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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lives of the Fur Folk, by M. D. Haviland
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Lives of the Fur Folk
+
+Author: M. D. Haviland
+
+Illustrator: E. Caldwell
+
+Release Date: August 19, 2011 [EBook #37127]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIVES OF THE FUR FOLK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Matthew Wheaton
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LIVES OF THE FUR FOLK
+
+
+    LIVES _of the_ FUR FOLK
+
+    _BY M.D. HAVILAND_
+
+    _illustrated by E. CALDWELL_
+
+    _LONGMANS, GREEN & COMPANY_
+
+    _39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
+    NEW YORK, BOMBAY & CALCUTTA_
+    ˇ1910ˇ
+
+
+    TO
+    E. B. S.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The following, to a certain extent, are composite histories--at
+present our knowledge of the life of the individual wild animal is too
+limited to admit of anything else; but the incidents related are all
+founded on fact, and Redpad, Grimalkin, and the rest actually lived,
+although here they are sometimes credited with adventures which in
+reality befell others of their race.
+
+It may be thought that I have gone too far in endowing wild animals
+with the primitive elements of superstition, self-sacrifice, &c.; but
+although the majority are certainly guided to a very great extent by
+pure instinct, here and there we find one whose actions cannot be
+altogether explained thus; and it must not be forgotten that it is
+from similar exceptions, who lived and died in long past ages, that
+our own powers of reason and reflection, our morality, sense of
+religion, our artists, heroes and saints have evolved.
+
+For deciding some knotty points in the natural history of the badger,
+I am indebted to an excellent article on the animal by Mr. Douglas
+English. The rest of my information is entirely derived from personal
+observation, or from that of gamekeepers, 'earthstoppers,' huntsmen
+and others, whose calling has brought them into close contact with
+wild animals. To all these my thanks are due.
+
+                                   M. D. HAVILAND.
+
+  COURTOWN HARBOUR,
+  CO. WEXFORD.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+    _THE STORY OF REDPAD THE FOX_
+       I. THE SPRING RAINS
+      II. THE HUNTERS
+     III. FIRST BLOOD
+      IV. HOW THE DEBT WAS PAID
+       V. THE SHEEP SLAYER
+      VI. FROM KILMANAGH TO KNOCKDANE
+
+    _THE STORY OF FLUFF-BUTTON THE RABBIT_
+       I. HOW FLUFF-BUTTON CRIED QUITS
+      II. THE SPRING LONGING
+     III. THE INVASION OF GARRY'S HILL
+      IV. THE FEAR THAT WAS IN THE WAY
+       V. UNDER THE MOON
+
+    _STORIES FROM THE LIFE OF GRIMALKIN THE CAT_
+       I. THE FIRST HUNTING
+      II. THE STEALTHY DEATH
+     III. THE COLLARED BUCK
+      IV. ZOE
+       V. WHERE THE BATTLE IS TO THE STRONG
+
+    _THE BIOGRAPHY OF STUBBS THE BADGER_
+       I. THE TWILIGHT HUNTERS
+      II. BORRIGAN'S BAITING
+     III. THE LARCH HILL 'EARTH'
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF PLATES
+
+
+    LONELINESS AND LONGING
+    FLUFF-BUTTON WAS SEATED ON THE OTHER BANK TAKING A TONIC
+    GRIMALKIN
+    HOMEWARD BOUND
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF REDPAD THE FOX
+
+[Illustration: THE STORY OF REDPAD THE FOX]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE SPRING RAINS
+
+
+Vix found the old drain at the beginning of March. It was warm and
+roomy, and ran under the gate of the Plantation Field. Once upon a
+time, before the reservoir was built further up the hill, the stream
+which rose under St. Bridget's Tower had emptied itself through this
+drain into the bog; but that was many years ago, and now the moss and
+ferns grew thickly round the opening, and the grating at the further
+end was choked with rubbish. Nevertheless, because it was dry and
+lonely it suited Vix exactly, and the four cubs were born there
+towards the end of the month. They were blind, red, squealing
+creatures who groped and fought in the hot darkness to reach Vix and
+nuzzle at her side, and at first she spent most of the twenty-four
+hours among them; but as they grew bigger and needed more food she
+was forced to spend much time on hunting excursions. Fortunately,
+however, as rabbits were to be had for the picking up in Knockdane
+Woods over the hill, and mice and rats were plentiful in the bog, the
+neighbouring poultry yards were not too severely taxed and Vix's
+nursery remained undiscovered.
+
+April was ushered in by a cool dark evening after heavy rain. The
+sunset was pale and stormy, blotted out by ragged clouds, and as Vix
+trotted home she heard the 'rail' singing up the river. The 'rail' is
+the name which the Fur Folk have given to the sound which is heard at
+night before a storm, and it is one of the most mysterious noises of
+the whole countryside. There may be no wind stirring at the time, but
+the Wild Folk hear the strange whining far away over the woods and
+bogs, and know that there is a gale blowing up from the sea.
+
+Vix's path lay by the reservoir, and here, startled perhaps by some
+night noise among the rushes, she paused. The reservoir had been built
+many years ago when Paddy Magragh's father had plenty of money, and
+much stock which required water. He caught the little brook which
+trickled through Vix's drain from St. Bridget's Tower to the bog, and
+turned its course into the big cement basin, leading off the water by
+a sluice into a new channel. But the farm had fallen on evil days at
+the hands of Paddy Magragh, and the reservoir was choked with cresses
+and duckweed. Much rain had fallen this spring, and the basin was
+dangerously full. The sluice was shut fast, but the brown water
+squirted through the chinks and danced down the hill. The stream, all
+wild with joy of the great rains, brought down leaves and twigs in its
+rush, and waltzed them round and round in the plaited current until it
+heaped them against the ever-growing scum and débris at the sluice. By
+and by the branch of a tree came rolling along, and stuck fast. The
+leaves were driven against it until a high barricade was raised, and
+the water could only trickle through the sluice. Then Vix went home to
+her cubs, but the stream still poured into the basin from which it
+could find no outlet. There was only one flaw in the cement, and that
+quite a little one, patched with clay and willow withies, but the
+water--the brown, treacherous water--found it out, and worked silently
+and steadily all night. O a mad, merry miner is the water!
+
+Hard after the 'rail' came the wind and the rain. Safe and warm below
+ground, the foxes heard the howling of the gale in the Plantation, and
+the steady splash of rain drops on the sodden ground; but the brick
+walls of the drain were still strong and water-tight. Paddy Magragh in
+his cabin also heard the storm roaring outside, and remembered that he
+had left the sluice of the reservoir closed; but he dismissed the
+thought with a characteristic 'time enough to-morrow.'
+
+Vix was astir at daybreak the next morning. The wind still moaned in
+fitful gusts and brief rain-storms drove across the sky. There was a
+watery gleam in the east which told of the sunrise to be, and the
+fields were flooded. Vix reached the reservoir. It was full of turbid
+water which lipped to the very brim, and the clay which dammed up the
+broken wall was sodden and dripping.
+
+As Vix watched, a strange thing happened. A lump crumbled outwards and
+a ripple of water ran down the slope towards the fence. It swelled a
+little as the hole grew larger, until it became quite a broad stream.
+It sang a merry little song to itself as it ran--so merry that a
+number of brother ripples hastened to join it. They crowded into the
+hole in such numbers, struggling to pass through, that suddenly the
+whole earthwork tottered and crumbled away, and the coffee-coloured
+flood leaped through the gap down the hill in the wake of the first
+ripple. Brawling, tumbling, spreading into shallow pools and splashing
+cascades, it raced down the field. The hedge barred its way for a
+moment, but urged by the rush behind, it rose, and crept between the
+hawthorns into the ditch on the further side. It was many a year since
+the stream had found its way down that ditch. It poured into its old
+bed joyously, and kissed the primroses with foam kisses before it
+drowned them in its cold ripples.
+
+Not until the flood had entered the Plantation Field did Vix realise
+what it meant. Then she ran, faster than when the hounds were at her
+brush, straight to the drain where her four ruddy cubs lay in the
+torrent's path. The stream was perilously near them. It had carved a
+way for itself among the grass and brambles which choked the ditch,
+and sang to itself lustily on the way to the bog. Vix dashed
+underground, and, seizing the first of the warm whining creatures
+which she stumbled over in the darkness, she turned to fly. Too late!
+She was caught in a trap. The water burst into the drain, and surging
+to and fro to find an exit, it filled the tunnel to the roof. Vix,
+half drowned but still clinging to the cub, was battered to and fro.
+Something which was not driftwood was driven against her in the
+darkness; but though her mother-love was great she could not hold two,
+and it slipped past her. Twice she fought her head above water, and
+twice she was washed off her feet. The third time, gasping and
+choking, she gained the opening, struggled to land, and laid the
+dripping cub on the bank. But there were three more down there. Vix
+looked at the flood which plunged through the drain and into the field
+through the further opening, and that good instinct which bids the
+Wild Folk care first for that which is nearest conquered. She picked
+up the half-drowned cub, and galloped up the hill towards Knockdane.
+
+When, three hours later, Paddy Magragh strolled by, the flood had
+subsided, and only a trickle filtered through the drain, which was
+half choked with rubbish. On the bank lay three little red bodies, and
+there were marks on the wet earth where strong frenzied pads had
+striven to dig down to the treasures hidden below.
+
+That was all that Paddy Magragh ever knew, but that spring an old fox
+cared for her one remaining cub in the woods of Knockdane. And that
+cub was Redpad.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE HUNTERS
+
+
+So this was the coming of Redpad to Knockdane. A whole book might be
+written about his early adventures, but as this is to be his history,
+I must pass them by to speak of those things which befell him as he
+grew older. It is sufficient to say that he entered on his career in
+the woods with two important assets--a good nose and a good mother;
+and these two will carry one of the Fur Folk far.
+
+Vix kept her cub in an old rabbit burrow until he was old enough to
+hunt for himself. The first blood which Redpad ever drew was, strange
+to say, his own. One May evening he was playing by the mouth of the
+hole, when all at once a rustle in a bluebell bed attracted him. His
+instinct, which until now had lain dormant, awoke. He bunched his
+woolly legs together and bared his little milk teeth. The flower bells
+waved to and fro again--and Redpad cleared the intervening space with
+one bound, to land, pads extended, upon a sulky hedgehog. He crept
+whimpering back to his mother to lick his sore toes and meditate on
+one of the oldest saws of the Fox Folk, which runs: 'Never spring
+until your nose confirms your eyes and ears.'
+
+The woods are at their loveliest in May, when the chestnut leaves
+spread out their cool fingers, and a filmy green veil of foliage is
+flung over the beeches' naked branches. In the long light evenings
+scores of rabbits grazed along the woodsides, and it was upon these
+that Redpad took his first lessons in hunting. He obeyed Vix and her
+signals implicitly, and therefore learned by imitation, which is the
+only form of pedagogy known in the woods.
+
+One evening when the sun shot long slanting shadows across Knockdane,
+the foxes stole out to hunt. Between the woods and the river lies a
+flat meadow, and thither Vix led Redpad, the latter aping the carriage
+of his mother's brush to the best of his ability. She made him crouch
+down in the thicket twenty yards from the fence, but she herself crept
+forward. Although the bushes were too thick to allow her to see into
+the field, yet the air was full of that peculiar silence which means
+that many hearts are beating and many ears listening close at hand.
+But the senses of a fox are very keen, and above the murmur of the
+river over its pebbles, Vix could hear eager lips snatching and
+nibbling at the coarse grass, and many feet splashing in the dew. She
+crept forward until she could peep into the field, and saw a dozen
+rabbits feeding there. A fox has two methods of completing a
+'stalk'--the spring and the rush. Vix preferred to spring Thug-like
+upon her victim, but in this case the prey was too far away, and she
+resolved to rush it. Cramping her limbs together she dashed through
+the fence and leaped at the bunny she had marked. She might as well
+have pursued a shadow. A dozen pairs of feet stamped a warning, and a
+dozen scuts scuttled into the bushes. There was a twang as some
+reckless rabbit stubbed his nose against the wire, and then the patter
+of feet darting in every direction.
+
+Had Vix been hunting alone that evening she would have gone
+supperless, but as it happened, one rabbit chose that runway where
+Redpad crouched. It saw its danger too late and swerved--but the cub
+darted forward and rolled it over, almost turning a somersault in the
+vehemence of his rush. Vix came leaping through the bushes and tugged
+the kill away from him. He yielded it growling, but ultimately was
+permitted to demolish by far the largest share.
+
+By such expeditions Vix taught her cub to know every lane, bank, and
+'shore'[1] in the country round Knockdane, and this knowledge was very
+useful to him when later on he was obliged to hunt and be hunted by
+himself. Besides the rabbits, there were rats and mice to be had. Vix
+took Redpad down to Kilree Bog, where there are deep ditches choked
+with furze and bramble, and banks tunnelled through by burrows.
+Sometimes they went rat hunting by Paddy Magragh's farmstead at
+moonrise; but this was dangerous country, for in the yard dwelt a
+certain long-legged yellow dog with a keen nose and ready tongue.
+
+[1] Shore = A covered drain.
+
+September came, and in the fine warm weather the foxes spent most of
+their time above ground. Golden ragweed blazed in all the fields, and
+the swallows began to assemble for their journey south. Yellow sprays
+appeared among the dark leaves of the beeches, and Redpad attained
+proportions more in keeping with the size of his head. His white
+tagged brush was his great pride, his coat was shining with health,
+and he was remarkable for his forepads, which were many shades lighter
+than those of his mother; in fact, they were not black at all, but
+deep bay--hence his name. Not until he was full grown did his mother
+teach him how to hunt that swiftest and wariest of game--the hare. The
+stoat and the cat claim equal rights with the fox over rabbit,
+squirrel, and rat, but only the fox is strong enough to pull down the
+grown hare.
+
+One hot dark night the foxes awoke just before moonrise. Vix
+stretched herself and whined, and Redpad raised his muzzle, which was
+curled round into his brush. The burrow was pitch dark, but he felt
+his mother glide past him, and he rose and followed her. Outside they
+paused and sniffed the west wind appreciatively--the scent was good.
