clung to it.

There he paused, while he watched to see what the stranger would do. And
as he stared at the creature he remembered suddenly what Mr. Crow had
told him. "There's a cat at the farmhouse," the old gentleman had said.

"This must be the cat," Frisky thought. And to her he called, "If you're
the cat, don't come any nearer, madam! You might get hurt." For he
remembered, too, that he had told Mr. Crow that he wouldn't harm the
cat.

"It _is_ the cat," he said to himself presently, "for she has stopped."

Miss Kitty Cat did not quite dare follow Frisky Squirrel to the tip
where he swung. She crouched upon the branch a little way from him,
where it was safer for her, and with switching tail and bristling
whiskers waited to see what he would do next.

"It makes me uneasy to see you swaying so," she told Frisky. "Besides,
you're shaking this limb. And I don't like it."

"She's a fussy creature--this cat!" Frisky said to himself. "I promised
Mr. Crow I wouldn't hurt her; but I didn't promise him that I wouldn't
tease her." So he bobbed up and down with all his might.

"Stop!" cried Miss Kitty Cat. "That's a very reckless thing to do. It's
like rocking the boat."

"I think it's the finest sport in the world," Frisky chuckled.

"I know a finer," Miss Kitty snarled.

"What that?" he asked her.

"If I could get my claws on you I'd soon show you," she told him grimly.

Somehow there was something about her remark that startled Frisky
Squirrel--something that made him shiver. And when he shivered he lost
his hold. Down he dropped, slipping and floundering from one branch to
another.

And down Miss Kitty Cat followed him.

VIII

NINE LIVES

FRISKY SQUIRREL was much more at home in the trees than Miss Kitty Cat
was. While Frisky managed at last to cling to a limb and right himself,
Miss Kitty lost her footing and fell out of the tree completely.

"Oh! She'll he hurt!" Frisky cried as he saw her turning and twisting
through the air. But to his great surprise she struck with all her four
feet on the ground, quite unharmed. "You did that very nicely," he
called to her generously.

But she didn't answer. To tell the truth, she felt rather foolish
because she had fallen out of the tree. And she walked back to the
woodshed and stalked through the doorway without saying a word.

After that adventure Frisky Squirrel decided to go back home. So he
scurried town the tree-trunk and scampered to the ston