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COPYRIGHT 1917 
 BY J. N. KIMBALL 
 
 S)CU477173 
 OCT 22 1917 
 
A Tale of the Out-of-Doors 
 
 By J. N. KIMBALL 
 
 I once had a friend, a sailor, who lived in a tiny hut 
 close by the sea. I never knew how old he was and I do 
 not think he knew himself, but so far as looks went he 
 might have been fifty or he might have been a hundred. 
 His brow was seamed and his cheeks were scarred and 
 a fringe of gray hair made a frame about the lower part 
 of his face, but above it were two blue eyes which shone 
 with a light that the years had not been able to dim. In 
 some way he had put aside money enough to buy the 
 small wants of his life and now, his labor ended and his 
 voyages done, he had moored his craft and cast his 
 anchor in the quiet haven of a little fishing village. Day 
 after day he rose with the sun and when his meager 
 breakfast was over he "took a reef in his mainsail and 
 cleared his decks for action," as he put it, which meant 
 that he folded up his table cloth and set the inside of the 
 hut in order for the day, then he would take a chair 
 just outside the door and watch the breakers as they came 
 rolling in to dash their white foreheads on the beach. 
 Now and then he would gather about him a group of 
 children and tell them tales of the sea but more often he 
 would sit alone and read, over and over again, the log 
 
he had kept during all the years he had been rocked in 
 the cradle of the deep. I used to ask myself how he 
 could get any comfort out of the dingy pages that told of 
 things long gone, of arctic berg and tropic sea, of calm 
 and storm, of watch on deck and watch below, and I 
 could not answer the question, but I could do so now for 
 I know all about it. It is true that I have no log in 
 which I have set down the things which have come to 
 me in the out-of-doors but I have a memory which runs 
 back and dwells with rapture on the least detail of that 
 life and I can in turn sit at my cabin door, as the sun 
 goes down behind a wilderness of brick and mortar, and 
 dig deep into that memory and live over and over again 
 the events as they come back to me. And I pity the 
 man who has no such memories and more than all do I 
 pity the boy who has had no chance to run wild a part 
 of each year; who is not learned in the ways of the 
 wood and the field; who has never felt the gladness of 
 going about on the damp earth in his bare feet even 
 though it brings him sore toes and stone bruises; who 
 has not known the joy of hunting for the nest of some 
 humble bee to steal its small store of honey and get 
 stung for his pains; who has never ridden on the load 
 of hay as it came up from the meadow to be almost 
 smothered as he tread that hay down in the mow; who 
 has not roamed about in the pasture after the curtain 
 of night has been let down, in search of the cows which 
 should have been milked two hours before; who has not 
 chased Dobbin up and down the orchard when the call 
 has come to hitch up and drive to town. And why is it 
 
that these stand out in my mind as among the glad 
 things of earth and take the places of others which the 
 world would deem to be greater by far — and why do I 
 have the wish to be a boy again and to do the same old 
 things in the same old way? I think I know. It was 
 never meant that I should live hived up in four walls 
 all my days like a felon in his cell, for the call of the 
 wild was born and bred in me and it will not pass away 
 so long as the grass grows and the water runs. There 
 was a time when it seemed to me as if the Lord made a 
 mistake when he put into my heart a love for field and 
 forest, for lake and river and for hill and dale, a love so 
 strong that it has had much to do with any success which 
 might have been mine in the big city in which my lot 
 is cast, but as the years go by I have come to see that 
 it was I who made the mistake which I have been so 
 apt to ascribe to Him. Of one thing I am sure — the 
 barrel of success is made with a round bung hole and 
 if one tries to fill that hole with a square peg there will 
 be a sad leak in the contents of the barrel, and I am ready 
 to pose as the horrible example. And in all I have said 
 lies my excuse, if any excuse be needed, for writing a 
 tale of the out-of-doors. 
 
 It had been raining for two days — which is a mere 
 statement of fact and as such may mean much or little, as 
 the case may be, but with us it meant much and very 
 much at that. The man who runs the weather had told 
 us that it would be cloudy and he was right so far as he 
 went, and they were wet clouds for the heavens opened 
 and the flood came and had we not been in camp on the 
 
