seriously alarmed, and, not knowing what else to do,
he threw himself upon the edge of the table, and pressed her against the
sharp corner with the whole weight of his body.

The cat now began to utter the most wild and discordant cries, and
McKinley, at the same time, lifting up his voice in concert, the two
together sent forth notes so doleful as to alarm the whole town. Women,
who are generally the first to hear and spread news, were now the first
to come to McKinley's assistance. But so strange and unearthly was the
harmony within the schoolhouse, that they hesitated long before
venturing to enter. At length, the boldest of them rushed in, and,
seeing poor McKinley bending ever the corner of the table, she at first
supposed that he was laboring under a severe fit of the colic; but
quickly perceiving the cat, which was now in the agonies of death, she
screamed out, "Why, good heavens, Mr. McKinley, what is the matter?"

"I have caught a cat, madam!" he gravely replied, turning round, while
the sweat streamed from his face under the mingled operations of fright,
fatigue, and pain.

Most of the neighbors had now arrived. They attempted to disengage the
dead cat; but so firmly were her tusks locked between his ribs, that
this was a work of no small difficulty. McKinley suffered severely for a
time from the effects of his wounds, but at length fully recovered, and
lived to a good old age. He was heard to say, that of all the pupils
that ever came to his school, the wildcat was the most intractable; that
he would at any time rather fight two Indians than one wildcat.

AN INCIDENT IN FRONTIER LIFE

A daughter of Boone's, and a Miss Galloway, were amusing themselves in
the immediate neighborhood of the fort, when a party of Indians rushed
from a canebrake, and, intercepting their return, took them prisoners.
The screams of the terrified girls quickly alarmed the family. Boone
hastily collected a party of eight men, and pursued the enemy. So much
time, however, had been lost, that the Indians had got several miles the
start of them. The pursuit was urged through the night with great
keenness by woodsmen capable of following a trail at all times. On the
following day they came up with the fugitives, and fell upon them so
suddenly and so furiously as to allow them no leisure for tomahawking
their prisoners. The girls were rescued, without having sustained any
other injury than excessive fright and fatigue. The Indians