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 anybody else, I should think it would be easy enough," retorted the house-cat angrily.

"I intend to catch him," replied the barn-cat; "he'll soon be starved out and have to leave his hole."

"And I intend to catch him too," said the house-cat.

"Between you both you'll lose him," said the sparrow to himself, who, perched on a pear-tree, had overheard the conversation.

Meanwhile Graywhisker grew more and more hungry. He searched his house over and over again, hoping that he might have overlooked a crust, but he could find nothing. Then his eyes fell on the barn-cat's collar, and he gave the ugly grin that displayed the broken front tooth so unpleasantly. "If I can't make you ornamental I can at least make you useful, my dear Mrs. Barn-cat," he said. "Leather is not as much to