+
+Vix turned down the hill, picking her way daintily through the fern
+and brambles, and Redpad followed. Fox language must consist of signs
+of the ears and whiskers, for it is noiseless. Nevertheless she
+conveyed to him whither they were bound. They trotted through
+Knockdane, scaled the high boundary wall, and gained the open country,
+which lay placid under the twilight of moonrise.
+
+They hunted far afield that night. Two hours before daybreak they
+crossed the Killeen road and came to a wide brook. The moon was high
+in the sky, and every tree and bulrush on the bank was plainly
+visible. The sleepy cattle, chewing the cud under a willow, heaved
+themselves up with a grunt and herded together as the foxes loped
+past. They trotted up-wind in silence some hundred yards apart, ears
+alert to catch the least sound, brushes drooping. Then Vix suddenly
+put down her nose and broke into a canter, and as Redpad galloped
+after her, the warm wind bore the scent of hare to his nostrils.
+
+The meadows were dotted with tall thistles and ragweed, so that,
+running close to the ground, the foxes could not see far ahead, but
+one of the axioms of the Wild Folk is: hunt with your nose, kill with
+your teeth, and let your eyes take care of themselves. The scent led
+them across the road into a bog. Here Redpad, who led the chase, lost
+the trail at the edge of a dyke and was thrown out, but Vix leaped
+over and picked it up on the other side. They crossed the bog at full
+speed, scaring a silent heron, who was fishing knee-deep in a pool,
+almost out of his wits. On the other side the trail led over a
+furze-clad hill, and here there were many other scents--fox, rabbit,
+badger and other hares--and the foxes separated. But Redpad, hunting
+to and fro like a beagle, worked out the line into the grass-lands
+again, and they crossed some stubbles where the sheep rushed together
+into a jostling stamping flock at their approach.
+
+Hitherto the hare had kept her lead well, but now before dawn the
+scent clung persistently to the dewy grass, and the hunters began to
+gain ground. The chase bent round towards Knockdane once more, but the
+trail curved and twisted in turnings as intricate as those of a
+swallow. The 'false dawn' appeared over the mountains, and the air
+grew cooler. The foxes' tongues were out, and their flanks heaved,
+but they pressed on as keenly as ever, as first one and then the other
+picked up the failing scent.
+
+Several times the hare had doubled back a short way and then leaped
+aside to baffle her pursuers; but Vix was cunning, and by casting to
+right or left, never failed to nose out the line.
+
+At last they came to a field not very far from their starting point,
+and here they checked at fault. Redpad turned to the right, but Vix
+snuffled her way down the loosely built stone wall which bounded the
+field. Suddenly a hare leaped up almost under her feet, and hurled
+itself at the wall. It clung to the top for an instant and then,
+slowly stiffening, dropped back into Vix's jaws. The chase was over.
+
+Redpad galloped back across the field, his coat wet with dew and his
+tongue flopping out. Vix was already crouched over her kill. At his
+approach she glanced at him suspiciously, and for the first time in
+his life she growled at him--not the low lazy growl of an old vixen to
+her riotous cub, but the deep menacing rumble of one grown fox to
+another. For this, Redpad's first long chase and kill, was, so to
+speak, the day of his coming of age. Vix's instinct told her that the
+change had come. He was no longer the red, woolly cub who had tugged
+at her side, but a full-grown fox able to fend for himself, and also
+able to snatch the kill from her had he so chosen. Hence she snarled
+at him; and it was another proof that Redpad had passed the days of
+cubhood that he did not fly at her throat, as he assuredly would have
+done had any other fox used him so, but only hovered near to devour
+such morsels as she rejected. For it is one of the laws of the Fox
+Folk that a he-fox shall never attack a vixen to snatch her kill from
+her. It is a wise and good law, as are all those which are observed in
+the woods.
+
+When Vix had eaten her fill she rose and quenched her great thirst in
+a stream. But only a little remained for Redpad, and his hunger was
+scarcely appeased when they trotted back to Knockdane on the hill in
+the grey dawn.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+FIRST BLOOD
+
+
+Vix lay under a bush with her brush curled round her nose and eyes.
+Only her ears, ever wakeful and alert, kept watch while she slept. It
+was six o'clock, and a still misty morning with a heavy dew over
+everything. Close by lay Redpad with his nose on his pads; but he
+slept more lightly than Vix, for he had eaten less than she had done
+after their hunting. Thus he was the first to wake at the sound of a
+yelp in the valley. He sat up with a whimper and looked at his mother.
+He expected her to leap up, but she only stretched out her forelegs
+lazily and closed her eyes again. Perhaps her heavy meal at dawn had
+blunted the senses which as a rule gave her such timely warning of
+danger. Redpad could neither see nor smell anything suspicious, but
+those noises had convinced him that all was not right. He cast a last
+look at Vix, and then trotted away among the bushes.
+
+Presently he met an old badger plodding along. The badger was glancing
+back every now and then at the sound of a 'yow-yow-yow' in the valley;
+and by and by a hare scudded past in a panic. All the while the
+clamour was drawing nearer, and was interspersed with whip-cracking
+and shouts. It all sounded very loud and alarming to Redpad, who was
+accustomed to the stillness of the woods, and he decided to move on.
+He was cantering along a ride when suddenly, on turning a corner, he
+came full upon a horseman. The man stared at Redpad, and Redpad stared
+at the man for a few seconds, and then the former leaped into the
+bushes; but as he fled he heard a view-halloa behind him.
+
+He galloped through thickets and crashed through briars, and as he ran
+he heard the pack give tongue on his line. Up till now he had not
+realised that the presence of the strangers in the wood boded anything
+evil to the Foxkind, but had simply avoided them because they were new
+to him and noisy. At last it dawned on him that he was pursued, and he
+experienced all the fears of the hunted. In his extremity he ran back
+to the thicket where he had slept, to seek his cunning mother's help.
+Several times he was obliged to go out of his way to evade hounds who
+were hunting up and down the wood; for it was the first time that many
+of the puppies had been out, and the experience had proved too much
+for their wits. Some four couple were unpleasantly close to Redpad's
+brush as he entered the thicket, but he dodged them, and ran straight
+to his mother's lair. It was still warm, but empty. Redpad made up his
+mind quickly. To his right the wood was less thick. Here and there
+grew an isolated oak or pine, and the hillside was covered with rocks
+and fern. A little way off there was a crag some forty feet high at
+whose foot rose a little stream. Redpad pattered up this to its
+source; and about six feet from the ground, half hidden by polypody
+ferns, found a cleft in the limestone. A rush and a scramble carried
+him into this retreat, which was just large enough to contain him; and
+the ferns had scarcely ceased to wave before the hounds broke out of
+the covert.
+
+Redpad watched the huntsman put them into the patch of bracken. One
+worked one way, and one another, but they had no leader, for the old
+hounds were mostly down in the valley. And the longer they lingered,
+the staler grew the scent.
+
+Suddenly a lemon-and-white hound on the bank of the stream lifted up
+his voice and announced that a fox had passed that way, and the rest
+rushed after him. Two men rode behind the hounds, and one said to the
+other, pointing out the pale one who had picked up the scent:
+
+'That's a grand houn' in the makin'.'
+
+'Ay,' said the other, 'an' he's as swate on a stale line as ever auld
+Pirate was before him. Hike! Hike to Ravager!'
+
+The hounds hunted almost up to the crag, but the morning air was
+merciful, and drew the scent above their heads. However, the yellow
+puppy was not to be baulked. There was a narrow ledge which ran
+obliquely from the ground to the cleft where Redpad lay hidden, and up
+this he climbed. Redpad was watching the rest of the pack from between
+the fern fronds, when a joyous bay above his head proclaimed that he
+was discovered.
+
+Redpad leaped from his hiding-place and darted away with the leading
+hound not a dozen yards from his brush. There was no time to turn or
+try any tricks--he ran for his life. He led his pursuers right across
+Knockdane, but it seemed as though there was a galloping horse in
+every path and ride, and a hound in every brake. In his extremity he
+turned to the moor. He raced up the steep hillside through clumps of
+solemn fir trees, where the tits twittered as though there were no
+such thing as man, and through beds of ivy and fern.
+
+At last the long slope of the Big Meadow lay before him, and he
+gathered all his remaining strength for the dash over this danger
+zone. By the hedge stood a horse and rider who halloaed as he passed,
+but to fox ideas a man was far less dangerous than the hounds behind,
+and he took no notice. He galloped across the field and entered the
+clump of trees in the middle. Suddenly another fox leaped up and went
+away in front of him. It was Vix. She knew well who were following
+their line, and cantered at her top speed; but she was still heavy and
+drowsy after her full meal at dawn, and presently Redpad, tired as he
+was, overtook and passed her.
+
+The pack was very close behind as they entered the narrow belt of
+woodland at the top of the field; but the hounds were all alone, for
+the thick hedge had stopped the horses at the bottom of the hill, and
+they had been obliged to go a long way round. Redpad's tongue was out,
+for he had run far through the wood that morning, and, besides, he was
+very frightened. Just in front of him loomed the high demesne wall.
+Redpad had leaped upon it, when he suddenly noticed a thick bush of
+ivy which overhung the coping to his right, and instead of leaping
+down the other side he crept into the ivy and lay there panting.
+
+A second later Vix came up. Twice she leaped and twice she fell back,
+but the third time she gained the coping just as the hounds came up.
+They crowded over the wall on the scent, Ravager leading, and poured
+down the hill on the other side after the little red figure half a
+field's length in front. They were so close to him that one spring
+would have landed Redpad in their midst, but he lay like a stone, and
+they passed him by.
+
+'Head them off if ye can, Mike,' yelled the huntsman, galloping up.
+''Tis an auld fox!'
+
+'It was not, then! Didn't I see him cross the path below, an' he a
+cub?'
+
+'Don't stand there arguin', ye fool! Nip round to the gate above, for
+she's bet, an' we've none too many in this country.'
+
+They galloped away, and the 'yowl-yowl' of the pack died away over the
+moor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Redpad lay among the ivy until the morning mists cleared away; and the
+croon of the woodpigeons was the only sound which broke the stillness.
+Then he leaped from his sanctuary and crept down the hill. He sought
+for his mother high and low, through thickets and rocks, but he could
+not find her; and when the autumn moon rose he wandered to and fro and
+yelped for her, but she never came back again to Knockdane.
+
+Nevertheless woodland grief is as short-lived as it is poignant, and
+before September had given place to October, Redpad hunted in
+Knockdane and robbed the Ballygallon hen-roosts contentedly alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+HOW THE DEBT WAS PAID
+
+
+All the following winter Redpad hunted in Knockdane. Several times the
+hounds came and he had to run for his brush, but it takes a great deal
+to catch a hardy Irish fox who is sound in wind and limb. When summer
+came he picked up plenty of young rabbits and grew fat. Paddy Magragh
+learned to recognise him, and designated him 'the big red felly.'
+Although he had been deprived of his mother so early, yet he learned
+by experience and instinct, those best of teachers, how to overcome or
+circumvent the wiliest of the wood creatures for his own ends. He
+established himself in the upper gallery of a badger's 'set.' The
+badger had cleaned it out for his own winter use, but Redpad
+discovered it one day, and adopted it. The badger was seriously
+annoyed and endeavoured to oust the intruder by every means in his
+power, but Redpad went on the principle of bowing to the storm. When
+the badger offered to fight him he discreetly sought quarters
+elsewhere; but no sooner had the rightful owner triumphantly freed the
+burrow from the hated taint of fox, than he returned. At last the
+badger grew weary of the contest. He took up his residence at the
+bottom of the earth, and left Redpad in undisputed possession of the
+upper gallery.
+
+Winter came round for the second time, and by now Redpad had come to
+his full strength. Knockdane seldom sees hard frost or snow, but as a
+rule the south wind blows up a warm mist, and a steady rain drips
+through the leafless trees.
+
+In December rabbit-traps were set in Knockdane, and Redpad was not
+long in finding them out. It was against regulations to set traps in
+the open, but Paddy Magragh, who was in charge of the trapping, was
+not particular; and Redpad's first introduction to a rabbit-trap was
+the snap of steel jaws on his toe. He wrenched himself free, but he
+walked lame for many a day afterwards, and he had learned his lesson.
+He soon found out that the trapper made his morning and evening rounds
+with fair regularity, and he arranged that his own excursions should
+be made accordingly. He trotted round the traps just in front of
+Magragh, and when the latter arrived, more than half of them contained
+nothing but a severed rabbit's head. This happened two or three times,
+and then Magragh, who knew nearly as much about wood ways as Redpad
+himself, reversed the order in which he visited the traps, and
+presently caught the thief red-handed.
+
+'Every dog has his day, me fine lad,' muttered Magragh, hurling a fir
+cone after the white-tagged brush; 'but I'm thinking the hounds will
+have theirs before so long.'
+
+After that Magragh lifted his traps to the other side of Knockdane,
+for which Redpad had no great liking, as there were more farmsteads in
+the neighbourhood, and consequently more cur dogs.
+
+During the fine weather about Christmas time Redpad left the main
+woods, and hunted and slept in the thick hedgerows by the river below
+Knockdane. They were full of rats and rabbits, but were not a very
+safe resort, for it is one of the Sabbath amusements of the youth of
+those parts to go out with dogs, and hunt any outlying fox in the
+hedges. Redpad could outrun any dog in the country, but his slender
+limbs were no match for the more sturdily built terriers and
+sheep-dogs at close grips, so perhaps it was just as well that a cold
+snap drove him back to the woods again.
+
+While the frost was on the ground Redpad was hungry and robbed
+hen-roosts recklessly. One night twelve hens roosted in an outhouse
+with a defective latch at John Skehan's farm. The next morning when
+the owner went his rounds, three corpses lay on the floor, and the
+rest of the fowls had disappeared; all but one broody biddy under a
+basket.
+
+'Ye may go afther the rest, ye divil,' said John Skehan to this
+survivor bitterly, and dismissed her with a kick. His words were
+fulfilled more literally than he expected. She alighted cackling
+beyond the farmyard wall--a red shadow sprang up silently, and John
+Skehan had a glimpse of a white-tagged brush heading towards Knockdane
+along a path strewn with feathers. This was more than flesh and blood
+could stand, and Skehan set his dog after the thief. At first the dog
+gained on Redpad, who was weighted with the fowl, but presently the
+fox dropped his burden, and John Skehan chuckled at the thought that
+the robber would not profit by his raid. But Redpad increased his lead
+again, and then picked up another hen from behind a hedge. This
+happened twice, and every time he had to leave his booty to escape
+from his pursuer; but the third time he succeeded in carrying it in
+triumph to Knockdane. Afterwards it was found that those hens which he
+could not carry away he had deposited in caches along the path between
+Knockdane and the farm, in order to remove them at his leisure.