side of a hill, where the water ran away from us to 
 some extent, our little hut, having been turned into a 
 house boat, might have sailed off on a trip to some 
 foreign land. And it not only rained but we were so far 
 up on the side of the mountain that all about us was a 
 corpse-like mist which seemed to bore holes in one like 
 a gimlet the moment he left the shelter of the camp, 
 and all the time from out of that curtain of mist came 
 huge drops in vast sheets urged on by a vdnd which 
 swept the open side of the hill from the east. It had 
 been that way for two days and all that time the six of 
 us had moped about the camp with nerves all on edge, 
 peeved with the weather and still more peeved with each 
 other. We had played cards and chess until we could 
 stand them no longer and we had talked politics and 
 religion until we might have come to blows if it had not 
 been that at meal time we could let off steam by finding 
 fault with the cook. How grouchy we might all have 
 become is a matter for conjecture but for one saving 
 grace, the dumb friend of man which is ever at his 
 elbow, or to speak by the card which is ever in his 
 pocket — which soothes him in hours of pain and calms 
 him in times of anger, and more than all, being often 
 in his mouth shuts off impious comment — his pipe. I do 
 not know how many of you have what our forefathers 
 were wont to call the filthy habit of using tobacco, but 
 I do know that such of you as have that habit will be 
 of one mind with me when I say that there are many 
 things in this old world of ours which I would be willing 
 to dispense with before I would part with that bit of 
 
briar wood and its amber stem. Of course during the 
 two days I speak of we had eaten, and we lingered at 
 the table just as long as possible to pass away the time, 
 but three meals a day were all that were allowed us by 
 the rules and if we had tried to break those rules the 
 cook would have resigned and left us to starve; but 
 there was no rule as to our pipes and that we made the 
 best use of them you may be sure. And all the time 
 it rained cats and dogs as the saying is, and as I think 
 it must have rained when Noah first shut the door of the 
 ark and made things snug and trim for his voyage, and 
 now at the end of the second day, the supper dishes 
 having been taken from the table and washed by Dan 
 whose turn it was at the time, each of us sat with his 
 pipe in his mouth and pufifed away as if for dear life. 
 It was early in September and the weather was not cold 
 but the blaze of the open fire felt good and gave an air 
 of cheer to the room as night came on. When it was 
 fine outside we used to group about the door at night 
 and after we had made our plans for the next day we 
 would sing and spin yarns and watch the stars as they 
 came from their hiding places in the sky, or listen to 
 the call of some night bird in the depth of the wood; but 
 after two days in jail one does not care to plan for the 
 morrow and has no mind to sing unless it be a dirge, 
 and as for story telling, at such a time one could not tell 
 the truth if he tried — and so we sat there each of us as 
 dumb as an oyster and as silent as a clam. When the 
 fire got low one of the boys, we called him "Beef" 
 because of his size, was elected to go out and bring in 
 
an arm full of wood from the pile which we kept dry 
 in the shed and when he came back and sat down in a 
 chair the water ran off him and made pools on the 
 floor in which Dick proposed that we go fishing, but the 
 joke, if it was one, fell flat. 
 
 I do not know how long we sat there that night as 
 mum and as glum as mourners at a funeral but by and 
 by, above the sound of the rain as the fierce gusts of 
 wind drove it against the roof and window panes, we 
 heard a soft scratch at the door as if the limb of a tree 
 were brushing it on the outside; even such a trifle as 
 that broke the tension on our nerves and each of us sat up 
 to listen. Two or three times we heard the same sound 
 and then I told Dick to get up and open the door and 
 find out what it was. He said that if he did so it would 
 let in water enough to drown us, but left his seat and 
 putting his shoulder to the door, so that the savage wind 
 should not get the better of him, he opened it a foot 
 or two and then the cause of the scratching was made 
 plain to us for there entered a visitor on four legs and 
 dripping with water from every hair of his small body. 
 For a minute or two none of us could get much of an 
 idea of our caller but he gave a shake, sending the water 
 about him in a shower, and then we saw that he was 
 what in courtesy might be called a dog. He glanced 
 about the place and up into the faces of each of us in 
 turn, as if to find out what sort of a welcome he was 
 to get, and seeing nothing that promised trouble he 
 went up to the fire and lay down in front of it, tilting 
 his head first to one side and then to the other as much 
 
as to say: "Here I am and I am mighty glad to be 
 here I can tell you, for if you but knew it it is not good 
 dog weather out of doors." Up to that time none of 
 us had said a word but after the dog had dried off a 
 bit Dan got up and went to the cupboard to "see if he 
 could find something for the mut to eat;" he did so and 
 the dog ate it and gave thanks so far as he was able, 
 and by that time it was "us for the hay" as Dick put it, 
 which meant that it was time to go to bed. How that 
 dog got to know that I was the boss I cannot tell but in 
 some way he did find it out and then he put himself 
 under my wing. Our beds were of the usual kind to 
 be found in a camp, a tier of bunks on the side of the 
 room like berths in a sleeping car. In a short time 
 every man of the six was in his little cubby hole and 
 then the dog got up from the fire and walking along the 
 line of bunks jumped up into mine and curled up at my 
 feet, watching all the time out of the corner of his 
 eye to see if I made any fuss about it. I did not for 
 there was plenty of room and I soon forgot all about the 
 brute and lay there lulled by the rain as it pounded on 
 the roof and the hiss of the wind as it wound around 
 the corner of the cabin, but at length even those sounds 
 died out and I was off and away to the land of dreams. 
 I awoke early, in fact the rest of the tribe were still 
 snoring in chorus when I opened my eyes to note that 
 the first streaks of dawn were to be seen in the east, 
 then I put on the few clothes I wore and went out of 
 doors with the dog at my heels. H there is one thing 
 I like to do when I am out in the woods it is to get up 
 
