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THE EXPERIMENT

Joanne Trabucco

"Hey, you kids, come on. I've got the cat, let's go."
A group of small boys nonchalantly made their way down a street
drenched with the hot sunshine of mid-July and headed toward the
. patch of woods and the creek that rippled through it and gurgled an
invitation to share its coolness.

"Oh, boy, if your mother only knew," came the awed voice of
one little boy, trudging along in the rear of the group.

"If you don't want to come, you don't have to, you know."
The boy in front turned and faced his followers. He was a sturdy
child with straw-colored hair and a dirty face, and he was dressed in
a pair of well-worn blue jeans. He stood with his feet planted wide
apart. Under his arm was slung a decrepit Tom cat with mild yellow
eyes and a long tail which dragged along the ground. The little boy's
name was Mike and he well deserved his title of the neighborhood
hellion.

"Oh, yeah, I want to come, honest." Tears began in the eyes of
.the one who had spoken and he fought them off manfully and began
walking again.

The cat was making spasmodic efforts to free himself and the boy
held on tightly as the group turned and entered the woods. Once in
the hot stickiness of the trees, they began to run, the cat bouncing
up and down with them, until they arrived at the top of a small hill
overlooking a creek fifteen or twenty feet below.

Mike, the undisputed leader, stepped forward.
"Okay, you guys, here's what we have to do to prove this thing."
He had told them his plan the night before and they had all
shivered with the daring of it. He had said that their family's cat,
an old Tom that had seen better days and was now content to spend
his life basking in the sun, had, somehow or other, climbed up to
their dining room window sill and then slipped off. The family had
been at dinner when this happened and he had rushed to the window
to see if the cat was hurt.

"Don't worry," said his mother calmly, "cats always fall on their
feet no matter what height they fall from."

This is what he was determined to prove now and he shifted the
weight of the animal and looked at the others. His face took on a

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