The cat, with huge leaps, clambered up a tree; and now he had

reached the very pinnacle, and as he gathered himself up to take

a flying leap for a neighboring tree, I caught up my gun, and let

slip at him in mid-flight. The arrowy posture in which he made his

pitch, was suddenly changed, as the shot struck him to the heart;

and doubling himself up, after one or two wild gyrations, into a

heap, he fell dead, from a height of full fifty feet, into the very jaws

of the dogs! It proved to be a female, smaller than the first cat, but

beautifully spotted.

—William Elliott kills a ‘‘wild-cat’’ inCarolina Sports,

That’s what the companies call feed conversion. It’s the amount

of feed you need for the weight gain you want. Obviously, you look

to use as little food as you can. That’s why you don’t want them

moving around. It just wastes a bunch of calories.

—A Maryland Eastern Shore chicken farmer explains production,



These [demons] have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the

days of their prophesy, and have power over waters to turn them to

blood.—Revelation :

4

  

t

In the opening scene of the film version ofTo Hell and

Back, a slight, wiry, teenaged version of Audie Leon Murphy

(–) stalks prey in the scrub of the Texas Blackland

Prairie. Murphy carries a single-shot .-caliber rifle loaded

with his only bullet, and he must succeed in the hunt. His

father has deserted Audie’s mother and their dozen chil-

dren. They are cotton sharecroppers without credit or suf-

ficient family labor—most of the children at home are too

young to work. Audie (then called Leon), the oldest boy

remaining and bitter about his father, assumes responsi-

bility and brings home a rabbit cleanly killed; then he quits

school and takes a job with a neighboring farmer. By 

his mother is dead and his siblings have dispersed. Now a