8 
 
 early and take my fill of the peace and quiet, but if I 
 am in town it is not at all the same for there is no quiet, 
 my ears are deafened by the eternal noise and so 
 there is no reason why I should get up before I have 
 to do so. When I left the open door of the camp and 
 put my feet on the ground the sun was just peeping 
 over the hills and not a cloud was in the sky. There 
 was not a breath of air and except the dog no living 
 thing was visible to my eye and no sound broke upon 
 my ear; it was a silence so intense that it could be felt 
 almost as one feels a blow. Down in the valley a dense 
 fog lay over the damp earth but so low that the tops of 
 the trees stuck up through it as if the mighty rain of 
 the past two days had flooded the lower land but not 
 quite deep enough to cover the forest, but the fog was 
 soon sucked up by the warm sun and through the clear 
 air, washed clean by the rain, I could see the ranges 
 of hills as they rose one above the other for miles and 
 miles; it was good to look at and as I sat on a stump 
 to enjoy it the dog came and lay at my feet and for the 
 first time I had a chance to make a study of him. I 
 saw at once that if he had any good points at all he 
 was so modest about it that he kept them hid from the 
 gaze of the vulgar. He had points enough to be sure, 
 in fact he was all points, but they were not good ones 
 for there was no part of him that was not so badly 
 damaged that I could see he would never take even the 
 booby prize in a dog show; in the first place there was 
 not enough of him left for the judges to sit upon, and 
 then again it would be hard to tell in what class to put 
 
him for there was no breed known to me that did not 
 seem to show in some part of his makeup. He was 
 thin, so thin that he hardly cast any shadow at all at 
 noon, and his ribs stuck out from his sides like the slats 
 of a peach crate until he looked for all the world like a 
 boat that has lain for years on the beach the prey of 
 the wind and the wave. One of his ears he had got 
 from some forbear of the hound breed and when he ran 
 it flopped about like a sail in a gale of wind, and maybe 
 he got the other ear at the same shop but if so he had 
 lost part of it and what was left stuck out like a jib 
 and gave that side of him a saucy air that was not at 
 all in harmony with the rest of his relics. 1 have no 
 doubt he was meant to be a white dog when he was 
 designed but it was not a good job for he had daubs 
 of yellow and black all over him, just as if he had gone 
 into a paint store and got mixed up with the wet brushes. 
 The spots were put on at random and with no attempt 
 at art and one of the black ones was over his left eye 
 and it gave one an idea that he had been out late at 
 night with a chip on his shoulder and had got the worst 
 of it. As a rule a dog is so built that it can use its tail 
 as a rudder but this dog was not made in that way. No 
 doubt his tail was all right when he was born but I 
 judge that he sat down too hard on it one day and was 
 never able to get the kink out of it and from that time 
 on the after part of it stood out at right angles so that 
 when he wagged it to and fro it made one think of a 
 sickle. His hair, where it had not been removed by 
 accident, was short and wiry which was not a bad 
 
10 
 
 thing for it did not make a good pasture for fleas. Now 
 you will see that taken all in all he was not what you 
 would call a pretty dog but we found out later that he 
 had brains to burn and as between brains and beauty, 
 whether they go about on two legs or four, I give my 
 vote for brains every time. As the days went by no one 
 called to hunt him up and he did not seem to care to 
 go back to the place from whence he came, wherever 
 that may have been, for he knew a good thing when he 
 saw it and was wise enough to grab hold of it. The 
 boys tried every dog name they could think of on him 
 but not one of them seemed to strike him as at all 
 familiar and at last it was decided to fit him out with 
 a new one, one which should not only be easy to speak 
 but which at the same time would be in keeping with his 
 general style, so from that time on we called him "Ruin," 
 and like the man in the story he did not seem to mind 
 what we called him so long as we did not call him too 
 late for his meals. 
 