+
+This misdeed hurried on the day of reckoning. John Skehan laid the
+tattered remains of his poultry before the proper authorities, and in
+consequence one day early in the year the hounds came to Knockdane.
+The best hound in the dog-pack that season was that Ravager who had
+been blooded on the morning when Vix had been hunted down, more than a
+year before. Redpad had met Ravager once before that winter, and had
+been obliged to resort to every trick he knew in order to circumvent
+that sagacious leader of the pack.
+
+Of course Redpad found the 'earth' stopped when he returned home at
+daybreak, and he accordingly sought out a hiding-place which had
+already baffled his enemies several times. There was an ivy-grown fir
+tree which the wind had partially uprooted and flung against its
+fellows. It was quite easily climbed, and Redpad curled himself up in
+the ivy about fifteen feet from the ground. Here he slept very
+comfortably until noon, and then the familiar 'yowl-yowl' awakened
+him. For an hour or more he watched the hounds as they occasionally
+galloped past; and at last two men in pink coats rode along and halted
+under the very tree where he lay hidden. Presently a squirrel, passing
+through a neighbouring tree, looked down and caught sight of a fox
+sitting like an owl in an ivy bush. Nothing upsets a squirrel so much
+as curiosity, and a fox in a fir tree was something quite outside the
+experience of this particular one. He instantly desired to know a
+hundred things as to the why and wherefore of this strange occurrence,
+and in short was transformed into one tense note of interrogation.
+
+He chattered tentatively--the fox did not move. Then he chattered
+defiantly, but still there was no sign. He hopped near and dared the
+fox to chase him, but Redpad knew better than to stir. Then the
+squirrel grew almost beside himself with passion. He kicked the branch
+on which he sat, he scolded until the woods rang, he jibbered with
+rage. Three jays came up to see what the fuss was about, and added
+their voices to the commotion. At last it grew so loud that even the
+dull human ears of the men under the tree remarked that something
+unusual was going on. They looked up--saw something red stir in the
+ivy and--'By Jove!' said the younger; and his halloa sent the squirrel
+leaping away.
+
+Five minutes later a council was held under the tree.
+
+'Who will climb up and fetch him?' asked the master; but the 'boys'
+standing round only grinned and shook their heads.
+
+Then old Paddy Magragh, who loved the foxes of Knockdane for the sake
+of the sport which the foxes begot, said: 'An' if I fetch him down to
+yez, will yer anner see that he has fair play and a good start?'
+
+'Yes,' said the master; 'you shall turn him down yourself.'
+
+So Paddy began to ascend the tree with a sack in one hand and his coat
+wrapped round the other. When he was about half-way up the tree he
+came face to face with Redpad, and the fox looked up with a snarl, but
+he could retreat no further up the trunk. Magragh crept closer and
+held out his coat. Quick as lightning Redpad buried his double row of
+ivory fangs in it. But it was too thick for them to reach the hand
+inside, and Magragh, seizing him by the back of the neck, tumbled him
+into the sack.
+
+Redpad was let loose in the middle of the Big Meadow. When the
+sack-mouth was opened, he went away like an arrow without a glance
+behind.
+
+'Good luck to yez,' said Paddy Magragh, 'for, begob, 'tis a great hunt
+ye'll give them to-day.'
+
+It is a true saying that a bagged fox will not run far, but this was
+not so with Redpad, for he knew every inch of the country, and
+besides, he had not been long enough in the sack to grow cramped. He
+flew over the short grass, and as he cleared the demesne wall he heard
+the pack open behind him. To the south lay Carricktriss with its rocks
+and heather blue in the distance; down in the plain there was
+Sutcliffe's Gorse, surrounded by wet fields where the horses would
+sink fetlock deep at every step, and hedges impenetrable to anything
+but a blackbird. However, Redpad had made up his mind where he was
+going, and set his mask resolutely towards the east. Four miles of
+meadow-land lie between Knockdane and Kiltorkan Hill, but Redpad had a
+map of the country in his head, and he knew that no covert in the
+country was a surer refuge for a hunted fox. He slipped across a grass
+field where a couple of hobbled goats bucketted away at his approach;
+and, taking just the same line which Vix, his mother, had chosen for
+her last race for life eighteen months before, he galloped over the
+bog.
+
+Most of the fences were wide-topped banks with a 'grip'[2] on the
+further side, and Redpad took them with an easy spring on and off. He
+was running with a good lead over a marshy field when he met with his
+first check at the highroad. A train of 'side cars,' 'ass cars,' and
+pedestrians, nearly a quarter of a mile long, were slowly proceeding
+to a funeral at Ballycarnew. Redpad could not cross the road under
+their feet, and was obliged to make a long detour which brought the
+hounds considerably nearer his brush--so much nearer indeed that
+presently he ascended a little knoll covered with furze to see if a
+certain drain was open. Although he did not know it, Vix in her
+extremity had also tried to reach this hiding-place, and she too had
+found it blocked. But Vix had been too exhausted to run any further
+and had turned to face the hounds in the field beyond, whereas Redpad
+was still fresh and with strength to spare.
+
+[2] Ditch.
+
+He looked back at the pack working out his line in the fields below
+him, and saw that Ravager was at their head. The horsemen had been
+stopped by a wire fence, and were following far behind. For the first
+time Redpad felt a little anxious. The scent was evidently good that
+day, and Kiltorkan was still more than two miles ahead. He quickened
+his pace and tried the old old trick of running through a herd of
+cattle in order to foul the line. This checked the hounds for a
+moment, but Ravager cast forward, and presently they came on faster
+than ever.
+
+Redpad was still running strongly, but his tongue was out and he was
+coated with mud. He skirted two or three farmsteads, forded a brook
+where he paused to gulp a mouthful of water, and then climbed a long
+gradual slope. At the top he paused and looked back. He saw that
+Ravager with two couple of the best hounds was working some fifty
+yards ahead of the rest of the pack, and that some distance in the
+rear rode a man in pink. Kiltorkan was about half a mile away, but at
+its base ran a thin shining line of railroad. The Fur Folk of
+Kiltorkan care little for the noisy, fussy train which pants down to
+Waterford twice a day. They have found out long ago that it is only
+formidable in its own place, and is hedged in in some mysterious way
+by the wire fence on either side of the embankment.
+
+Whether Redpad had any preconceived plan in his head as he raced to
+the railway I cannot say, but as soon as he climbed the bank on to the
+metals he heard a low roar, and round the distant curve the mail train
+swung into view. The hounds were now very close behind, for the pace
+for the last half-mile had been terrific. A cunning scheme came into
+Redpad's brain. He raced madly up the track towards the oncoming
+train. Belching forth smoke, and shaking the ground with the thunder
+of its rushing wheels, it had fewer terrors for him than the hunters
+behind. It was a hundred yards off--fifty--thirty--Redpad leaped aside
+and let the roaring monster hurtle past him, but the hounds, running
+blindly on the hot scent, never saw the danger. As Redpad leaped down
+the embankment the engine-driver saw what would occur and jammed the
+brakes to the groaning wheels, but it was too late. There was one
+yell, which rose above the clatter of the train, and then all was
+over.
+
+Redpad struggled up the hill with his heart thudding against his ribs.
+At the summit there was a cairn of stones strong enough to defy pick
+and spade. Before slipping inside he looked back. The remainder of the
+pack were huddled together in the field below the railway. The train
+was at a standstill, and a group of men stood on the track looking at
+something lemon-and-white which lay without moving at their feet.
+
+Redpad knew that he had nothing more to fear that day. If he had been
+a philosopher he might have reflected upon the saw that 'every dog has
+his day'; but as he was only a fox he crept into Kiltorkan Cairn to
+pant and bite thorns out of his pads.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE SHEEP SLAYER
+
+
+The temptation came late in February, for that is famine time in the
+country-side. The rabbits were alert, and it was difficult to stalk
+birds successfully when the leaves were off the trees. In three days
+Redpad had only picked up a starved rat and a sick pigeon, all skin
+and bone, and on the fourth day he caught nothing at all. His sides
+had fallen in, and his haunch bones stood out. At last he went to the
+moor; but although he hunted there for a long while, he did not even
+see a field-mouse. The sun had set when he returned to Knockdane, and
+the stars came out, one by one, in the steely sky. It was going to
+freeze. Redpad jumped a wall into a little field, where withered fern
+grew more plentifully than grass, and across which the sheep
+stampeded. These were the ewes with young lambs, and they wheeled into
+a jostling flock at his approach. Redpad never looked at them as he
+skirted the field. He was well used to sheep, but so far, in his
+opinion, their only use was to foul his line for the hounds. Also,
+even had he been so minded, he could scarcely pull down a lamb under
+the hoofs of the dams, for collectively the old ewes were formidable.
+Therefore he did not give them a second thought until he came to the
+far side of the field, when a little cry in the fern made him pause
+with pad upraised. He snuffed his way cautiously under the wall; and
+there, sheltered by a boulder from the cold wind, lay a newly dropped
+lamb. It was one of a couple, but being sickly, it had not risen and
+followed the dam to the rest of the flock as its fellow did. It was
+too weak to stand, and could only lie and shiver as the fox crept up.
+Redpad was ravenous--starving, in fact--and far and near the
+countryside was empty in the night. The old ewe was not at hand;
+nothing watched him but the hungry stars overhead. He seized the lamb
+by the shoulder, and it did not even bleat as he swung it over the
+wall, and cantered with it to Knockdane. That night, for the first
+time for many days, Redpad was full-fed, and slept soundly.
+
+The theft might have remained undiscovered, but unluckily the sheep
+belonged to Jack Skehan; and twice a day, during the lambing time, he
+went along a certain path in Knockdane to visit the flock. The next
+morning, when on his usual round, his dog ran on ahead, and presently
+returned carrying the woolly leg of a lamb. On the path were
+unmistakable traces of Redpad's last night's meal; and worst of all,
+in the soft earth where he had drunk from a puddle, were the plain
+prints of pads. There was no doubt who had done the deed.
+
+Jack Skehan himself was not kindly disposed to the Hunt, and he threw
+out dark hints as to his future plans. However, he had no opportunity
+of carrying these into effect, for Redpad did not visit the sheep
+again after his one theft. What with one thing and another, his luck
+began to turn. He picked up two or three snared rabbits and other
+trifles, and the press of famine was over for a time.
+
+However, a week later, he was patrolling the fir wood at the top of
+Knockdane. It was a still night, mild for the season, with a crescent
+moon struggling behind a mass of little sheep-backed clouds. Presently
+he heard a businesslike patter of feet on the fir needles, and
+snuffing, that his nose might confirm his ears in correct fox fashion,
+he winded a dog. Redpad hated dogs only one degree less than men, and
+slipped quietly away into the shadows. The footsteps paused
+undecidedly at the spot where he had turned aside, then passed on.
+
+Shortly afterwards, Redpad was scaling the demesne wall, when a
+distant rumble of hoofs startled him. The ground slopes away gently
+from the end of the wood, over the fields, and then rises again to
+meet the moor. Hence, from the wall, Redpad could look down into the
+field where the sheep dwelt. He saw the whole flock--a grey mass in
+the twilight--collected in a corner; and listening, it seemed to him
+that he heard a shrill yelp. However, it was not repeated, and as he
+winded nothing unusual, for the night air was damp and chilled the
+scent, he continued his way. Night after night he went to the moor by
+the same path--over the wall, and across the little field where the
+sheep grazed among the stones. Here he suddenly crossed a line from
+which the Fur Folk usually turn--the line of fresh blood; and among
+the dwarfed gorse he found the body of a young lamb. At that moment
+the sheep stampeded, and one lamb, breaking from the flock, bounded
+hither and thither among the rocks with the agility of despair. As it
+leaped, something small and dark sprang beside it. There was a wicked
+snarl, a piteous stifled bleat, and the lamb was dragged headlong into
+the furze. Redpad waited no longer, but cantered back to the wood. If
+something was worrying the sheep, this was no safe place for him.
+
+When Jack Skehan came up at eight o'clock, two lambs were missing. He
+called a conclave of neighbours, and they sat in judgment upon
+Redpad's real and supposed delinquencies. Jack Skehan, who was very
+wrathful, purposed to put a notice to 'foxhunters and others' in the
+local press, and resort to drastic measures by means of strychnine;
+but the rest of the council shook their heads, for they had no wish to
+banish the hounds from Knockdane. Ultimately they all went down to
+consult Paddy Magragh, whose reputation for wisdom was deservedly
+great where animals were concerned. Paddy was smoking in his cabin,
+and after he had heard all that they had to say, he said: ''Twas a
+dog, not a fox, took the lamb lasht night, I'm thinking.' And this
+opinion he held to in spite of all arguments against it.
+
+Nothing occurred that night, and the following day Paddy Magragh went
+alone to the field on the hill, and searched it thoroughly. He came
+upon the carcase of the lamb in the gorse, and he grinned, for he knew
+the ways of the Fur Folk, and their law, better than most of the men
+round Knockdane. The next day, however, there was great consternation.
+Jack Skehan's flock was untouched, but Dinny Purcell had left his ewes
+in a field adjoining the wood, and a young lamb lay torn and draggled
+upon the grass. The remains were taken triumphantly to Paddy Magragh,
+and the foxlike print of the fangs displayed; and secretly even his
+conviction was shaken, although he declared stoutly that it was a dog
+and not a fox that had done the deed.
+
+With one accord it was decreed that poison should be laid down; and
+Jack Skehan went to Skelagh and bought strychnine, ostensibly to
+poison rats. Paddy Magragh had manfully opposed this scheme, for
+besides the fact that every fox hunted from Knockdane meant ten
+shillings in his pocket, he had 'stopped' the woods for twenty years,
+and took more pride in his foxes than he cared to own.
+
+'If ye'll do as I tell ye,' he declared, 'ye'll lay the mate on a bit
+o' paper, an' if it's a fox, he'll never touch it at all, for he'd be
+afeard o' the paper, but if it's a dog he'll ate it.'
