It was the first time the kitten had ever heard these human sounds—and the new, delightful music charmed her. She felt her trust in mankind growing....
And the next time the man called she went nearer still.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE KITTENS HUNT BY NIGHT
The September moon rises red-gold and majestic from the mists of the horizon, and lights up the harvested fields where the five big kittens are stalking their prey. They no longer hunt in a body, but are spread out all over the field, working independently....
A soft, many-hued light bathes the undulating hills; only the hollows and valleys are gloomy and colourless. Voices from the surrounding homesteads echo through the motionless air, mingling with the mooing of calves and the bleating of lambs. The guns of the duck-shooters drone faintly from the marsh. But here among the barley stubble where the partridge coveys settle, all is still and silent....
Along one of the many paths left by the broad wheel of the reaping-machine Grey-kitten glides, her whole soul absorbed in the rustling of invisible mice....
Big is out after partridge; he hugs the edge of the ditch, stopping frequently to peer over the tall golden-rod and the knap-weed’s empty pods. He sees the coveys of partridge running to and fro among the rakings; the young males are quarrelling, while the old cock looks on and crows. His aim now is to find out where they mean to “pack” for the night.
Black hangs about near a drain-pipe in which lives a fox-cub, with whom he hopes to pick a quarrel! In the wood a few days ago the cub had bagged a sparrow from right under his nose—an event which upset the kitten so terribly that he has quite lost his appetite!
A little way off a flock of terrified sheep stand gaping at him; they have heard his weird hissing and spitting....