 When I went in to breakfast Ruin went in with me 
 and no doubt for the first time in weeks was filled up to 
 the muzzle with good things, for the fine weather put 
 the boys in the best of humor, our grouch had gone with 
 the rain and all was bright and full of cheer. We ate 
 early as was our wont and then the gang got out the 
 axes, poles, chains and other things and started oflF on 
 the work of the day. I did not go with them for it was 
 my duty to go out and hunt for a "stake and stones" 
 which had been set up a hundred years before to mark 
 a corner of the land we were to survey and as I put on 
 
11 
 
 my hat Ruin wagged his sickle and invited himself to 
 go with me. To tell the truth I was not sorry to have 
 him go for he was company and of the best kind, a 
 thing to talk to when I wanted to talk and which would 
 not bother me when I felt inclined to be quiet, and so off 
 we went. Ruin and I, each content with the other. I 
 found out a lot about him before we got back home — 
 that lean and lank as he was he was also as tough as 
 spring steel and as tireless as a water wheel and I also 
 came to know that he had a nose that was more sensi- 
 tive to smells than any other nose I had ever met. Time 
 and time again during that first trip he would strike the 
 scent of some stray animal of the wood, some prowler 
 of the night before, and then he would give vent to a 
 long-drawn howl and with a cock of his black eye and 
 a twist of his jib ear would look up into my face and 
 tell me, as plainly as if in words, that if I had any use 
 for that tenant of the wild and would only say so he 
 would be glad to show me where it was, that it was just 
 like pie for him to do it, only as I was boss he wanted 
 to do as I said about it; and all the time he would not 
 take his eyes off my face and in some way he would 
 know my wishes before I said a word. And he was 
 wise in the ways of the animal world and proved it for 
 during the day we ran on to a hedgehog whose short 
 legs were no match in the way of speed with the long 
 ones of Ruin and the beast knew it and stuck its nose 
 between its legs and rolled up into a ball and waited for 
 an attack which did not come. Ruin simply stuck his 
 head over to one side and looked at me as much as to 
 
12 
 
 say that he had seen that sort of thing before and if 
 it was all the same to me he would prefer to leave it 
 alone; of course if I thought best he would dance about 
 it and maybe scare it to death, but to do other than that 
 was simply foolish for the thing was not good to eat 
 and there was no use picking a fuss where one would 
 get the worst of it no matter how it came out, and so 
 far as it lay with him he was for safety first; and then 
 after a few more barks, which to me sounded like insults 
 which would not look nice in print, he bounded off to 
 find some other object of interest. I enjoyed that tramp 
 but I think that Ruin enjoyed it even more than I did 
 for he went three miles to my one. He would dart off 
 into the bushes and be lost to sight for a time and then 
 turn up far ahead of me, sitting on his bent tail and 
 waiting for me to catch up with him, then he would give 
 a bark of joy and start off again to tree some gray 
 squirrel or to chase a rabbit to its hole. He shared my 
 lunch with me at noon and while I smoked the pipe of 
 peace he went to sleep by my side but at the first move 
 I made to get up he sprang to his feet and was away 
 again on his travels. That night he lay before the fire 
 until it was time to go to bed and then he came and 
 coiled up at my feet as he had done the night before but 
 this time it was with a look on his face that said plainly 
 that he was in the right spot and belonged there. 
 
 It was some three weeks after the advent of Ruin 
 that we went out to run the last line of our survey. 
 The poet has said that nothing is so rare as a day in 
 June but on that morning I could not help thinking that 
 
13 
 
 there are days in autumn which are what days in heaven 
 ought to be if the place is at all what I fancy it. Our 
 line ran near the top of the mountain and when we got 
 up there our eyes rested on a sight which I think not 
 one of us will ever forget. Dow<n in the valley, in the 
 meadow by the side of the river, the corn was stacked in 
 rows like soldiers on parade and between those rows were 
 bits of color which I knew to be pumpkins ripe for pies. 
 A road wound along the base of the hill and stretched 
 away until it spun out into a mere line, like the thread 
 of a spider, in the far distance, and that line was edged 
 with strips and dots of yellow which I knew to be golden 
 rod. In the west the mountains swept the sky and as 
 the trees were now bare of leaves we could see the giant 
 masses of granite and the white boulders of quartz that 
 had been hidden by the foliage during the summer; the 
 frame was what we had seen all the time we had been 
 there but the picture was not at all like that of June. 
 The air, as we drew it deep into our lungs, sent the 
 blood racing through our veins; we were full of the joy 
 of living and our work went merrily on. Not one of 
 us was more happy than Ruin; he would run out of 
 sight and be gone a spell and then come back and look 
 •up into my face and ask me, in a way that no one could 
 fail to understand, if I ever saw anything to beat it, 
 and when I would tell him that I never did he would 
 rush off again. We soon neared the end of the line 
 we were tracing and at last came to a part of the wood 
 where the trunks of the trees were bare for many feet 
 from the ground. The boys had worked away from me 
 