+
+And this was the utmost they would grant him. Indeed, if they had
+believed him, he could not even have extorted this concession.
+
+They 'doctored' some rabbit paunches with strychnine cunningly enough,
+and laid them seductively in the field. It was just before dark when
+they returned home, so they did not see how the magpie fluttered down
+a few minutes later, and spying the bait, sidled up to it. He did not
+altogether like the white paper, but he was hungry, and a paunch was a
+paunch. He picked it up gingerly and carried it off, for a magpie does
+not care to eat where he has killed--he is too accustomed to traps.
+Even an egg is impaled on his bill and conveyed away. Luckily for this
+magpie, however, it so happened that when he was flying into the wood
+he accidentally let the choice morsel fall out of sight among the
+trees. Therefore, although he went supperless to bed, he was fortunate
+in that he roosted in the branches that night, instead of lying claws
+upwards on the ground. Redpad found that paunch two days afterwards
+and ate a piece; but something peculiar about the morsel--in its taste
+or odour--warned him, and although he was very sick for some hours,
+yet he eventually recovered.
+
+There was great jubilation the next morning when it was found that
+some of the poison had been taken; but the triumph was short-lived,
+for the following night another lamb had disappeared. The next evening
+Jack Skehan took his old gun and the little whippet-nosed dog who
+worked for him among the sheep all day, and sat up to watch. The dog
+sat beside him on a stone, and when he was not watching his master for
+orders, he gazed serenely above the heads of the sheep. Nothing,
+however, came, and at six o'clock, tired and chilled, Jack Skehan
+went home.
+
+The poison was still there, but Redpad, made wary by his former
+experience with the rabbit paunch, passed it by, and besides, the
+mysterious rustling of the white paper underneath scared him. The real
+sheep slayer never touched it, for he seemed to prefer warm meat to
+cold.
+
+On the two following nights again nothing was taken; but on the third
+morning news was brought that an older lamb had been killed in Jack
+Skehan's flock, and that the carcase had not been removed, so Paddy
+Magragh went up to the field.
+
+'Bedam! I'll have the poison thick in every field on the farm, and put
+up the wire besides,' stormed Jack Skehan. 'Is al' me sheep to be
+worried on me that the gintry may hunt their dirthy foxes over me
+land? I'll have ivery mother's son o' thim prosecuted.'
+
+'Now I'll go bail,' said Paddy Magragh, who had picked up the carcase,
+'that 'twas a dog had this killed.'
+
+'An' what dog in this counthry would touch a sheep, an' they wid 'em
+all day?' demanded Garry, Jack Skehan's young brother.
+
+'Where have ye that felly o' yours shut at nights?' asked Paddy
+Magragh, looking at the little narrow-headed cur who slunk at
+Skehan's heel.
+
+'Shure he slapes in the cowhouse, and I lets him out in the mornin'.
+But he'd never harm a sheep--I rared him meself.'
+
+Paddy Magragh spat discreetly. 'I'd have me cowhouse door mended, an'
+the window blocked,' said he.
+
+'Are ye sayin' that it was a dog all the while?' demanded Skehan
+irately.
+
+'I do not. Maybe 'twas a fox took one or two--the first was a little
+small one, an' he sick-like. But this is a dog, shure enough.' And he
+looked again at Jack Skehan's sheep-dog, who was licking his paws
+thoughtfully.
+
+'Well, I'll have the poison down again, an' that widout the paper.
+Shure there's enough o' talkin'. If there's another lamb worried on
+me, begob, but I'll poison every fox in Knockdane,' grumbled Jack
+Skehan.
+
+Paddy Magragh said nothing, for he was crafty, and the Knockdane foxes
+were near to his heart and his pocket, but that night, after the bait
+had been laid, he went to the field, and, taking the carcase of the
+dead lamb, he put in enough strychnine to poison a dozen dogs or foxes
+either, and left it by the gate.
+
+'It's a bit o' a risk,' he mumbled, 'but shure, if I don't have the
+right lad cot to-night, Jack Skehan is that bitther with the Hunt
+he'll not lave a fox in the woods, what wid the traps an' the poison.'
+
+That night the hunger pain hurt Redpad sorely again; and if he had
+reflected upon the subject, he might have envied the squirrels, who,
+during that hard March weather, eked out a living upon germinating
+beechmast, or the badgers who dug up and ate the acrid tubers of the
+wild arum. But the Fur Folk do not possess the faculty of comparing
+their own lot with that of others. Perhaps they are all the happier
+that they lack it.
+
+It was after midnight, and the moon was not long risen, when Redpad
+trotted by the gate of the field where the sheep were. He had no idea
+of taking a lamb. They were all able to run well by now, and he had
+too much respect for the hoofs of the old ewes to attack the entire
+flock. He crept under the gate (there be those who say that a fox will
+not do this, but the hedgerow rabbits whom the fox stalks know better)
+and then he found the carcase of the lamb. His recent experience with
+the rabbit paunch had made him wary, otherwise he might have eaten of
+it, for he was very hungry; but to his sharp senses something seemed
+not altogether right--perhaps the taint of human hands was still upon
+the food--and he passed on. For two hours he hunted in the fields, but
+the meagre results only whetted his appetite. Then he recollected the
+dead lamb, and desire for one full meal overcame his caution, and he
+returned to the place.
+
+The moon, which had been obscured by sullen clouds, here brightened a
+little, and he caught sight of the lamb's carcase in the fern,
+gleaming in the dusk. He was hurrying up to it, when suddenly, by a
+wandering night breeze, he winded dog, and at the same instant the
+clouds broke entirely from the moon. Redpad stood petrified, for not
+thirty yards away, his back turned and his foot on the dead lamb,
+crouched Jack Skehan's tried sheep-dog. He looked up, and snarled at
+the sheep who stared fearfully at him. Evidently he was devouring his
+last night's kill, before attacking the flock. As Redpad watched, the
+dog tore off a mouthful and swallowed it. Then he growled again, and
+Redpad slunk silently away. The dog was lightly built, and smaller
+than he was, but he was thin and weak, and in no condition to fight.
+The Fur Folk seldom contest a kill, and besides, in Redpad's mind,
+dogs were so intimately connected with men that he was by no means
+certain that a man might not lurk under the wall. But as he went
+there was a half-strangled, hysterical yell behind him. The dog
+suddenly leaped up, and rushed madly towards the gate, as though in
+his terror his first instinct was to run home. His agonised eyes,
+fear-stricken, glinted white in the moonlight, and there was foam on
+his jowl. Redpad took the wall in one bound, but as he sprang he heard
+a dull thud, as the dog, leaping blindly in the extremity of his
+frenzy, struck the top bar of the gate, and fell back struggling
+convulsively.
+
+Redpad ran as he had seldom run before, for he believed that the other
+pursued him, and that the mysterious madness would be upon him too if
+he were overtaken. But the hideous sounds which tore the silence of
+the night behind gradually grew fainter, and before he had crossed the
+demesne wall the dog lay still and stiff beside the torn lamb. There
+Paddy Magragh found him at dawn, and went home chuckling; and there
+also, a little later, his owner found him, and buried him secretly in
+the corner of a turnip field.
+
+For obvious reasons Jack Skehan did not publish the story of that
+night abroad; but in the country round it was noticed ever after that
+his lambing ewes were kept in the home-field; and also that from this
+time onwards he ceased to be accompanied everywhere by his favourite
+dog. Until recently, indeed, the identity of the sheep killer was only
+known to three persons--to Skehan himself, who never divulged it; to
+Paddy Magragh, who kept the secret faithfully, and only revealed it
+long afterwards in order, on another occasion, to clear the name of
+the foxes of Knockdane; and lastly to Redpad. But for a long while the
+latter avoided the place; for in his memory dwelt the recollection of
+that strange death which men deal to those who break the primitive law
+which ordains that man is placed in dominion, not only over the beasts
+who eat his bread, but over the Wild Folk of the hills and woods, and
+that his dependents and possessions are sacred, and not to be harmed
+with impunity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+FROM KILMANAGH TO KNOCKDANE
+
+
+From Kilmanagh Hill the highlands stretch north and south mile after
+mile, with here and there the grey head of a limestone crag protruding
+through the heather. In the less rugged spots the peasants have
+collected the stones and piled them up, so as to enclose a tiny
+half-acre field with a wall as strong and high as a rampart; but for
+the most part the country lies derelict in moor and bog--the home of
+the curlew, plover and hill-fox. It is a weird land this, which in
+rockbound loneliness looks out over the cultivated plain. From its
+southern limits can be seen the sea, a pale streak in the distance;
+and often all day long the Atlantic mists settle down and wrap the
+hills in a chill pall until sunset, when the sun breaks out and the
+moor glows beneath him like a wet pebble. But to-night the sun had
+long since disappeared behind the cone of Galtymore, and the stars had
+taken his place, until they in their turn were drowned by the January
+moon which rose, polished with frost, above the highest of the eastern
+tiers of mountains. The western slopes of Kilmanagh were still hidden
+in deepest shadow, but on the east every bush and heather tuft was
+visible, and the faces of the limestone boulders glistened with rime.
+
+A shadow glided through the bushes, and sprang upon a rock. The
+moonlight shone on the thick brush and ruddy pads which Knockdane knew
+so well. But Knockdane was ten miles away over the moors. What brought
+Redpad to Kilmanagh that winter's night? Two days before he had left
+his home covert, and travelled after sunset across the open country to
+the foot of these wild highlands which lie some four miles to the
+south of Knockdane. He had travelled along leisurely, hunting as he
+went, and sleeping under some rock or bush. He did not know why he
+thus wandered through an unknown country. He only felt a desire which
+he could not gratify--the desire which awakens earliest in the Fox
+People--the desire of Love. No matter how keenly January frosts bite
+or January sleet showers blow, they leave their native haunts, and
+wander away to seek a mate. Perhaps some mysterious hereditary
+instinct led Redpad to the hill, for on just such a night his sire had
+left the highlands and come to Knockdane three years before.
+
+To-night Redpad climbed to the highest peak of Kilmanagh Hill to see
+the moon rise; and there, because he was solitary and the Love Desire
+so strong, he raised his long muzzle and yelped out his loneliness
+and longing. A sheep-dog below heard and answered with a deep
+'row-row-row!' of disgust at the chain which prevented him rambling
+from his home.
+
+[Illustration: LONELINESS AND LONGING]
+
+'Yap! yap! yap!' shrilly and insistently Redpad, silhouetted against
+the moon, yelped a love song and challenge in one.
+
+From the shadowed side of Kilmanagh rose a call less loud and defiant
+than his own. Redpad swung round, ears cocked, pad raised, but the
+still cold air of mid-January was silent but for the sheep-dog's bark.
+He whimpered a little and then plunged into the heather. The hillside
+was very dark, but Redpad's nose was keen and told him plainly who had
+passed that way. Where the main peak of Kilmanagh meets the more
+gradual slopes which rise up to meet it from the plain, is a little
+ravine, and here the night air bore a faint unmistakable taint to his
+nostrils--fox. Among the shadows ahead, his eyes, catlike, accustomed
+to see in the gloom, detected something which appeared more solid than
+a shadow. He approached it cautiously, while a low growl arose in his
+throat. A pair of ears twitched and then slid into the bushes. Redpad
+put his nose down and hunted out the trail as carefully as ever he had
+done that of hare or rabbit. By and by he came to a clearing. The moon
+had just risen above the sloping shoulders of Kilmanagh, and to fox
+eyes the hill was light. Here his quest ended, for not six yards from
+him sat the Belovčd. Her coat was as red as that of a winter squirrel,
+her brush was as thick as a pine sapling, and she was as desirable as
+a sunny evening in May. Therefore because she satisfied Redpad's
+longing he called her the Belovčd on the spot, and indeed he never
+knew her by any other name. He came forward cautiously, for he doubted
+what his reception might be, leaping this way and that and dropping on
+his forepads like a cub inviting a game. But the Belovčd had also been
+very solitary. She too had yelped the story of her loneliness to the
+moon. She trotted forward and touched Redpad caressingly, and then
+playfully rolled him over with her muzzle. They romped together for a
+few minutes, and either gave and received sundry love nips, and then
+they trotted down the hill in company.
+
+The sheep-dog was silent, but a snipe rushed up crying 'kek-a-kek.'
+Rabbits were playing among the furze, and there Redpad and his Belovčd
+hunted together until the moon began to sink, and some wet clouds from
+the west rose over her face, bringing warm rain.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It still wanted some two hours till dawn when Redpad and his love
+came back up the hill, full-fed and contented. The Belovčd trotted in
+front, and her mate followed some little way behind. Suddenly the
+narrow goat-path took a sharp turn, and they came full upon an
+enormous fox. He stood half an inch higher at the shoulder than
+Redpad, and his coat was as grey as a badger's. He bared his teeth a
+little at the sight of Redpad, but most of his attention was
+concentrated upon the Belovčd. He crept forward with his long neck
+stretched out and touched her red shoulder. Redpad bared his double
+row of ivory fangs and the hair along his spine rose. In another
+moment he would have flown at his rival's throat, had not the Belovčd,
+as is the custom of the fox-kind, taken the quarrel upon herself. She
+flew at the Grey One with a fierce growl, and made her teeth meet in
+his flank. He would have fought with Redpad while he had a pad left to
+stand upon, but by the law of the Woods a fox may not attack a vixen
+in the love season. He felt the Belovčd's strong jaws close like a
+trap behind his ears, and fled. The vixen trotted back slowly to her
+lair, glancing back now and then over her shoulder and growling softly
+at the recollection of her recent skirmish and many other things. And
+Redpad, her accepted suitor, followed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The afternoon was dull and raw. The frost had gone, and the fields in
+the plain were studded with pools of flood water, for much rain had
+fallen.
+
+Redpad in his lair was awakened by a frightened woodcock which dropped
+down just in front of him. He sat up suspiciously with cocked ears,
+for it is not the way of woodcock after a clear night to shift their
+quarters undisturbed. There was a faint halloa at the top of the hill:
+'Try-Tra-i-y.' Redpad slipped silently from the warm lair, and the
+Belovčd followed him, for they both knew the meaning of that sound.
+Suddenly there was a joyous 'yow-yow-yow.' 'Hike! hike!' came the
+shout again; and Redpad trotted down the hill, for although the
+heather hemmed him in, he knew well enough what was forward on the
+summit.
