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Back in the old days so the story goes, one Halloween night a hobo needed a place to spend the night. Someone told him about an empty house that he might spend the night in. He was told that it is supposed to be haunted, so he might not want too especially with it being Halloween. The hobo was really tired, so he decided that he would spend the night there and take his chances. He fixed his cold supper and ate it outside, and had just about decided that the man who told him about the place was putting him on about it being haunted, because he hadn't seen or heard anything at all yet to make him believe otherwise. After eating a cold supper he was so tired that he only wanted to go to sleep and went inside to fix himself a place to sleep and thought that surely he would sleep straight through till morning.

As he got ready to lie down, he saw the black cat. The cat was standing there at the window watching him with his big yellow eyes, and his tail was slowly swinging back and forth just the way a cat's tail is prone to do. The hobo said to himself as he lay down, "I see already this is going to be a long night with this devil cat watching me like this." The cat just stayed at the window watching him all night long, and the man hardly slept at all. He just lay there looking back at the cat wondering how can I get out of this house in the morning. He finally went to sleep, but it was a fitful sleep. He was awake early-way before dawn ready and waiting-anxious to leave as soon as it got light enough to see. When dawn came he looked at the window again and saw that the cat was gone. The hobo thought to himself, maybe I can get out of here before that black devil gets back. He walked over and opened the door, but there the cat laid; he was licking his lips and looking at the man with those big yellow eyes and his tail slowly swinging back and forth just the way it had been the night before.

The hobo thought, "I have never seen another cat like this one; he has waited on me all night. I just know that I won't be able to get away from him." He began walking slowly toward the end of the porch and as he stepped down off the porch he looked back and saw that the cat was following him with his tail still slowly swinging back and forth. He began walking a little faster only to see that the cat was walking faster as well. He began to run only to notice that the cat began running faster or perhaps chasing him. He really got scared then and ran as hard and as long as he could until he came to a fence. He was too tired to cross the fence and only collapsed onto it. He caught his breath looked at the cat and said, "Well Cat, we had quite a race didn't we?" The black cat's eyes just glared at the man his tail slowly swinging back and forth. The cat licked his lips a few times then he said, "Yes, and we are about to have another one. Aren't we?"

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