14 
 
 for half a mile and had found the corner and I had 
 set up my transit to take the course which marked the 
 end of the job we had been at work upon for months. 
 I had taken a final look through the glass and had made 
 the signal that all was right when I heard a low growl 
 and looking down saw Ruin at my feet and showing signs 
 of trouble. His jib ear stuck up and every hair on his 
 back rose stiff and straight and his bent tail stood out 
 like the main boom of a sloop; his nose was wrinkled 
 and his eyes had an ugly look in them which I had 
 never seen there before. I asked him what was the 
 matter but he did not stir a muscle and stood there 
 with one hind foot lifted in a pose which I knew had 
 come down to him from some pointer ancestor. I looked 
 at him for a moment and then as I noted the direction 
 of his gaze I saw at once the cause of all his anger 
 for ahead of us some hundred and fifty feet and lying 
 at full length on the limb of a big pine thirty feet from 
 the ground was an immense bobcat. I stood still for 
 at least five minutes and looked at the beast and all that 
 time Ruin did not stir except now and then to take a 
 hasty glance at my face as if waiting to hear from me. 
 I do not suppose you ever saw a bobcat unless you 
 ran on to him in the zoo for he is a thing one would 
 not care to keep in the parlor as a pet for the family, 
 and even if you have seen him at the zoo no doubt it has 
 been under some other name for the one I have used 
 was given to him by the farmers whose hen roosts he 
 is apt to visit when the nights are dark; they gave him 
 one end of his name on account of his tail, which is 
 
15 
 
 bob to the very last letter of the word, and he got the 
 other end because he is one of the cat family, but whether 
 he is up or down in the scale as set forth by Darwin 
 I do not know. It may be that he is the father of the 
 whole cat tribe and on the other hand it may be that 
 he was a member of that tribe in the old days but went 
 off into the woods and became one of the wild thinsfs 
 of the out-of-doors, in which case it did not improve 
 his disposition, you can take my word for that. I have 
 never had a chance to see him at home and at rest from 
 his labors, in the bosom of his family as you might say, 
 and so I do not know how he acts at such a time, but 
 when I have met him in the woods he has seemed to 
 me to have a temper like a crosscut saw and an equal 
 desire to show it. His tail, as I have said, is bob to the 
 last degree, but that may be a trick put upon him by 
 fiature. He may have had a long tail once like other 
 cats but if so no doubt he lost a piece of it in a fight for 
 he is always fighting, and by and by Nature got peeved 
 with him and thought it a waste of good material to 
 give him a regular narrative as part of it was sure to be 
 lost, and so she gave him a short one to start with and 
 to save expense. He has the face of a born anarchist 
 and with the same kind of a snarl upon it; there is not 
 a trace of humor in him and I have never seen him grin 
 even when things were going his way. Of course all 
 this is after he has grown up for when he is a kitten he 
 is well enough in his way, at least so I have been told. 
 When he has reached his full size he weighs about 
 twenty pounds — to look at or when he is asleep — but 
 
16 
 
 if he chances to hit you with one of his paws and means 
 business at the time you will think he weighs a good part 
 of a ton. He believes in the maxim that he who runs 
 away may live to fight some other day, and he acts up 
 to his belief when it is possible for him to do so, but if 
 he gets in a corner he just rolls up his sleeves and sails 
 in without any regard for the rules of the game. When 
 he wants to dine he pays a visit to some hen roost or 
 lies on the limb of a tree and waits for a dinner to come 
 along and if it does wander his way he lands on top of it 
 with all four feet and from that time on it belongs to 
 him. When he is happy at night he tries to sing and has 
 a voice like the crying of a child, but when he is ugly, 
 which is his normal state so far as I have known him, 
 his voice is like that which you would imagine might 
 come from the bottom of Hades when the lid is off and 
 there is a row going on down there. All these talents, as 
 you will see, place him in a class by himself and he is 
 the very last word so far as cats go. 
 
 It was a thing like that which raised the hair on the 
 back of Ruin and which lay on the limb of that big pine 
 just ahead of us. Had we gone on our way and taken 
 no notice of him I doubt if we should have heard any- 
 thing from him for he was wise enough to know that 
 while he might damage us in a rough and tumble fight 
 yet in the long run the two of us would be too many 
 for him. But we did not go on for Ruin and I were 
 of one mind, we would have a round with that bobcat 
 let what would come of it. It was the open season 
 for game and as a rule I carried a gun with me and 
 
17 
 
 had fairly good success with it but I had not taken it 
 that morning as we had planned a final hunt for the 
 afternoon and wanted to finish our work and get back 
 to camp as soon as we could do so, I looked about for 
 a stick or stone but could find none and so I walked 
 on a few steps at a time and Ruin did the same, always 
 with one eye on me and the other on the cat, until we 
 got to within forty feet of the pine. Ruin was no coward 
 and I knew that he wanted to come to hand grips with 
 the cat but I also knew that at best the dog would be 
 torn more or less to tatters and I did not want that for 
 he was ragged enough as he was without any additions. 
 We crept on, our feet making no noise on the soft carpet 
 of pine needles and the only sound that broke the still- 
 ness was a soft hiss from the cat or a low growl from 
 Ruin. When we reached a point about thirty feet from 
 the tree the cat no doubt thought of the maxim I have 
 quoted, for giving vent to one last spit he jumped free 
 and clear twenty feet from his roost and was ofif in long 
 leaps as fast as his legs would carry him, with Ruin close 
 behind him and filling the air with his short yelps. 
 