+
+There is a low stone wall at the foot of Kilmanagh which separates a
+thick gorse brake from the fields, and Redpad squatted down behind it
+to watch. The hounds were gradually working down the hill. There was a
+man on a horse standing at a corner of the field, and all at once he
+waved his cap above his head. The Grey One was slinking down the
+fence. He had crossed the first field when a couple of hounds gave
+tongue close by. His heart failed him--he swung round to the covert
+again, leaped over Redpad with a snarl, and galloped back up the
+hill. The hounds broke into the field on his line, wheeled like a
+flock of plover, and came straight to where Redpad lay. It was time to
+be stirring--a strange covert is no refuge to a hunted fox. Redpad
+cantered gracefully a little further up the fence, and just as he
+leaped upon the wall in full view of the watcher in the field, some
+erratic puff of wind told him that his Belovčd had just passed that
+way up the hill to safety. He wavered for a moment, then the pack
+spoke again and he leaped. But he had not gone a hundred yards before
+the hounds gave tongue behind him, and a distant voice proclaimed:
+'Gone away--awa-a-y--awa-a-y!'
+
+From the very start Redpad knew where he was going, and set his mask
+towards Knockdane on the hill ten miles away. At first the fields he
+crossed were small, and cropped as bare as a billiard-table by
+starveling goats and sheep, while between them rose walls of loosely
+piled stone, five feet high and so broad that a horse could walk along
+the top. More than one horseman turned home that day with a red
+bandage round his horse's fetlock, for Kilmanagh stones are sharp.
+
+Two miles slipped by. Redpad kept up his best pace, for he felt
+instinctively that he had not increased his lead during the last
+half-mile, and the scent was good that day. He was in the best of
+condition and ran strongly, but he did not know the hiding-places in
+this part of the country as well as those of Knockdane, and was
+obliged to trust more to his legs and less to his wits than was his
+custom.
+
+Presently he turned to the right and climbed the steep hillside to the
+moor. There was a big rabbit hole in his path into which he tried to
+creep, but just below the surface it narrowed, and he was obliged to
+back out with his coat full of dust and several precious moments lost.
+He could see the hounds--a pied patch on the fields below him. At that
+distance they appeared to be crawling along, but as a matter of fact
+they were racing at top speed. Just behind them rode a horseman on a
+great black horse, but the rest were further behind.
+
+Redpad ran on steadily, for he could see Knockdane with its crest of
+trees in the distance. The moor was boggy, and he crossed patches of
+quagmire which trembled even under his light weight. A big grey heron
+burst out of a pool and swung skywards, and the snipe sprang up in
+every direction; but Redpad never paused and the hounds never checked,
+until the men began to wonder if their horses would hold out, and took
+what short cuts they might.
+
+Three miles further on the moor sloped down to the tilled lands again.
+Redpad was cantering along a bohireen[3] when he suddenly came full
+upon a countryman mending a wall. The man sprang up and shouted, and a
+big yellow sheep-dog darted from his heel. Redpad cleared the fence at
+a bound, and went away over a turnip-field with the collie not half a
+dozen yards behind. The field was a wide one, and although he
+succeeded in shaking off his pursuer on the other side, yet the sudden
+effort told upon him. His tongue was out, and now and then his gallop
+dropped into a hurrying trot.
+
+[3] Narrow lane.
+
+By now he was in fields which he knew well, and tried all the familiar
+hiding-places one after another. There is a 'shore' by Kilmacabee and
+a badger set in Charlesfort Wood; but the rain had filled the former
+with water, and the latter was blocked up.
+
+The early January evening began to close in when the home covert was
+still three miles away, but the scent lay stronger than ever on field
+and bog. Redpad was spattered with mud and his breath came in gasps,
+but he ran on gallantly over ploughed fields where the plover rose
+screaming at his approach, and over pastures where the sheep
+stampeded. Once he met a donkey-cart crawling down a road. The old
+woman in it screamed and waved her shawl at his approach, and obliged
+him to turn a hundred yards out of his way, but even a hundred yards
+is far to go when limbs are weary, and there is withal the certain
+knowledge that the pursuers are gaining ground. Nevertheless he could
+see Knockdane more and more clearly, and knew that there was only
+another half-mile, and the river to be forded, before he could lie
+down in the old 'earth.' Looking back he saw that the hounds, though
+tired themselves, were coming on faster than ever, and he knew that he
+must run his best if he would arrive at the ford by the old willow
+before them. His heart thudded as though it would burst its way
+through his ears, and his famous ruddy pads felt as though each were
+bound to the earth. More than once he lay down with closed eyes, and
+had he been a soft-hearted fox or a vixen he would have died there and
+then; but as he was as gallant a fox as ever ran before the hounds to
+a ten mile point, he rose stiffly and stumbled aimlessly forward
+again.
+
+As he crossed the brow of the hill from whence the slope fell steeply
+down to the river, the sun came out over the shoulder of Knockdane and
+shone wanly on the flood pools in the meadows. The mists were already
+rising, and the great solemn woods on the other side lay in shadow.
+The waterhens feeding on the river bank scuttled away as he limped
+down to the water's edge.
+
+The river was in full flood and rushed hurrahing seawards, carrying
+foam flakes and branches of trees in its coffee-coloured current. It
+filled its banks to the brim, and not a ripple was left to tell where
+the ford had been. The willow tree which grew beside the spot was
+partially uprooted and drooped into the water with its branches
+festooned with flotsam. Redpad paused bewildered, for never before had
+this ford failed him at his need. Just then the hounds broke over the
+brow of the hill and tore down the slope. Redpad saw them, and
+determined to make a desperate bid for freedom. Very slowly and
+stiffly he crept out along the horizontal trunk of the willow, and so
+into the smaller branches above the water, where a hound could not
+venture. The pack came up and crowded baying round the tree. Now and
+then one tried to follow along the trunk, but they were less nimble
+than a fox and slipped back into the water. Redpad lay crouched flat
+with his teeth bared, and no hound could reach him from below.
+
+Presently two men rode down and dismounted from their tired horses.
+One was the man on the black horse who had ridden so well that day,
+and the other was the huntsman. The latter tried to climb out along
+the tree to Redpad, but it swayed so perilously that he was forced to
+return.
+
+'It's no use, sir,' he said. 'I am afraid we can't reach him there.
+Shure, it's a pity for the hounds not to chop him afther all, afther
+the way they hunted him.'
+
+'It was as fine a hunt as ever I saw,' answered the other. Then
+looking at Redpad's half-closed eyes, he added: 'But that fellow will
+never run again--he is dead beat, and it is a pity they did not run
+into the poor brute back yonder where he lay down. At all events he
+has cheated us of his brush, for he was as plucky a fox as I ever
+saw.'
+
+With this, his requiem, in his ears, Redpad stretched out his muzzle
+on his pads and closed his eyes, as he had done many a morning in the
+old earth in Knockdane. The light of the after-glow lit up the bright
+coats of the two men and the tired hounds behind. They were only a few
+yards away, yet he knew that they could not reach him, and therefore
+paid no further attention to them. The water lip-lapped round the
+willow, and the roar of the flood deepened as twilight fell, and the
+night wind shivered in the aspens. A waterhen called, and a flight of
+wild duck, quacking softly, flew over the hill. Redpad straightened
+himself slowly--then he gave a lurch, and dropped into the water. The
+broad stream caught him, and swept him out into the midcurrent. He
+struggled a little, but the eddies bound down each tired limb, and the
+ripples broke against his closed eyes. The water, which had so nearly
+cut short his life in early days, was a good friend to him now. As his
+body was borne down the misty stream, away from the clamour of the
+hounds into the august silences of the night, the waves lapped gently
+over his head; and under their kisses, his spirit drifted quietly out
+to the Grey Fields of Sleep where the souls of the Fur Folk go.
+
+There is no rain known there nor any sun, and no one is ever weary or
+hungry or afraid, but they lie wrapped in warm mists in a country
+where there is no noise nor bright light burning. They sleep on there
+and take their rest, knowing neither joy nor grief nor hope nor
+disappointment until time and space shall be no more.
+
+The moon rose over the mountains, and the flood sang joyfully on its
+way to the tumbling waves in the estuary.
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF FLUFF-BUTTON THE RABBIT
+
+[Illustration: FLUFF-BUTTON THE RABBIT]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+HOW FLUFF-BUTTON CRIED QUITS
+
+
+A lane winds steeply through Knockdane Wood; and at the top of the
+hill where the trees grow sparsely, there is a gate leading to a
+furze-grown field. The grass is cropped short and thick by generations
+of sheep and rabbits; and the slopes are dotted with gorse bushes
+which they have nibbled into all kinds of fantastic shapes. Between
+the wood and the field the gorse forms a prickly barrier six feet
+high, but it tapers off to mere pin-cushions of eighteen inches in the
+open. The first time that White-Lamb saw the bushes, he stubbed his
+nose into them, and then cried out because the thorns pricked.
+White-Lamb had only lived two days of his allotted span, and had not
+yet learned that gorse is prickly.
+
+There were a score of sheep in the field, and each of them had her
+white lamb (or maybe two) running beside her; but only one White-Lamb
+comes into this story, because he was the only one who had anything to
+do with the course of events in Knockdane Wood, and even his influence
+was only indirect through Fluff-Button the Rabbit. Fluff-Button was a
+great hero in Knockdane, as any of the Fur Folk can tell you; but he
+would never have grown up at all if it had not been for White-Lamb, as
+this story will relate.
+
+In the year of which I write, March and April changed places; for
+although the human calendars said that it was March, and in the woods
+the catkins had not shrivelled on the hazels, yet all day the westerly
+wind drove rain-storms over Knockdane. The lambs huddled close to
+their mothers with nothing but their restless tails appearing,
+when--hey presto--no sooner had they tucked themselves away
+comfortably, than the squall passed, and the sun blazed out upon the
+wet skirts of the rain. Raindrops dripped merrily from the
+hazel-catkins as the wind or a leaping squirrel shook them, and the
+air was full of the scent of wet earth and breaking buds.
+
+Towards evening the showers became less frequent, and the sun shot
+long slanting rays over Knockdane. The old sheep coughed as they
+snatched at the wet grass, and the field resounded with the incessant
+bleating of the lambs who ran to a strange ewe and were butted aside.
+
+Because White-Lamb still kept his close lamb's coat, and had not yet
+lost the instincts of his race in the placid vegetable life of his
+mother, he grew restless towards nightfall, and trotted over to the
+gate to look at the woods--an unknown land to him. The Night Longing
+calls to the animals who live under man's dominion as surely as to the
+Wild Folk, but they very seldom hear it. Sometimes, however, the
+sleepy cattle in the meadows lose their wits in the dark; and if a man
+passes by they forget that he is their lord and master, who in the
+daytime goads them where he will, and only remember that at one time
+their forefathers charged his naked ancestors through the forest, and
+gored and trampled upon them. The old impulses are strongest in the
+young animals, just as among men a boy burns with a hundred noble
+purposes which he will forget when he becomes a man, and soils his
+hands in the world's ways.
+
+The path wound away until it was lost to view among the fir trees; but
+right at the end of the vista, and barred across perpendicularly by
+the tall stems, was a clearing into which the sunset light slanted. As
+White-Lamb watched the light on the path, and listened to the wind
+among the branches, he saw a shadow move among the withered fern
+stumps, and steal quickly towards him. White-Lamb watched it approach
+with his pink-tinted ears spread wide, and his innocent face pressed
+against the lower bar of the gate. At first he thought that the
+strange beast was a sheep, but a furtive gleam of sunshine touched its
+back and pointed ears and turned them ruddy. It came on with an easy
+silent gait, glancing from side to side, and did not perceive
+White-Lamb until it was quite close to him. Then it stopped, and eyed
+him narrowly with a pair of keen yellow eyes. White-Lamb felt a vague
+misgiving, and ran back a few steps towards the flock. The other slunk
+forward and slipped through a little hole at the side of the
+gate-post, whence his sharp nose peeped out. A dozen rabbits were
+playing a little distance down the fence, close to the sheep, and his
+attention was fixed upon these. Suddenly White-Lamb realised that all
+was not to his liking, and he uttered a loud and plaintive bleat.
+Instantly his mother raised her head, saw the intruder, and cried to
+her companions. The whole flock rushed together, each ewe with her
+lamb galloping beside her; and forming into a close circle they faced
+the enemy and stamped an insistent warning: 'Fox! fox!' The rabbits
+took the alarm at once, without pausing to discover the reason for the
+stampede. A dozen scuts whisked in the air, and then vanished into the
+hedgerow. There was, however, one small rabbit who had evidently but
+just left the nesting burrow, for he showed no fear. He hopped a few
+feet nearer the hedge, and then raised himself upon his fluffy pad of
+a tail to peer over the grass.
+
+The fox saw his ears twitch, and glided forward a few feet before
+making a spring. But the old ewes took the alarm again, and stampeded.
+As White-Lamb scampered by his mother, his flying hoof struck the
+little rabbit, and brushed him aside. The flock then wheeled again
+upon the fox, just in time to see the rabbit's scut uppermost as he
+rolled head over heels into the runway, and hear the click of the
+fox's jaws which closed on the empty air at the end of his spring. He
+stood sulkily watching the sheep for a minute or two; but though he
+did not fear them individually, yet collectively the old ewes looked
+dangerously ready to trample upon an enemy in defence of their lambs,
+and he thought better of it. He turned away and cantered off towards
+the moor.
+
+That was the first time that White-Lamb saw Fluff-Button the Rabbit,
+and but for his happy instinct to baa for his mother, it would have
+been the last. However, as it was, they often saw one another again,
+for Old Doe Rabbit had tunnelled her nesting burrow under a fir tree
+inside the wood, and used to lead her family out to feed in the
+evening. At first there were six of them, but as March turned into
+April, and White-Lamb's body grew to proportions more in keeping with
+his legs, foxes, cats and stoats took their toll, and their numbers
+diminished to three. After a time they achieved a certain
+independence. They crept out alone, and sat among the bluebells and
+combed their ears and pretended to be grown-up rabbits, until a pigeon
+clattering out of the fir trees or a magpie croaking in glee over a
+throstle's nest, made them tumble inside to their mother in a hurry. A
+mere human hunter would have said that there was absolutely no
+difference between Fluff-Button and his sisters, but he would have
+been wrong. Fluff-Button was no more like them than all the children
+in a human family are like one another, but only another rabbit could
+have seen the difference. They all had the same white dab of a tail,
+and the same ever-twitching whiskers, and they all had to go through
+the same training. All knowledge in the woods is divided into two
+kinds: those things which you are born knowing, and those things which
+you find out for yourself. Fluff-Button was born knowing that grass
+was good to eat, but he had to find out for himself that the bluebell
+leaves, which look much like grass, are full of unwholesome slimy
+juice and not nice to nibble. He also had to find out by experience
+that while foxes are dangerous and should be avoided, sheep are quite
+harmless. When he had learned this, he used often to find his way to
+the Sheep Field all alone, and feed among the lambs.
