“The matter was getting serious.  It became evident that either those cats or myself must leave the premises.  I had paid my rent in advance, and was therefore entitled to quiet use and enjoyment, according to the terms of my lease.  I made up my mind to try one more experiment.  So I bought me a double-barrelled gun, and a quantity of powder and shot, and gave fair warning that I intended to use them.

“Well, the moon came up one night, with her great round face, and went walking up the sky with a queenly tread, throwing her light, like a mantle of brightness, over all the earth.  I love the calm of a moonlight night, in the pleasant spring time, and the cats of our part of the town seemed to love it too, for they came from every quarter; from the sheds around the National Garden, from the stables, the streets, the basements, and the kitchens, creeping stealthily along the tops of the fences, and along the sheds, and clambering up the boards that leaned up against the outbuildings, and set themselves down, scores or less of them, in their old trysting place, right opposite my chamber windows.  To all this I had in the abstract no objection.  If a cat chooses to take a quiet walk by moonlight, if he chooses to go out for his pleasure or his profit, it is no particular business of mine, and I haven’t a word to say.  Cats have rights, and I have no disposition to interfere with them.  If they choose to hold a convention to discuss the affairs of rat-and-mousedom, they can do it for all me.  But they must go about it decently and in order.  They must talk matters over calmly; there must be no rioting, no fighting.  They must refrain from the use of profane language—­they must not swear.  There’s law against all this, and I had warned them long before that I would stand no such nonsense.  I told them frankly that I’d let drive among them some night with a double-barrelled gun, loaded with powder and duck-shot—­and I meant it.  But those cats did’nt believe a word I said.  They did’nt believe I had any powder and shot.  They did’nt believe I had any gun, or knew how to use it, if I had; and one great Maltese, with eyes like tea-plates, and a tail like a Bologna sausage, grinned and sputtered, and spit, in derision and defiance of my threats.  ‘Very well!’ said I.  ’Very well, Mr. TOM CAT! very well, indeed!  On your head be it, Mr. TOM CAT!  Try it on, Mr. TOM CAT, and we’ll see who’ll get the worst of it.’

“Well, as I said, the moon came up one night, with her great round face, and all the little stars hid themselves, as if ashamed of their twinkle in the splendor of her superior brightness.  I retired when the rumble of the carriages in the streets, and the tramp on the stone sidewalks had ceased, and the scream of the eleven o’clock train had died away into silence, with a quiet conscience, and in the confidence that I should find that repose to which one who has wronged no man during the day, is justly entitled.