 I went back and got my transit and then made my 
 way to where the boys had driven the last stake in 
 our survey; it was at the highest point on the mountain 
 and as we got our tools together we could hear Ruin on 
 the track of the cat as the latter tried to throw the dog 
 ofif the scent by running around the hill. We hid our 
 stuff under a bush for we could come back and get it 
 later, w^hereas the cat must be looked after at once if 
 we wished to look after it at all, and we wanted to be on 
 
18 
 
 the job if Ruin should catch up with the beast for we 
 knew the dog would tackle an elephant when he got his 
 mad up and we also had some idea of the kind of 
 claws that cat carried about with him and knew that 
 Ruin would stand but little chance unless a diversion 
 could be made in his favor at the right time. When the 
 cat started we were, as I have said, on the top of the 
 ridge and his flight seemed to be around the crest of the 
 hill a little lower down; we could hear Ruin as he let out 
 yelp after yelp but the sound grew dim and soft and then 
 was lost and I feared lest the cat might run in a straight 
 line for I knew they were going at a rate that would 
 soon take them out of the state if they kept on, but 
 they did not. By and by we began to hear the short 
 barks again and they soon became clear and strong show- 
 ing that the cat was coming back but he had moved down 
 the hill fully half way and we ran to try and head him 
 off. We did not see the cat although he must have passed 
 very close to us but in a moment Ruin came up and 
 stopped long enough to tell me in his dog fashion that 
 things were going all right so far as he was able to make 
 them and then he was off again on the trail of the 
 cat. Once more they made the circuit of the hill and 
 still further down and I began to see that the bobcat 
 had a method in his scheme. A mile to the north there 
 was a cave which was know^n to the Indians in the old 
 days but which was not easy to find and I doubt if it 
 had been visited by any one but me for years. The 
 location was given on the map I used in the survey and 
 I had spent all of one day hunting it up. I now felt 
 
19 
 
 sure that the cat was making for that cave and that 
 maybe he Hved in it; at any rate it would do no harm 
 to act on that surmise as the cat was going that way 
 and we could not lose anything by it; if we took a short 
 cut down the hill we would be able to get there as soon 
 as Ruin and the cat, so we put all the speed we owned 
 into our feet and sure enough got to the cave in time 
 to head off Ruin who wanted to go in. He did not take 
 at all kindly to giving up the chase but I knew better than 
 he that it was the part of wisdom to let the animal alone 
 in such a place for I had been in there and knew the 
 lay of the land. It was not really a cave but only a rift 
 in the rock where the hill had been split by some mighty 
 freak of nature. The sides were not more than four 
 feet apart but they rose for twenty feet or more on each 
 hand and the walls were as smooth as the walls of a 
 house; not even a cat could climb those walls and at the 
 other end, a hundred yards away, the top of the cleft 
 was covered by a mass of rock, making that end a cave 
 in fact as well as in name. That the bobcat was in there 
 I knew, or Ruin knew it for me and I was willing to 
 take his word for it as I had entire faith in what his 
 nose told him ; he was eager to go in and have it out with 
 the cat but I knew he had no more chance in that small 
 space than a dory would have with a man-of-war. 
 
 We were tired for we had run more than a mile and the 
 sun was hot, moreover if we wanted that bobcat there were 
 a few things which it would be well to get before we started 
 in, and then again it was near lunch time and the cook 
 would be ugly if we were not on hand when the horn 
 
20 
 
 blew, so I told the boys we would go up to the camp and 
 eat and then come back and finish the job. Dick got 
 sarcastic and said that maybe if I asked him to do so 
 Mr. Bob would sit still and sing there in the cave while 
 he was waiting for us to come back and call upon him, 
 and that of course he would not be so mean as to light 
 out for some other country as soon as our backs were 
 turned, but all the same he thought it might be a good 
 plan for Beef to stay and stop up the hole while we were 
 gone as it was about his size and he would fill it like a 
 cork; but I had a trick up my sleeve which I was sure 
 would hold the cat where he was for a time at least. I 
 carried a small ax in a sheath in my belt for use in the 
 brush and with it I now cut and trimmed a sapling 
 leaving but two limbs at the top, then I took off my coat 
 and put the limbs through the arms and stuck up the 
 sapling a few feet in from the mouth of the cave with 
 my cap on top for good measure and felt sure that the 
 cat would have to be mighty hungry before he would try 
 to come out by it. Ruin seemed to think I was a bit 
 out of my mind when I called to him to follow me back 
 to the camp but after one or two yelps, in which I 
 judged he was giving the cat his opinion of him, he ran 
 on ahead of me up the hill. 
 