+
+Once a day Paddy Magragh used to climb the hill to count the sheep. At
+his heels slunk a yellow terrier with a keen nose and a silent tongue,
+who could do anything from rounding up a sheep for his master, to
+killing a fox single-handed in Knockdane. But for this early morning
+visit, life in the Sheep Field was very peaceful. Nothing came between
+the furze bushes and the spring sunshine except when a rook flew
+overhead, croaking a quaint spring song to himself, or when a filmy
+cloud raced across the sky. The gorse flowers gave out a heavy perfume
+like warm apricot jam, and the fine spell brought out a horde of
+insects to hum round them. The lambs played together among the
+ant-hills, and the little rabbits played also. The games they played
+were the oldest games in the world--tig, catch as catch can, and king
+o' the castle. But though White-Lamb often saw Fluff-Button, and used
+to run and sniff at his little brown ears in the grass, I cannot say
+positively whether they ever talked to one another or no. I often lay
+in the bushes and watched them feed side by side; but the language of
+the Woods is not that of men. It is a more subtle, and yet a more
+simple language, communicated by movements of the eyes, ears, and
+whiskers, and no man has ever thoroughly learned it yet.
+
+The night after the first bluebell had opened, Fluff-Button went all
+alone to the Sheep Field at moonrise for the first time. He was now
+three-parts grown, and instead of feeding by the hedgerow with one eye
+on covert, he crept further and further out towards the middle of the
+pasture like any old buck rabbit.
+
+It was a chilly night; but the air on the hill was less cold than that
+in the valley, where a damp mist lay. A sheep-dog yelped monotonously
+at the end of his chain from a farmhouse beyond the wood; and at the
+bottom of the field short grunts and incessant bleating told that the
+sheep were feeding. The Sheep Field was always noisy at night. One or
+another of the ewes would lose sight of her lamb behind a bush, and
+then for a long while either cried to the other, and yet neither would
+stir; and the wind everlastingly sang in the trees in Knockdane.
+
+By and by a pale April moon rose, and Fluff-Button sat up for the
+tenth time to flick the dew from his whiskers. The bushes around him
+took curious shapes in the half-light; and wander where he would among
+them, he saw no other rabbit. But suddenly his long ears sprang from
+the horizontal to the vertical, and his forelegs stiffened. The turf
+of the Sheep Field was firm and close, and carried the sound of
+galloping hoofs like a telephone. The sheep were on the move.
+Fluff-Button, used to their senseless panics, would have paid little
+heed had not the night air brought another faint taint to his
+nostrils. As it was, he hopped away slowly between two furze thickets.
+Almost before he could tumble aside the sheep were upon him, ewe and
+lamb jostling one another, while White-Lamb, who headed the stampede,
+leaped the bushes like a chamois. They rushed into a dense phalanx,
+and all stamped their fear and anger at something which was
+approaching them between the gorse bushes. Fluff-Button skipped round,
+and it was well that he did so, for there, not five yards away, stood
+Magragh's yellow cur dog with his tongue lolling out, and his wicked
+eyes on the sheep. The Night Longing had moved him and strange
+impulses stirred within him. He had forgotten all about his quiet
+domestic life, and his love for his master, and only listened to the
+voice which whispered that it would be good to chase the silly, woolly
+things in front of him--and leap upon them--and worry them. But for
+the moment he stood hesitating, for all his life it had been his duty
+to care for the sheep.
+
+It was well for the sheep that they stood firm. Had they broken and
+run, the scales, which were now evenly weighted, would have turned.
+The dog would have dragged them down from the sheer lust of killing;
+and after that night he would have developed into what every farmer
+hates and fears--a sheep-killing dog. But a weight dropped into the
+other scale, and that weight was Fluff-Button. He lay right in the
+path, and his presence decided the matter. Cur Dog forgot those
+strange impulses which bade him kill the sheep, and only remembered
+that here was a rabbit which was lawful prey.
+
+Fluff-Button doubled away nimbly from his rush, but even so the dog's
+jaws snapped together just behind his scut. Away they went down the
+field, the rabbit leading by a few bare yards. He had no time to
+double back into the gorse, and here there was no covert but a few
+bushes, therefore he headed for the wood.
+
+Cur Dog had won many a Sunday's coursing, and had something of the
+greyhound strain mingled with his terrier blood. He did not give
+tongue, but ran silently with his nose to the ground. With his pursuer
+so close behind, Fluff-Button dared not try any of those elaborate
+dodges and twists which every rabbit knows, but he tore down the field
+like an arrow. The slope was in Cur Dog's favour, for a rabbit never
+runs his best downhill. He decreased his distance by a foot or two,
+but he came no nearer, for Fluff-Button strained every sinew, and
+buttoned down his ears and whiskers, that nothing might hinder him in
+the race.
+
+Thus they reached the fence, and Fluff-Button cunningly slipped
+between two saplings, hoping that his enemy would dash into them in
+the dark, but Cur Dog was fortunate, and came through unscratched.
+Then began a long series of turns and twists among fern stumps and
+trees. Several times Fluff-Button thought that he had shaken off his
+pursuer, but every time a yelp from behind told him that the latter
+was still hot on the line. In a long chase the odds are against the
+rabbit. He is not accustomed to sustained efforts, and although only a
+swift dog can catch him in a dash to the burrow's mouth, yet if hunted
+far he soon tires. Fluff-Button longed for a bramble brake, but there
+was none near. His heart thumped against his ribs until he felt as
+though it must burst, for just then Cur Dog gave tongue loudly and
+long, with the confidence of a hunter who knows that his quarry is
+weary.
+
+Fluff-Button turned down a ride. The moon had risen, and here where
+the trees grew sparsely it was comparatively light. Nevertheless the
+woods on either side were in deepest shadow, and Fluff-Button had eyes
+for nothing but the dog behind him. Hence he never saw a dark figure
+standing in the shadows, and he passed so swiftly that he scented
+nothing unusual. Neither did Cur Dog see or smell it as he tore down
+the ride, yelping on the trail with his nose to the ground.
+
+Suddenly there was a flash--and a loud report split the silence of the
+woods. Cur Dog bounded his own height into the air, his howl died into
+a sob--he rolled over twice and then lay still.
+
+'Not bad in the twilight,' said the keeper, jerking the cartridge from
+his gun.
+
+Fluff-Button heard the report as he scudded through the bushes, but he
+never noticed that the galloping feet behind him had ceased. Some
+fifty yards further on was an old rabbit burrow. He dived into it, and
+lay panting in its bottommost recess until long after moonset. But no
+Cur Dog came to nose at the burrow's mouth.
+
+Thus Fluff-Button might have cried quits with White-Lamb for the time
+that the latter summoned the flock to face the fox. But though the
+next evening found them together in the Sheep Field, yet they fed
+placidly side by side and exchanged no word nor sign; for it is not
+the way of the Wild Folk to show gratitude to one another.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE SPRING LONGING
+
+
+In the valley at the foot of Knockdane Hill there is a great meadow.
+It is like an island surrounded by the sea, for the woods come close
+up to its hedge on all sides except on the east, where the river runs;
+and just as an island may have a lake in the middle, so in the centre
+of the Big Meadow there is a little copse. The trees in the copse are
+sycamore and red-stemmed pine, and in spring the ground is carpeted
+with celandines and anemones. In the copse there is a hollow where
+long ago men used to quarry out stones; but now it is never used, and
+the heaps of flints are draped with bramble and cinquefoil trails.
+
+When the men ceased to dig out gravel and gave the copse back to the
+Fur Folk, an old rabbit made his burrow under the roots of a pine
+tree, and he or his descendants lived there ever after. At the time of
+which I write, however, the woods had been rigorously trapped during
+the winter, and one by one the inhabitants of the Copse Burrow had
+disappeared until there were only two doe rabbits left. One was Mutch,
+a veteran of four seasons, with long yellow teeth and a grey coat,
+well versed in the wiles of the woods; and the other was Cuni, who
+had only been born the previous July, and who had fur as brown as her
+big soft eye.
+
+From a human point of view a celandine bed is the most beautiful
+thing. It covered the copse with a broad sheet, softly green and
+golden, and the first things the rabbits saw when creeping from
+subterranean darkness were the golden flowers. Nevertheless, from the
+rabbit's point of view celandines are not so desirable. They are just
+the wrong height, and tickle the bunnies' noses as they hop through
+them; and besides, the broad leaves catch and retain raindrops, which
+is a grievous disadvantage when soaked and muddy paws have to be
+licked dry. At least that is what Cuni found. She came out when the
+flowers were all asleep after the rain, and the dawn was breaking over
+the mountains. The wind was keen and fresh, and bore the strong sweet
+scent of wet earth with it. The pine trees swayed and sighed--not with
+the boisterous roar with which they struggled with the autumn gales,
+but triumphantly, as though the sap were mounting to their topmost
+twigs. The light in the east grew primrose-coloured behind the
+wind-torn clouds, and beyond the river the rooks in the Ballylinch
+elms awoke and clamoured for the sun.
+
+As the gale swept along, the woods were filled with a spirit which,
+although it is as old as the world itself, is yet born anew every
+year--the mad spirit of Spring.
+
+Even old Mutch felt that the season was changing. As for Cuni, she
+leaped three feet into the air, and tried to play at hide and seek
+with herself round an ash tree; but Mutch, who was old and surly,
+chased her into a bramble bush. It is a curious thing that, just as in
+human society some old spinsters ape masculine dress and ways, and
+prate much about the Rights of Women, because, poor dears, they do not
+know what those rights really are; so in the woods old doe rabbits or
+old hen birds often gradually adopt the colours and language of the
+other sex. Therefore Mutch coughed in a deep voice and gobbled grass
+untidily like any old buck rabbit, but Cuni fed daintily and watched
+the stormy sunrise.
+
+Presently she heard a rustle in the celandines, and sniffed cautiously
+to discover whether that which was coming were harmless rabbit,
+slinking stoat, or prowling cat. Suddenly there was a crisp, short
+thump which made the Copse ring: it was a signal. The old doe rose on
+her hind legs and listened; but Cuni peeped through the brambles to
+see from where the noise came.
+
+Fluff-Button sat and kicked the ground loudly and persistently. He did
+not know _why_ he did so any more than the celandines around his paws
+knew why they waved in the wind; but Fluff-Button knew _when_ he did
+so and the flowers did not--there lay the difference. He was calling
+for his love, and as though fascinated Cuni's tremulous nose was
+thrust from covert, and she began to steal towards him. But as she was
+about to stamp an answer, she looked to the right and saw that old
+Mutch had hopped half-way across the clearing.
+
+Fluff-Button turned round and saw two pairs of ears twitch. One pair
+was grey and lopped with age, but the second pair was adorable, and he
+made up his mind quickly. He hopped towards Cuni, utterly disregarding
+Mutch, and rose on his haunches to display his white vest and long
+whiskers. Cuni was visibly impressed by these, and by the beauty of
+his fine scut. When he tried to caress her she did not turn away, but
+suffered him to nuzzle at her furry shoulder, while she gave him
+delicate tickling kisses with her whiskers. After that Fluff-Button
+knew that his cause was won.
+
+By now the sun was up, and the celandine calices expanded into perfect
+golden stars. The Spring Longing bade Fluff-Button leave the Copse and
+spend the day in the main wood, and Cuni went with him. They crossed
+the field, and entered a clearing where the low briars were draped
+with dry grass. The rabbits crept inside a tuft and hollowed it out
+into a neat round chamber. Fluff-Button obliterated the door with two
+deft touches, and then they settled down side by side. No hawk had
+eyes keen enough to detect them from above, and any foe on legs might
+have passed within a yard and never have seen them. But there are
+other ways of hunting than by sight.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Crash! It was noon. The rabbits, dozing contentedly in their form,
+awoke. Fluff-Button's ears moved the fraction of an inch, and then he
+squatted down with his eye glued to a peep-hole. Some heavy animal was
+forcing its way through the briars, but that did not frighten the
+rabbits so much as did a more distant sound: 'yow, yow, yowl.' 'Good
+dog!' said a voice just above their heads. Suddenly something rustled
+beside the form. The grass curtains were violently torn aside, and a
+huge grey rabbit head was thrust in. It was old Mutch. As she burst
+into the form her eyes glinted white as she glanced backwards. She
+thrust Cuni violently aside, and squatted down panting in her place,
+while Fluff-Button lay as still as death with his ears flattened and
+his paws bunched together. Cuni, terrified, forgot that primary rule
+of 'lie still,' in keeping of which rabbit safety lies, and ran a few
+steps. The man, standing knee-deep in briars, saw the grass stir.
+'Here! good dog!' he called; and motioned with his hand. There was a
+rush, a wild scuffle, and Cuni bolted down the hedge. It was well for
+her that the dog started in pursuit, otherwise the gun would have
+cracked before she had gone a dozen yards; but as it was the man dared
+not fire for fear of hitting his dog, and when he did so the shot
+merely buried itself harmlessly two feet in front of Cuni's nose.
+
+Now began a long chase. The dog was young and headstrong, and the
+temptation to chase the rabbit was too much for him; but afterwards he
+wished that he had obeyed his master's whistle and left her alone. For
+first of all Cuni led him through laurels against which he stubbed his
+nose at every turn; and then she took him through some brambles where
+he tore his ears; and last of all she raced for the Lower Wood. Here
+she increased her lead a little, and then, looping back upon her
+trail, she ran under a fallen fir tree, and went to ground thirty
+yards further on. The dog went down the blind lead first, then had to
+turn back along the true one to the fir tree. It took three minutes
+for him to convince himself that his game was gone, and then he
+returned, panting, to an interview with his irate master, after which
+he was a sadder and wiser dog.
