For the latter she was prepared; and, to enable her to endure it the better, she passed the hare into her hand-like fore-feet, and commenced tearing and eating it! This was too much for the patience of the lynx.

He could bear it no longer, but rose suddenly to his feet; and, with mane erect, rushed up the tree again, and out upon the branch where hung the opossum.

This time, without stopping to calculate the danger, he sprang forward, throwing his fore-feet around the other's hips, and seizing her tail in his teeth.

The branch creaked, then broke, and both fell together to the earth! For a moment the lynx seemed stunned by the fall; but, the next moment, he was "himself again." He raised himself up; arched his back like a true cat; and, with a wild scream, pounced down upon the 'possum.

He seemed to have forgotten the hare, which the other had dropped in her fall.