 During our lunch our talk was about what we would 
 do with the cat when we got him for we meant to get him 
 dead or alive; as a corpse he would make a fine rug but 
 what use we could put him to if we got him alive we 
 did not know. After the meal was over we armed our- 
 selves with pistols, ropes and a couple of blankets and 
 
21 
 
 set off for the cave; Ruin soon told us that the cat was 
 still there and we took out the scarecrow and sat down 
 to hatch a scheme for his capture. There was a reward 
 of ten dollars for the scalp of a bobcat, that being the 
 sum paid by the state to get rid of such a beast, and of 
 course the bounty, as it is called, would go to the man 
 who caught the cat, so I thought it but fair to offer the 
 chance to each of the boys in turn but I got no takers, 
 they even went so far as to say that they could not take 
 the money in any case because the cat was mine by right 
 of discovery. Then I offered to waive my rights and 
 appealed to them to think of the honor to be gained by 
 the combat, but they said that they were just covered up 
 with honor, but on the other hand they thought I needed 
 it as much as any man they knew and were not only 
 glad of the chance to let me have it but hoped I would 
 get a big dose. Then I tried to touch up their pride by 
 pointing out that there was more than a trifle of danger 
 in going in after the cat; I told them that while I liked 
 danger, that it was my middle name as it were, yet I 
 was not so sordid but that I would share it with them — 
 but they all spoke at once and said it would not be right 
 to deprive me of a thing I liked, and Dan added that 
 there was another reason why I should go in first; he 
 said that I was the only one who was acquainted with 
 the cat, that I had been introduced to him on top of 
 the hill and they had not and he might take it amiss if 
 a stranger intruded upon him in his privacy. Then 
 they said that of course they would be right behind me, or 
 at least a little way behind, and would be glad to help 
 
22 
 
 me with applause when I appeared to deserve it or to 
 send for a hearse if I did not have good luck. There 
 was nothing else to do so I made ready for the attempt 
 and with a pistol in one hand and a blanket in the other 
 started in. Beef wanted to come in last but the boys 
 would not allow it for they said if they should want to 
 go out after anything they might be in haste and not 
 able to get by him in the time they had to spare, so they 
 put him next to me, then Dick and then the rest of them 
 in single file. We went on slowly; I was in no hurry 
 for the day was young and there was plenty of time and 
 no need to get into a sweat over it. It was very cool 
 down in that dungeon and with the trees shading the top 
 it was so nice that I wanted to sit down for a spell and 
 enjoy it but for some reason the boys would not hear of 
 it, they urged me on and on I went. The bottom of the 
 cleft was six inches deep with dead leaves and dust and 
 my feet made no sound, which seemed good to me until 
 the thought came to my mind that the feet of the cat 
 would make no sound either, and then I tried to forget 
 about it. It was not very dark in the place and for the 
 first half of the trip the soft light which came through 
 the trees from above showed all things plainly but as 
 we went on the light grew dim and toward the end it 
 was hard to see what was ten feet ahead of us. We 
 were about to turn what I knew t6 be the last corner 
 when Beef said that he had dug up a good idea and I 
 sat down to let him air it; he said why not set fire to the 
 mass of dead leaves at the bottom of the cleft and smoke 
 the cat out, but he lost interest in his scheme when it 
 
23 
 
 was hinted by Dan that in that case the cat might want 
 to get out quickly and as Beef filled the passage he would 
 have a dandy time of it before the beast got by him. 
 As I have said the top of the cave at the end was 
 covered by a mass of rock and at that point there was a 
 sharp turn so that we could be quite close to the cat and 
 still not be able to see him even if it were light and 
 surely not in that dim twilight. We had tied a rope 
 about the neck of the dog in order to hold him back but 
 as we turned the corner he grew frantic and filled the 
 place with his yelps and by and by a sharp hiss told us 
 that our quarry was at bay at the very last inch of the 
 cave and that the danger, if any were to be met, lay 
 before us. There was not much time to think but I used 
 it all, and one of my thoughts was as to whether or not 
 my accident policy was good in a case like that; it was 
 up at the camp and I wanted to go back after it but the 
 boys said I could do it later, that no doubt I would have 
 to do it anyhow after I got through with the job I had 
 on hand and so it was just as well to wait. Not to be 
 selfish I once more offered my place to any one of them 
 who cared for it but met with no response, so I started 
 round the corner on my hands and knees as by going that 
 way I should not stub my toes and because I had an idea 
 that I was not so good a target on all fours as I would 
 be if standing up. I crept on ten or twelve feet and as 
 my eyes got used to the darkness I saw a dim shape with 
 its back to the rock at the very end of the cave and knew 
 it must be the cat but it looked to me to be as big as a 
 cow. His two eyes shone in the dusk like the lamps of 
 