+
+Cuni could not stay long underground when the Spring Longing was
+abroad in the wood, and two hours afterwards she crept out again. Her
+instinct led her back to the bramble patch, but, alas, the form was
+cold and empty. A jay squawked overhead and warned her not to linger.
+The jay is a most untrustworthy watchman and gives a false alarm
+twenty times a day; but the Wood Folk know that if by any chance an
+enemy should pass by, the jay will surely see it, therefore they
+always obey his warning. On this occasion the enemy turned out to be a
+stoat, and Cuni fled quaking lest it should be on her trail. Not until
+she was far away did she feel safe to continue her search. Once she
+ventured to signal timidly, but the only answer she received was from
+a doe rabbit, who, when she found that it was one of her own sex who
+had stamped, looked much as one girl in a ballroom might do if another
+invited her to stand up and dance.
+
+At last Cuni came upon a trail. It was cold and stale, but
+unmistakably rabbity, and the Spring Longing bade her follow it. It
+led her through devious ways across the Big Meadow into the Celandine
+Copse, and thither Cuni followed it through an archway under a
+bramble. The wind had dropped and the Copse was silent but for the
+spring chirp of an oxeye. Under the trees the scent was stronger but
+strangely irregular, as though a second and feebler trail were mingled
+with the first. Cuni followed it into the gravel pit, expecting a
+signal, but none came. She slid down a heap of tinkling shale, and her
+nose led her to the old cart road on the other side, where the grass
+was tender and beloved by the rabbits.
+
+Cuni could guess well enough what had happened here, for the trails
+were like a double string of beads--a narrow thread where the rabbits
+had hopped straight forward, and here and there an expansion where one
+or other had turned aside to graze.
+
+Suddenly Cuni turned a corner and came full upon Fluff-Button, who was
+sitting with his back turned to her; while just in front of him
+stood--Mutch. Fluff-Button was feeding in a nervous, jerky manner, and
+when presently Mutch crept up to him and touched him pleadingly, he
+only hopped away petulantly.
+
+Mutch, repulsed, sat up and looked round--to see Cuni. Whether the
+sight awoke in her the old mother instinct of the woods to drive away
+a young one able to fend for itself, or whether it was simply
+jealousy, I cannot say, for the Spring Longing works strange changes
+in the beasts; but, anyhow, she rushed straight at Cuni and ripped a
+tuft of fur from her flank. Cuni staggered, but Mutch was no longer
+young enough to wheel and pursue her advantage quickly, and before she
+could renew her attack, the little rabbit, spurred by the pain and
+fear of the old bully, whisked past Fluff-Button into the bushes.
+Mutch hopped back, full of pride at her achievement, and sought to
+caress Fluff-Button with her whiskers. But her jealousy had
+over-reached itself. Fluff-Button had wandered all the way from the
+Wood to the Copse seeking something which had gone from him; and
+although Mutch had followed him all the way with caresses he had
+rejected her, for she did not satisfy the longing which possessed him.
+However, when he saw Cuni's little white scut scurry by, his instinct
+told him that this was what he sought. He pushed past Mutch
+unceremoniously, and leaving her behind to stamp impotent signals, he
+scampered after Cuni.
+
+He found her for the second time crouching among the celandines; and
+this time he did not delay, but claimed her at once. Neither did Cuni
+play any more love games, but just nestled against him happily.
+
+Could there have been found a fairer Eden than that Copse, and could
+Adam and Eve in their innocence have been happier than were
+Fluff-Button and Cuni? Even the All-Father in Whom the woods live
+cannot make happiness more than perfect, and for a little while these
+two were perfectly happy, for the Spring desire was satisfied.
+
+If there were a tragedy in the Woods that day, perhaps it was that of
+old Mutch, who came upon the pair too late, for it was the first time
+that she had failed to win a partner for the summer, and she was
+bitterly jealous. However, grief and joy, and even life itself, are
+very transitory among the Wild Folk, and before the early evening
+closed in Mutch was grazing peacefully in the Meadow.
+
+And there, when the celandines shut, Fluff-Button and his belovčd
+followed her to see the moon rise; and the wind sang among the
+swelling buds of the warm summer days to be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE INVASION OF GARRY'S HILL
+
+
+Fluff-Button and Cuni re-opened the big burrow at the top of Garry's
+Hill. Garry's Hill is a big grassy mound just outside Knockdane, with
+one stunted hawthorn growing on the top. Long ago many rabbits had
+lived here, but a mysterious epidemic had swept them all away, and the
+grass grew thickly over the entrance to the holes. Fluff-Button lay
+out in the woods all day and worked at the burrow at night. Cuni was
+never very far away from him at this time, and often made her form
+close to his; but she never allowed him to touch her or follow her
+about.
+
+By and by she dug out another tunnel further down the field, and took
+particular pains that her mate should not find out its existence. For
+more than a month she lived apart, and he only saw her occasionally;
+but one fine day she returned to the burrow with six fluffy atoms
+hopping after her. At first Fluff-Button was disposed to resent their
+intrusion on his privacy, but Cuni discreetly kept her family away
+from his own particular dormitory, and led them out to feed at a
+respectful distance.
+
+The six youngsters throve, for Garry's Hill was so exposed on all
+sides that if ever hawk, cat, fox or man came near, Mother Cuni's
+keen senses discovered him, and a smart 'thump' summoned her family
+below ground at once. Of course, as accidents will happen, not all the
+six grew up. A cunning old vixen from Knockdane came round one evening
+and hid on the brow of the hill. Cuni's eldest born grew impatient,
+and ventured out, in spite of his mother's warning 'thumps.' He was
+never seen again, and neither was his sister who fed far out in the
+field one evening and was marked down by a stoat.
+
+When the survivors of the family were grown up, Cuni opened out an old
+gallery, and lined it with grass bents and fur from her soft body. She
+grew very morose and shy at this time, and would let none of her other
+offspring venture near. A few days later a second litter appeared, but
+Cuni did not lead them out to graze with the others until July was
+well begun. During the long summer evenings the rabbits lay and basked
+in the sun, stretching themselves on the hot sand to warm their white
+waistcoats, or fed and frolicked with one another. A rabbit is the
+most humorous and cheerful creature in the world--those whose lives
+are hardest and most precarious usually are--and delights in nothing
+so much as in playing off a mild joke on his fellows. Only
+Fluff-Button fed apart, and kept his own little plot of pasture to
+himself; for he permitted no liberties, and kept strict discipline
+among his sons and daughters.
+
+Now that the rabbit family was so increased, they enlarged their
+quarters considerably. Sometimes they used the tunnels of a bygone
+generation, but more often dug them out for themselves. This is a plan
+of the burrow, and, as will be seen, it is very complicated and
+irregular. Whenever one of the rabbits felt inclined he dug a new
+passage, but as he generally left it unfinished, there were many blind
+alleys which led nowhere in particular. All the parts which are shaded
+in the plan were seldom-used 'hide-ups' and 'escapes,' but the rabbits
+knew their geography very well, and in times of danger generally had
+at least one 'bolt-hole' open.
+
+That August was very wet and cold. There was never very much grass on
+Garry's Hill, and now what there was was wet and sodden, and the wind
+drove through the lonely hawthorn bush on the summit with a roaring
+rush. Clouds of mist drifted over Knockdane, and the pigeons were
+blown about the rainy skies. The hill burrow was well drained and dry,
+but on the flat lands the holes were filled with water, and the
+rabbits lay out in the damp woods.
+
+Garry's Hill stood in a field, at the bottom of which was a blackthorn
+fence among whose roots dwelt a colony of brown rats. A stream flowed
+swiftly at the foot of the hedge, and one gusty afternoon when one of
+the rabbits crept out to nibble a little sodden grass, it was rising
+fast. The rabbit did not notice it, however, for the Fur Folk have no
+time to waste over what does not directly concern them, and even when
+she saw a big grey rat, dripping wet, run up the bank, she did not
+take the alarm.
+
+All the early part of the night the rain came down steadily until the
+upper galleries of the warren were quite wet. The burrow was pitch
+dark, and the air hot and thick, when Cuni awoke. She was blocked in
+on all sides by warm furry bodies, nevertheless she detected an
+unusual noise at the burrow's mouth--a faint scratching, and then a
+squeak. Something was creeping in. Cuni kicked the ground warningly,
+and as the others awoke, she pushed into the main passage. Something
+small and wiry beneath her paws squealed and snapped. Cuni darted up
+the passage stamping wildly--it was a rat.
+
+By this time the rest of the rabbits were awake and rushing about in a
+panic. Every now and then they collided in the darkness, and fled
+under the impression that they had run against an enemy. Rabbits are
+like sheep: let one lose his head and the rest will follow suit.
+
+Suddenly there was a sonorous 'thump,' and Fluff-Button, king of the
+burrow, came out of his dormitory, to be nearly carried off his legs
+by a pair of rabbits who jostled past him. All at once, in the
+narrowest part of the tunnel, he came upon a party of rats. They were
+all draggled and wet, and crowded into the burrow for shelter, for the
+brook had risen and drowned them out of their homes. Fluff-Button
+backed into a hide-up, and the rats crowded after him. A rabbit cannot
+fight his best in cramped quarters, but a grown buck has plenty of
+courage when pushed into a corner, and his sharp claws are weapons not
+to be despised. One rat nipped Fluff-Button's shoulder, and in an
+instant the latter buried his teeth in the aggressor's quarters. The
+rat yelled, for they cut like chisels, and his companions came on
+eagerly. Like a schooner among a fleet of herring boats, Fluff-Button
+ploughed through the band, jostling them right and left, and sprang
+into the wider chamber further on where a herd of frightened doe
+rabbits crouched. Here he had more space, and when he heard the
+invaders coming, he kicked out with his strong hind claws. The
+foremost rat rolled back limply with blood upon his snout, and
+instantly the rest threw themselves upon him with shrill cries.
+Fluff-Button took advantage of the respite to fly. He scuttled through
+the tortuous windings of the burrow, and through a bolt-hole to the
+open air. It was still raining fitfully, but there was a pale streak
+in the east where the sun would presently rise. Rabbits popped in and
+out of all the holes, for they dared not rest below ground lest the
+rats should drive them into one of the many 'hide-ups' and then attack
+them. Fluff-Button scampered over the brow of the hill, and into a
+bolt-hole on the other side, where he lay panting.
+
+There was a young rabbit of Cuni's first family, who, although the
+season was so late, had a litter in a remote chamber, just beyond
+where Fluff-Button lay. She dared not thump, lest the noise should
+betray her presence, but lay very still with four youngsters nuzzling
+at her side. By and by Fluff-Button heard something sniffing its way
+towards him, for the tunnel carried sound like a telephone. The
+anxious little mother also heard it, and sat up. Fluff-Button waited
+until he judged that the rat was within range, and then flung up a
+shower of sand with his hind feet. The rat squeaked and sat up to dust
+his whiskers. He imagined that he had come up a blind passage, and
+retraced his steps. Now there were two ways which he might have taken,
+but as luck would have it, he chose the wrong one, and blundered up
+the gallery towards Brownie's nursery. It was shaped like a bottle
+with a long winding neck, and in the narrowest part he met Brownie.
+
+As a rule a doe rabbit is the gentlest of wild things; but motherhood
+will nerve the most timid, and Brownie's whiskers twitched as she
+faced the foe who was stealing towards her in the darkness. The rat
+cried out, and was answered by three or four of his comrades, who
+crowded after him. They were hungry, and very fierce, for they had
+already tasted blood and knew that a meal awaited them if they could
+win it.
+
+In mortal terror Brownie struck out right and left with her teeth, and
+sundry squeaks told her that her snaps had taken effect. Two rats
+clung to her on either side, but hampered as she was, she kept the
+rest at bay, for while she struggled they could not press past her
+into the nest.
+
+Just now the rabbits were in desperate straits. Two of the weaklier
+youngsters had been killed, and many more were badly bitten. Gradually
+the rats were driving them out as wolves drive sheep. All alone in the
+distant nesting burrow, Brownie faced her assailants and held her body
+as a living shield to protect her little ones; but she was failing
+fast. The airless darkness around her seemed full of noise, hot
+gasping breathing, and snapping teeth.
+
+Suddenly a strong pungent odour drifted down the passage--an odour
+which every rabbit knows and fears; and Brownie made a last despairing
+struggle, for her nose told her as well as her eyes could have done
+that a stoat was loping towards the scene of the fight. The rats
+rallied their forces in alarm, and the rabbits stampeded anew, for
+both knew that their most deadly enemy was hunting through the warren.
+
+But for once in a way the stoat brought salvation to the rabbits on
+Garry's Hill, for a rash rat snapped, and his teeth met in the
+newcomer's shoulder. Instantly four stiletto points pierced his
+brain--he tottered round in a circle, sobbed and died. The stoat, with
+his appetite whetted, passed on and drove into the press of rats. They
+clung round him like leeches, but the place was very narrow and they
+could not reach his flanks. In that face-to-face combat in the
+darkness the odds were with the stoat. A rat's courage is indomitable
+and his teeth are sharp; but between them and those of the stoat there
+is all the difference between a scythe and a bayonet. Both are good
+cutting instruments, but the latter is fashioned expressly for war
+and the former is not.
+
+The stoat went into the fray joyously. He slew two and drove the
+others back. Then, for he never noticed Brownie trembling in her
+nursery, he glided off and made his way to the main dormitory, where
+he found another party of rats assembled. These fled before him into a
+'hide-up,' whither he followed them, and although he sustained two or
+three wounds himself, he mortally wounded another. The tables were now
+turned with a vengeance. The rats were in a worse plight than their
+whilom victims; for wet, starving and bewildered, they were hunted
+through a strange warren by their most implacable enemy. The rabbits
+had one and all retreated to the remotest corners which they could
+find, but the stoat heeded them not, for he killed among the
+panic-stricken rats for the sheer lust of killing. Even if by chance
+he crossed a rabbit's trail and followed it up, he invariably stumbled
+across some terrified rat who sat and jibbered in the darkness.
