Part 17 (1/2)

Startled and enraged, Mrs Ga like a snake Naturally, she ht the toe of her heavy cowhide shoe, and fixed its teeth in the tough leather Utterly taken by surprise, Mrs Gammit tried to jump backwards But instead of that, she fell flat on her back, with a yell Her sturdy heels flew up in the air, while her petticoats flopped back in her face, bewildering her The weasel, however, had rip upon the toe of her shoe; so so was the cord which anchored the trap It broke under the sudden strain Trap and weasel together went flying over Mrs Ga sla squeal apprehensively

Disconcerted and mortified, Mrs Gammit scralanced about to see if the wilderness in general had observed her indiscretion Apparently, nothing had noticed it Then, with an air of relief, she glanced down at her vicious little antagonist The weasel lay stunned, apparently dead

But she was not going to trust appearances Picking trap and victiether, on the end of a pitchfork, she carried them out and dropped them into the barrel of rain water at the corner of the house

Half-revived by the shock, the yellow body wriggled for a moment or two at the bottoh Mrs Gaht? _Was_ it weasels, after all, that were taking her eggs? But she dis! And there, indisputably, were the porcupines, bothering her all the time, with unheard-of impudence Weasels, indeed!

”'Twa'n't _you_ I was after,” shethe now motionless form in the rain-barrel ”It was thes But _ye're_ a bad lot, too, an'

I'ot ye where ye won't be up to no mischief”

All athrill with excite's chores, and allowed herself no breakfast except half a dozen violent cups of tea ”with sweetenin'” Then, satisfied that the weasel in the rain-barrel was by this time securely and permanently dead, she fished it out, and reset the trap in its place under the barn The other trap she discovered in the swill-barrel, after a long search Relieved to find it unbroken, she cleaned it carefully and put it away to be returned, in due tiain--and, indeed, she would have liked to smash it to bits, as a sacrifice to the ot no o out o'

its way to ketch hens,” she grumbled

The silent summer forenoon, after this, wore aithout event Mrs

Gaarden behind the house, with the hot, sweet scent of the flowering buckwheat-field in her nostrils and the drowsy hum of bees in her ears, would thron her hoe about once in every half-hour and run into the barn to look hopefully at the traps But nothing ca come to disturb the hens, who attended so well to business that at noon Mrs Gaht caiven any further sign of their existence, Mrs Gammit was puzzled She was one of those i to happen all at once When enial supper, she sat down on the kitchen doorstep and considered the situation very carefully

What she had set herself out to do, after the intervieith Joe Barron, was to catch a porcupine in one of his traps, and thus, according to her peculiar , convince the confident woodss! As for the episode of the weasel, she resolved that she would not say anything to him about it, lest he should twist it into a confirs, so happily spared to her, she argued that the capture of the weasel, with all its attendant excite to the porcupines and put the else to think about She was now all i to await the developht refuse to develop! With a sudden resolution she arose, fetched the gnawed and battered re-tub from their concealainst the side of the house, directly beneath her bedroom

At first her purpose in this was not quite clear to herself But thein her veins, and she only knew she wanted to lure the porcupines back, that shea wo occurred to her in connexion with hot water How conclusive it would be to wait till the porcupines were absorbed in their consu water down upon them After all, it was more important that she should vanquish her enemies than prove to a mere man that they really were her enemies

What did she care, anyhat that Joe Barron thought? Then, once ht? Not that she would ad to pour hot water on those porcupines, and scald all the bristles off their backs, if they really _didn't_ cos? Mrs Gammit was essentially just and kind-hearted, and she caht be too cruel

”Ef it be you uns as takes the aigs,” she htfully, ”a kittle o' bilin' water to yer backs ain't none too bad fer ye! But ef it be _only_ my old herrin'-tub ye're after, then bilin' water's too ha'sh!+”

In the end, the weapon she decided upon was the big tin pepper-pot, well loaded

Through the twilight, while the yard was all in shadow, Mrs Gammit sat patient andto clile of far-off treetops

The faint, rhyth of the wilderness, which, to the sensitive ear, never ceases even in the e, the whisper of ht lacks Sitting there in arew still and pale and soleht crept down the roofs of the barn and shed and house, then down the walls, till only the ground was in shadow And at last, through this lower stratum of obscurity, Mrs Ga leisurely from behind the barn

She held her breath Yes, it was undoubtedly the porcupines Undaunted by the ht across the yard, and up to the house, and fell at once to their feasting on the herring-tub The noise of their enthusiastic gnawing echoed strangely across the attentive air

Very gently, with alht hand, are of the -sill The porcupines, enraptured with the flavour of the herring-tub, never looked up Mrs Gammit was just about to turn the pepper-pot over, when she saw a third dier than a porcupine She kept very still, breathing noiselessly through parted lips Then the round, the shadows vanished, and she saw a big wildcat stealing up to find out what the porcupines were eating

Seeing the feasters so confident and noisy, yet undisturbed, the usually cautious wildcat seeer near Had Mrs Gammit stirred a muscle, he would have marked her; but in her movelessness her head and hand passed for some harmless natural phenomenon The wildcat crept softly up, and as he drew near, the porcupines raised their quills threateningly, till nothing could be seen of their bodies but their blunt snouts still busy on the herring-tub At a distance of about six feet the big cat stopped, and crouched, glaring ide, pale eyes, and sniffing eagerly Mrs

Gae a volley at him and fill him full of quills for his intrusion

The wildcat knew toothe that interested him They seemed to enjoy it so ht a whiff of the herring-tub Yes, it was certainly fish A true cat, he doted on fish, even salt fish He ht retire discreetly But instead of that they s, squatted flat, and presented an unbroken array of needle points to his dangerous approach

The big cat stopped, quite baffled, his little short tail, not er He could not see that the tub was empty; but he could s It filled hie to be so baffled; for he kneould be fatal to go any nearer, and so expose himself to a deadly slap from the armed tails of the porcupines

Just what he would have atteerness, will never be known For at this point, Mrs Gaentle motion of her wrist she turned the pepper-pot over, and softly shook it The eyes of the wildcat were fixed upon that wonderful, unattainable herring-tub, and he saw nothing else But Mrs Ga doards slowly on the moveless air

Suddenly the wildcat pawed at his nose, drew back, and grew rigid hat seemed an effort to restrain soave vent to a loud, convulsive sneeze, and began to spit savagely