDGE OF THE WILDERNESS 
flash of light, and was off up the hill. The poor 
dog tried to follow—he was game, whatever his 
breed—but it wasn’t in him any more. Pres- 
ently he rejoined his master at the bottom of the 
pasture, and the two of them went limply 
home. 
Solon, naturally, never told a soul but his wife 
about this incident. Yet, as such things happen, 
it mysteriously became known. Lucy’s fame 
rose another notch—and Solon set up the hard 
cider. 
About that time Lucy moved. She wished to 
bring up her kittens in a less dangerous spot, 
where the sins of the parent wouldn’t be visited 
upon them, and where, also, their father wouldn’t 
be fussing around. So she trotted in the night 
far across the river into the hills to the east, where 
there was no big mountain such as she had left, 
but miles of scrubby woods and rocks and small 
cliffs full of dens, and only a few scattered farms 
and small, upland hamlets, ruins of what a 
hundred years ago had been prosperous vil- 
lages. 
Here Lucy spent a happy and contented sum- 