24 
 
 an auto and he hissed and spit and made other noises 
 which did not sound good to me nor in any way add to 
 my peace of mind, so I stopped and looked at him and 
 all the time I felt that he was doing the same thing and 
 that each of us was waiting for the other to begin. I 
 was sure that any hasty move on my part would make 
 him give a spring and I knew that there was but one 
 place for him to land — on my back — so I kept very quiet 
 indeed. I needed two hands for the plan I had in mind 
 so I lay down my pistol and slowly, very slowly you may 
 be sure, held up the blanket by two corners until it hung 
 like a curtain between us. Just then the dust from the 
 floor got into my nose and I had to sneeze — it was too 
 much for the bobcat and he gave one jump and cleared 
 the eight or ten feet between us aiming at the place where 
 my face ought to be and where it would have been had it 
 not been for the blanket. But the blanket was there 
 and he struck it full and fair in the center and quick 
 as he was he was not quick enough to prevent me from 
 folding it about him and rolling over on top of the bundle 
 with Ruin on top of me. Then I yelled to the boys to 
 give me the other blanket but at the first echo of the 
 strife they had run to the mouth of the cave — to keep the 
 cat from going out, they said — and save only for Ruin I 
 was alone with my prize package. I cared little for that 
 for the blanket was almost as hard as a board and while 
 the teeth and claws of the animal came through in more 
 than one place and my hands and arms were covered with 
 blood, yet he failed to get any nearer to freedom and at 
 last lay still worn out by his exertions. By and by I 
 
25 
 
 heard the step of one of the boys who had come in to 
 carry out my remains and got him to fetch the other 
 blanket which we rolled about the bundle I had already 
 made, then we tied the whole with ropes and lugged it 
 out into the light of day where we were joined by the 
 rest of the tribe and sat down to talk it over. Then, as 
 the sun was getting low, we cut a few holes in the two 
 blankets so that the cat could breathe and as I had done 
 my fair share I let the others tote the bundle up to the 
 camp. When we reached home we got a dry goods box 
 and by putting slats on its open side made a cage for the 
 bobcat and after a good deal of trouble and not a few 
 scratches we managed to get him inside and to nail a 
 slat over the place where he went in, he all the time 
 hissing and spitting and mussing up things. Then we 
 put a dish of water in the box in case he should be dry 
 and a bit of meat to serve if he should be hungry and 
 piling a lot of stones on top of the cage to hold it in 
 place we rested from our toil and went in to supper. Ruin 
 went in with us which was a mistake for when we lit 
 our pipes and went out to make the cat secure for the 
 night no cat was there; in some way he had pushed off 
 one of the slats and had squeezed through a hole not 
 much bigger than my fist. During our supper we got into 
 a dispute over the way in which we should spend the 
 money we would get for the cat and said hard things 
 to each other, but now we all shook hands and with no 
 spoken word each of us crept off alone to bed — all but 
 me, that is, for Ruin went with me as usual and even he 
 seemed to be peeved over something. 
 
26 
 
 And so we lost the cat and I suppose he went on his 
 way and lived out his life as the pirate of the wood, and 
 that he finally died and went to his cat heaven, if there 
 be one. And Ruin, he of the sickle tail and the jib ear, 
 Dick took him home the next day, and as we parted at 
 the railroad station, never again to meet on earth, I saw 
 Ruin on the platform, looking wistfully up at the car 
 window where I sat — looking as only a loving dog can 
 look, straight into my eyes — and it haunted me for 
 weeks; I never parted more unwillingly from any two- 
 legged friend. And the boys, as I have said we never 
 met again and so far as I know they have all passed 
 beyond the great divide. Dick sewed my shirts across 
 the waist, making them no thoroughfare, but what of 
 it — I forgive him. Beef put the salt in the sugar bowl 
 and thereby spoiled my coifee, but I bear him no malice, 
 and then again I paid my debts at the time and in my 
 own way. They are gone, each to his appointed place 
 and I hope some day to see them all again. The shadows 
 lengthen, the evening star gleams in the west, the harvest 
 moon hangs in the sky like a golden platter, the night 
 Cometh when no man can work, so now to sleep, and to 
 dream, perchance, of the best life of all, that of the 
 out-of-doors. 
 
LiBRftRV OF CONGR^ 
 
 0002 894 555 3 _^