under some other cat's nose, and almost always
succeed in getting them. So Jim named her Humbug, which was a very good
name; for she always pretended to be quieter and stiller than the rest,
as if she were not in any great hurry about her breakfast; and then she
whisked in, and got the biggest pieces, and twice as much as any other
cat there.

The other names were Jenny, Capitan, and Growler. That made the ten.

In a very few days after Jusy and Rea arrived, they knew all these cats'
names as well as Jim did; and they were never tired of watching them at
their morning meal, or while they were prowling, looking, and waiting
for gophers and rabbits.

For a long time, Rea carried Fairy tight in her arms whenever there was
a cat in sight; but after a while, the cats all came to know Fairy so
well that they took no notice of her, and it was safe to put her on the
ground and let her run along. But Rea kept close to her, and never
forgot her for a single minute.

There were many strange things which these cats did, besides hunting the
gophers. They used also to hunt snakes. In one of the rocky ravines near
the house there were large snakes of a beautiful golden-brown color. On
warm days these used to crawl out, and lie sunning themselves on the
rocks. Woe to any such snake, if one of the cats caught sight of him!
Big Tom had a special knack at killing them. He would make a bound, and
come down with his fore claws firm planted in the middle of the snake's
back; then he would take it in his teeth, and shake it, flapping its
head against the stones every time, till it was more dead than alive.
You would not have thought that so big a snake could have been so
helpless in the claws of a cat.

Another thing the cats did, which gave the men much amusement, was, that
when they had killed rabbits they carried the bodies into the mules'
stables. Mules are terribly frightened at the smell of a dead rabbit.
Whenever this happened, a great braying and crying and stamping would be
heard in the stables; and on running to see what was the matter, there
would be found Big Tom or Skipper, sitting down calm and happy by the
side of a dead rabbit, which he had carried in, and for some reason or
other best known to himself had deposited in plain sight of the mules.
Why they chose to carry dead rabbits there, unless it was that they
enjoyed seeing the mules so frightened, there seemed no explaining. They
never took dead gophers up there, or sn