ost wished I had not."

"Why?"

"I will tell you. When I came near a big open space there in the woods I
heard the worst screechin' I ever heard in my life. You simply cannot
describe it. They were snarlin' and spittin' and screamin' and growlin',
and sometimes it seemed as if they were doin' all four things at once.
My first thought was that this was no place for Sam Oliver. It sounded
like a hundred painters were fightin' to the death. I reckon I did turn
back a little way, but the screechin' and the screamin' kep' up so that
I finally decided that I must find out what was goin' on."

"What was it?" inquired Peleg.

"When I crep' up close to the clearin' and peeped out I saw two painters
a-fightin'. They were crouchin' on the ground facin' each other and
callin' each other every name they could think of in painter language. I
did not know what had happened to the third painter, but I knew I ought
not to stay there long. But all at once the two varmints leaped at each
other and a minute later they were in such a plight that you would not
have known what kind of beasts they was. They had ripped and torn and
clawed and scratched and bit each other until it did not seem as if what
was left could hang together. Then all at once one of them got the
other fellow by the throat and it wasn't long before he said good-bye."

"Did you shoot him?" asked Peleg.

"No, for just then I heard a noise right behind me and when I looked
back I see the third painter creepin' toward me and I fired at it and
ran. Somehow I managed to get away, and next day I went back to the
scene o' battle but I could not find anythin' there except the dead
painter. The others had gone. I had been so long trailin' them that I
thought I wouldn't follow any further. But if I live to be a hundred
years old I shall never forget that there fight I saw between those two
big cats! There are some animals," continued the hunter, "that seem to
have reg'lar feuds, jest like fam'ly troubles. They may fight one
another once in a while, but they will make up to fight the enemies of
the fam'ly every time they get a chance."

"What do you mean?" asked Peleg.

"Well, for instance, there's the beaver and the otter. They seem to have
had a declaration of war from the very beginning same as cats and dogs.
I see a beaver house one day las' winter standin' right in the middle o'
the pond which the beavers had made. You know they build a long tube
right up through the ce