“Felt it is nearer th’ word. Th’ danged thing kept my Sunday hat!”
Magpie continued to polish his glasses and seemed lost in reflection.
“Jist about what do yuh reckon it is?” questioned Tellurium. “I didn’t stay long enough to make uh good estimate.”
“You and me both,” agreed Magpie. “What little I saw of it shore re-sembled uh bob-cat, but bein’ hasty thataway uh feller can’t depend on snap judgement. Knowin’ Bantie like we do I’m inclined to argue that we both was seein’ things which ain’t.”
“Well, mebby,” half agreed Tellurium. “But if it was it’s th’ first time that bad eyesight ever caused uh streak uh gray dynamite to crawl my frame and spit brimstone over my carcass and forcibly take my hat away. Mebby I’m seein’ things, Magpie, but if I am I shore didn’t start in th’ lower grades. No sir, I reckon I got into fast company immediately.”
“I’ll tell yuh what we’ll do,” continued Tellurium, getting up and putting on his coat, “we’ll go down there tomorrow and take our pets along. If that is uh bob-cat I’d shore admire to have it hop my wolf.”
“And git yore wolf all scratched to shoestrings,” grinned Magpie. “My grizzly is more like it. Bob-cats as uh rule don’t hanker none to climb th’ frame of grizzlies.”
“We’ll take ’em both,” replied Tellurium, settling the argument. “I don’t care a dang what happens jist so I gits my hat back. That lid cost me twelve dollars five years ago and I longs fer it something scandalous, Magpie.”
The next morning Magpie and Tellurium arrived at Bantie’s cabin with their pets. The grizzly was a poor leader and Magpie was worn out trying to drag several hundred pounds of protesting bear for two miles over a trail. Tellurium was equally tired from having to dig his heels into the ground all the way trying to hold his wolf to a sedate pace.
Bantie was sitting in the shady side of his cabin reading, and on his lap lay a little gray kitten. Tellurium saw the kitten first and stopped in his tracks, but the wolf kept right on going and nearly upset Bantie’s chair. The kitten arched its back, clawed its way up the side of the cabin and spat at the wolf from the eaves.