The Catamount's Bloody Encounter — Chapter 7 Summary

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

Chapter 7 departs from the prose of earlier chapters and is written entirely as a ballad — a song for voice and fife, set to the tune of Cheerily and Merrily. The chapter tells the story of a catamount (a mountain lion) that descends from the hills in October and attacks a farm's sheep flock, killing several and scattering the rest.

That night, the catamount enters the barn where the surviving flock sleeps and slaughters ewes and lambs. The screams of the animals are so loud that an owl lifts from a nearby beech tree. Across the valley, the scent of blood lures the last wolf of the hills, which howls in the distance.

Seeking to hide her kill, the catamount slips through an unlatched door into the yellow house — a place the ballad calls the House of Maids. Inside, she finds only the smell of death. The house is silent and empty. She prowls the halls, knocks over books that sit beside a bed, and pauses at the cold hearth where fires once burned.

She returns to the barn and drags the dead sheep, one by one, into the house, piling them on the floor. The last wolf approaches the house, howling and baying with threat and plea, but his petition goes unanswered. For days, the catamount feeds and rests on the couch and bed, ruling her small kingdom. Eventually, the dark woods call to her again, and she leaves to resume her wandering.

The ballad's refrain — that the great cat still stalks the hills — repeats throughout, ending with a cautionary warning to lock doors at night and keep children at home.

Key Events

A catamount descends on a farm in October and attacks the sheep flock, killing several and scattering the rest.
That night, she enters the barn and slaughters ewes and lambs; their screams rouse an owl from a beech tree.
The scent of blood lures the last wolf of the hills, which howls in the distance.
Seeking to hide her kill, the catamount slips through an unlatched door into the yellow house, the House of Maids.
Inside, she finds only the smell of death; she prowls the silent halls, knocks over books by a bed, and pauses at the cold hearth.
She returns to the barn and drags the dead sheep into the house, piling them on the floor.
The last wolf approaches and bays at the house, but his pleas go unanswered.
For days, the catamount feeds and rests on the couch and bed before leaving to resume her wandering in the woods.

Character Development

The chapter features no human characters. Its two figures are the catamount and the last wolf, both rendered with vivid physical detail.

The Catamount: The ballad gives the catamount a kind of personality — she is described as great of eye and tooth, with a hungry jaw and a hissing scream. She is a predator driven by instinct, but the ballad also shows her as calculating: she seeks a place to hide her kill, chooses the house, and methodically drags each dead sheep inside. The ballad calls her the Mistress of the house during her occupation, and notes that the fearsome brute was domestic — a striking line that blurs the line between wild and tame. She curls on the couch and rolls on the bed, inhabiting the domestic space as if it were her own. But her stay is temporary; when the woods call, she leaves.

The Last Wolf: The wolf appears only briefly, lured by the scent of blood. He approaches the house and bays with threat and plea and fearsome vows, but his petition goes unanswered. He is the last of his kind — a figure of extinction. His howl is a kind of lament, and his failure to enter the house or claim the kill underscores his decline.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

The Wild Versus the Domestic Boundary: The catamount's movement from the hills into the barn and then into the house is a crossing of boundaries. The house, a human-built space, becomes the catamount's den. The ballad's line about the fearsome brute being domestic directly plays on this inversion — the wild predator becomes domestic in the most ironic sense.

The House as Contested Space: The yellow house has been home to various human occupants throughout the novel. Here, it is empty — the House of Maids now smells only of death. The catamount claims it, piling her kill on the floor, resting on the couch and bed. The house is no longer a human dwelling but a shelter for a wild animal.

Predation and Violence: The chapter is unflinching in its depiction of violence. The catamount tears the life from ewes and lambs, and the ballad describes the lust of wanton slaughter. The violence is natural, not moralized — it is simply what predators do.

The Last Wolf / Extinction: The wolf is explicitly the last of his kind. His howl goes unanswered, and he fails to claim the kill. He is a figure of extinction, a species fading from the landscape.

Domestication of the Wild: The catamount's brief occupation of the house is a kind of domestication — she curls on the couch, rolls on the bed. But it is temporary; the wild calls her back.

Nature's Call / Return to the Wild: The chapter ends with the catamount leaving the house to resume her wandering. The wild is not something that can be permanently contained.

Cautionary Warning: The refrain ends with a warning to lock doors at night and keep children at home. This is a folk-warning, the kind of cautionary tale told to children — but the ballad form makes it feel like a relic, a song from an older time.

Ballad Form / Oral Tradition: The entire chapter is a song. This is a formal departure from the novel's prose chapters. The ballad form connects the story to oral tradition — the kind of tale passed down through generations, warning of dangers in the woods.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter 7 is a formal experiment within the novel. By writing the chapter entirely as a ballad, Mason shifts the register from prose history to folk song. This serves several purposes. It connects the story of the house to a broader tradition of oral storytelling — the kind of cautionary tale that communities tell about the dangers of the wild. It also gives the chapter a mythic quality: the catamount becomes a legendary figure, a bloody beast remembered in song.

The chapter also marks a significant moment in the house's history. The house is empty — the House of Maids now smells of death. The human occupants are gone, and the wild is reclaiming the space. The catamount's occupation of the house is a symbolic reversal: the domestic space becomes a den for a wild predator. And the last wolf connects the chapter to themes of extinction that run through the novel — the loss of species, the changing landscape.

Finally, the chapter's refrain — that the great cat still stalks the hills — suggests that the wild persists, even as the human world encroaches. The catamount is still out there, and the warning to lock doors is still relevant.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Mason write this chapter as a ballad rather than prose?

The ballad form connects the chapter to oral tradition and folk song. The story of the catamount is the kind of cautionary tale that communities would tell and retell — a warning about the dangers of the wild. The form also gives the chapter a mythic, legendary quality: the catamount becomes a figure of song, remembered long after the events. The refrain reinforces the sense that this is a story told over and over, a permanent part of the landscape's lore.

2. What does the catamount's occupation of the house signify?

The catamount's occupation of the yellow house is a symbolic reversal. The house has been a human dwelling throughout the novel, but now it is empty — the House of Maids smells only of death. The catamount claims it as her own, dragging her kill inside, curling on the couch, rolling on the bed. The ballad's line about the fearsome brute being domestic captures this irony: the wild predator becomes domestic in the most literal sense. The occupation suggests that the wild is always ready to reclaim what humans have built, and that the boundary between domestic and wild is fragile.

3. How does the last wolf function in the chapter?

The last wolf is a figure of extinction. He is lured by the scent of blood but arrives too late — the catamount has already claimed the kill and hidden it in the house. He bays and howls with threat and plea and fearsome vows, but his petition goes unanswered. He is the last of his kind, a species fading from the hills. His failure to claim the kill underscores his decline: he is no longer the apex predator of the region. The wolf's presence also connects the chapter to broader themes of extinction and loss that run through the novel — the changing landscape, the disappearance of wild species.