{Page 51 Continued}

One day the kids saw a cougar on the way to school in the quakies. We never really thought too much of it. Then one night Miss Strong, the school teacher at that time, and the girl staying with her went to the outhouse. (The building was not set up with inside plumbing at that time.) It was located about 100 feet from the school house on the edge of a grove of quakenasp trees. It was quite rickedy. There was a 2 inch gap at the top of the door which hung crookedly on its hinges. They had just barely gotten inside it when they heard something jump on the roof of the outhouse. The whole building swayed with his weight. They could hear it breathing heavily and could also hear its tail thumping the roof. They were frightened and didn't at first know what to do. They stayed there until. they got so cold they knew they had to do something. Miss Strong had her hand gun and flashlight with her. She was a good shot but was afraid to shoot up through the roof for fear she might just wound the cougar and it would be angry and somehow get to them. So she finally shot out the opening above the door. The noise frightened the cougar and they heard it jump off the building. They waited awhile and then with flashlight lit they ran for the school house. At that time they lived in an apartment in the back of the school before another building was built for the teacher apart from the school itself. The tracks of the cougar were evident all around the out house next morning and also on the hillside among the trees where the children had been playing at recess and noon breaks through the day. We tried to follow it and looked all around for it the next few days but never found it. This experience put a real fear into the children for some time after that. We advised them to always stay together, if possible, not to walk alone to and from school.

{PICTURE: 51 A Mountain Lion often crouches in the branches of a tree, lying in waith for its prey. It can leap on an animal and kill it}