Page 72 - Among the camps, or, Young people's stories of the war

her, from him to the man below him, and finally, digging her
little daws deep in his flesh, sprang with a wild leap clear of
the boughs, and shot whizzing out into the air, whilst the two
men. thrown off their guard by the suddenness of the attack,
loosed their hold, and went crashing down into the forks upon

those below.
T h e first thing Evelyn and the men on the ground knew
was the crash of the falling men and the sight of Kittykin
coming whizzing down, her little claws clutching wildly at

the air. Before they c&uld see what she was, she gave a
bounce like a trap-ball as high as a man's head, and Lhen,
as she touched the ground again, shot like a wild sky-rocket
hissing across the yard, and, with her ta.il all crooked to
one side and as big as her body, vanished under the house.
Oh, such a shout as there was from the soldiers ! Evelyn

heard them yelling a^ she ran off after Kittykin to see if
she wasn’t dead. They fairly howled with delight as the
men in the tree, with scratched faces and torn clothes, came
crawling down. They looked very sheepish as they landed

among their comrades ; but the question whether Kittykin
had landed in a blanket or had hit the solid ground fifty
feet out somewhat relieved them. They all agreed that she
had bounced twenty feet.
W hy Kittykin was not killed outright was a marvel. One
of her eyes was a little bunged up, the claws on three of her

feet were loosened, and for a week she feit as if she had been
run through a sausage m ill; but she never lost any of her