+
+At last he was satiated and retired to Fluff-Button's dormitory to
+sleep. Two rabbits were dead besides Brownie's litter, who had paid
+the grim penalty which is always paid by nestlings whose nursery is
+discovered. Of the rats, two had been wounded and slain by their
+fellows; the stoat had accounted for four; as many more had bolted
+from the burrow; and the survivors, some six in number, cowered in an
+old nursery as far as possible from their enemy.
+
+The stoat slept until the day was well advanced towards noon, and
+neither rat nor rabbit dared to stir lest he should wake and slay once
+more. At last he rose and glided from the burrow, and then--and not
+until then--did they venture to leave their hiding-places.
+
+So that was the end of the great invasion of Garry's Hill, but it was
+long before the rabbits settled down afterwards. As for the remnants
+of the rats, they retreated to the little-used end of the warren and
+established a system of tiny passages of their own, running among
+those of the rabbits. They lived on terms of armed neutrality with
+their unwilling hosts--never daring to attack a full-grown buck or
+doe, although not so scrupulous with regard to nestlings; and often on
+warm summer evenings, if you hide behind the brow of the hill and
+wait, you may see the rats and rabbits feeding and playing side by
+side.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE FEAR THAT WAS IN THE WAY
+
+
+Brownie was one of the first family of Fluff-Button and Cuni. It has
+already been related how she fought the rats in the Garry's Hill
+burrow, and enough has been said to show that she was a very devoted
+mother, as indeed most rabbits are. But she had been so terrified by
+that experience that she resolved to make her next nest right away
+from the warren; so she dug a hole into the hillside at about a
+hundred yards' distance.
+
+In the darkness her four babies were only known to her as a squeaking,
+naked mass, helpless and wholly beloved. She was ignorant of their
+very number, they had no individuality, nevertheless she lavished all
+her care upon them, and lay with them all day, feeding and licking
+them. Only at nightfall she crept out to feed herself, with both ears
+on the alert. But very few enemies crossed Garry's Hill at night. Now
+and then an owl hooted in Knockdane; the nightjars purred among the
+pine trees at the bottom of the hill; and from the warren came the
+distant bustle of the rabbit community--the munching of many teeth,
+the splashing of many feet in the dew, and the stamping of scores of
+signals.
+
+The fern croziers had fully uncoiled, and the lowest bells on the wild
+hyacinth carillons were fading, before the babies acquired their fur
+jackets. Under ordinary circumstances they would have remained below
+ground a few days longer, but an unfortunate accident hurried them out
+into the world.
+
+Theoretically June is the month of sunshine and flowers; actually--in
+Knockdane, at all events--there are flowers enough, but June is too
+often ushered in by pitiless soaking rain. All the new greenery of the
+woods is saturated, and the hemlocks and nettles, stimulated to ardent
+growth, begin to send up their shoots waist-high. This is what
+happened in the season of which I write, for it rained for two nights
+and a day, and all the flowers seemed drowned. There was trouble
+enough in the Garry's Hill burrows, but it was very serious indeed for
+Brownie. A nesting-hole is dug for temporary use only, and has not the
+drainage of a permanent burrow. The water soon began to filter in from
+the sides, and a very respectable trickle ran from the entrance. By
+the second morning the bedding was soaked, and the sucklings lay in a
+pool of water. For the present they were homeless, and Brownie saw
+that the only thing was to take them into the fields. Three brown
+tots, blinking painfully in the daylight, crawled on to the grass;
+but when the fourth appeared, Brownie sat up, and her nose worked as
+fast as the 'quaking grass' round, for the last little rabbit was as
+white as the hawthorns in the hedgerows. There were legends in
+Knockdane that, in the days when the beeches round the Great White
+House were saplings, there had been a race of white rabbits in the
+woods; but for many many years none had been seen there. Perhaps some
+long-gone ancestor had transmitted his singular colouring to Brownie's
+nestling, or else some trifling detail in Nature's machinery had been
+out of gear, for she had not a brown hair upon her, and out on the
+open slope was as conspicuous as a crow on a snowdrift. However, the
+Fur Folk live and work only in the present. They are guided by
+mysterious laws--the accumulated wisdom of past generations--written
+in the blood of those who went before and neglected to obey the
+code--and Brownie knew that her babies must lie out on the hillside,
+for to take them to the warren was to court disaster. She hid the
+first one in a tussock six feet away in one direction, and the second
+a few paces from him, while the third was left in some clover. The
+fourth--the white one--had to put up with a meagre root of rushes.
+When each little rabbit lay stone-still, the mother went away herself,
+for she knew that her presence would only add to their danger. When
+she looked back to judge of the success of her stratagem, the three
+brown babies were invisible in the grass, but the white one could be
+seen all over the field. Nevertheless, because of the rulings of the
+law of the Fur Folk, Brownie went her way, and left her litter to
+shift for themselves during the day.
+
+The rain had ceased at sunrise, and, although grey vapours curled
+before the clearing lift, the hillside was a very pleasant place.
+There were rosy clover clubs, and the yellow bird's foot trefoil
+beloved of blue butterflies, daisies, and the dainty milkweed, all
+growing so close together that the grass was almost crowded out. The
+fluting of the blackbirds in Knockdane only seemed the more mellow for
+the rain, and skylarks mounted up in rapturous jubilee.
+
+The sun had climbed quite high before the sparrow-hawk came swinging
+round the wood. He spied the tell-tale white ears a hundred yards
+away, and turned towards them. He slanted down at fifty miles an hour,
+glanced aside six feet from the rush-tuft, and switch-backed upwards
+again--rabbit verily, but doubtful--uncanny--_white_. Again he stooped
+and hovered. This stillness, this whiteness transcended his
+experience. It was too blatantly conspicuous--there was surely
+something in it not apparent to the eye. Perhaps it was a trap. As the
+hawk paused, his grim shadow fluttered above the youngster in the
+clover, and the latter lost his nerve. He ran a few inches and
+crouched again. The hawk saw a quarry which was normal and probably
+safe. Besides, he was hungry. He dropped on to the grass, and pitching
+lightly, struck. There was a little cry; and then flying low,
+overweighted with his burden, he skimmed across the field.
+
+That was the first, but not the last time, that danger turned aside
+from the--white rabbit I was about to say, but let us rather give her
+the dignity of capitals, a dignity ever afterwards hers in Knockdane,
+and speak of her as the White Rabbit. For the rest of the day no
+living things but larks and bumble bees came near, although once or
+twice a bullock blundered by and set the rabbits' hearts
+thit-thudding. Towards evening the mother-rabbit came up the hill to
+the nesting burrow. The babies heard her coming well enough, but
+two--the White One and a brown--were too well drilled to budge. The
+third, however, ran to her unsummoned, and was instantly punished for
+his disobedience, for she kicked him head over heels, and then
+signalled to the others that their time of waiting was over. Whether
+she noticed that one was missing I cannot say. The Fur Folk have no
+time to grieve. She gathered the three remaining ones together, and
+fed them and licked them all over tenderly with soft whisker kisses.
+
+They spent that night on the hill. When it rained the babies sheltered
+under their mother's soft coat and did not know how cold it was.
+Brownie could have told how sharp the night winds were, and how wet
+the ground, but the little bodies under her white vest were warm, and
+that was compensation enough for her.
+
+The next day they again lay out on the hill; but alas! the
+sparrow-hawk has a good memory, and where he has killed one day, he
+will come the next. Thus it happened that on the second evening only
+two answered the mother's signal--the White Rabbit and a brown
+brother.
+
+On the third day Brownie took them down the field. It was dangerous,
+for the hedge was full of enemies, but she dared not risk the hawk
+again. Even the peeps from the hill had not prepared the little ones
+for anything so immense as the world into which they came, blue sky
+overhead and grass--a perfect forest peopled with strange beasts--all
+around them. Brownie was ravenous, and the young ones, watching her
+tear off grass blades and eat them up, ventured for the first time on
+imitation. She kept her family in the ditch all day, she herself lying
+hidden close at hand with eyes and ears always alert for danger.
+Nevertheless, for all her care, the little brown rabbit strayed too
+far from her side, and being young and ignorant, he never heard the
+sniff-sniff of the stoat hunting down a runway, until it was too late.
+Then Brownie, who knew the meaning of that pitiful minor cry, very
+quickly and silently shepherded her one remaining young one over the
+fence into the next field; and the scent was cold before Keen resumed
+his hunting.
+
+So only one of the litter remained, and for three days Brownie guarded
+her jealously. On the fourth morning very early they went out to feed.
+The dewfall had been very heavy, and soaked them from nose tip to
+tail, and the bats wheeled overhead. The coat of the little White
+Rabbit looked weird in the gloom as she sat up and tried to comb her
+whiskers as her mother did. Of the short hot nights of June--of their
+mystery, and their majesty, and the ways of their children, what do
+men know? Nothing, but they mar much. Only the white owl had seen Jack
+Skehan go his rounds at sunset, and he, who, happy bird, lived where
+pole traps were unknown, how could he know the significance of what
+was left on the hedge bank? So it came to pass that at sunrise, when
+the larks were singing on the hill, and the whitethroats babbling in
+the brambles, Brownie, slithering through the hedge with her suckling
+behind her, slipped her head into a snare cunningly set against a
+burrow mouth, and somersaulted into the ditch, drawing the noose tight
+round her neck. At the first alarm the little one bolted and hid
+tremulously in a clump of buttercups, not daring to move for several
+minutes. Then, as all was still and the robins began to sing again,
+she ventured to peep out. Her mother stood raised on her hind legs as
+she had often seen her before when about to climb such a bank; but now
+Brownie leaned there statue-still, her hind paws just dragging on the
+ground. The White Rabbit did not understand it at all. She bit off a
+few grass blades and tried to chew them up, but they seemed hard and
+stringy to her unaccustomed teeth, and she ventured to nuzzle at her
+mother's soft coat. It was quite warm, but Brownie took no notice of
+the caress; and when the little one pushed against her, she swung ever
+so gently to and fro.
+
+The sun rose over the crest of Garry's Hill, and the
+dragon-flies--winged needles of red and blue--hawked backwards and
+forwards over the brambles. The White Rabbit did not stray very far
+from the place; she waited for her mother to go on, but Brownie gave
+no signal, nor did she stir. The little one grew uneasy, and raising
+herself on her fluffy tail licked her mother's flank to show that she
+was hungry, but even this never-failing appeal received no answer.
+Nevertheless soon afterwards, when Jack Skehan went the round of his
+snares, he found a doe rabbit hanging in the hedge bottom with her
+neck broken; and nestling at her side, tiptoeing up to reach, a little
+white rabbit was helping herself to a warm drink. Even in death
+Brownie fulfilled the first office of motherhood.
+
+How the White Rabbit knew that man was dangerous I cannot say.
+Hitherto she had innocently trusted every bird and beast; but bolt she
+did, and only just in time, as a dirty brown hand snatched at her. She
+ran up the hedge as fast as her stumpy legs could carry her, stubbing
+her nose against hemlock stalks, and tripping over bramble trailers.
+It seemed to her that she had run many miles, but as a matter of fact
+it was only ten yards before she flopped down, utterly breathless,
+with her flanks heaving. For the first time she was afraid--terribly
+afraid. Every leaf concealed an enemy, every rustle seemed a footstep.
+Fear was abroad on the hedgeside. The shadow of the man's presence
+lingered even when his footsteps had passed into the distance. A
+broody blackbird 'chinked' anxiously, and a pigeon wheeled aside with
+a '_swoof_.' A few inches from where the little rabbit lay gaped a
+bolt-hole of the hedge burrow, and her instinct bade her creep within
+into the cool, comfortable darkness.
+
+This is how the White Rabbit entered upon her life in the woods,
+orphaned, with nothing to guide her but the ancestral code which every
+rabbit knows. However, she had already learned three things, and
+important ones too--that hawks are dangerous, stoats still more so,
+and men are to be dreaded most of all.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Were I to relate all the vicissitudes which befell the White Rabbit
+during the following days, I should be accused of recounting miracles;
+for perhaps under the circumstances not one rabbit in ten would have
+survived. The ditch was full of enemies, for hedges are the Fur Folk's
+highways from field to field, and foxes, cats, and stoats patrolled it
+from hour to hour. The next evening the White Rabbit worked along to
+the demesne wall, under which a little drain ran, and crept into the
+wood. If there was vastness and mystery in the fields, how much more
+under the trees? The sanicle spread a silvery pall above the dying
+bluebells; the thick scent of the hawthorn was borne to and fro on the
+night wind; and the woodcock, playing in the dusk, 'chissicked' as
+they wheeled overhead. That night, for the first time, the White
+Rabbit ate grass and relished it. She was very hungry, and once her
+little teeth learned the knack of nibbling criss-cross up a blade, she
+found that it was pleasanter than her previous attempts had led her to
+believe. In fact, she was so intent upon her newly learned
+accomplishment that she never heard the owl swoop down with a thrum of
+soft wings, and then slant up just as the hawk had done on the hill.
+But she heard the click as he alighted on a branch overhead, and
+seeing his eyes, catlike and luminous in the gloom, she hid under a
+bush.
+
+A day or two later, the White Rabbit had one of the narrowest escapes
+of her life. Perhaps she had got over her first fright and grown
+reckless; at any rate, she came out into the grass in broad daylight.
+The field was purple with ripening grasses, and the warm wind bore the
+scent of young birch leaves--the sweetest of all summer scents. It was
+good to be alive. The White Rabbit lay down on her side, and stretched
+herself luxuriously in the hot sun. Bees hummed comfortably in the
+vetches, and the grasshoppers assiduously polished their shanks.
+Suddenly, in the sunshine-chequered hedge, she caught sight of a
+curious creature moving gently to and fro. She had never seen anything
+quite like it before. Its deliberate, rhythmical movements fascinated
+her, and she watched it dance behind a dock plant and out again, with
+an intentness which rejoiced the heart of a certain wary hunter who
+crouched behind the said dock. The White Rabbit hopped a step or two
+nearer, and stood up in order to see this wonderful thing better. At
+that moment the cat ceased to lash its tail and sprang. The rabbit
+caught a glimpse of unsheathed claws, bared gums, and dilated eyes,
+and dived into a forest of cockfoot grass. The cat, at fault, made
+short excited rushes hither and thither as he heard the rustle of the
+fugitive's steps, but the White Rabbit flung herself into a stunted
+blackthorn bush and lay gasping. By and by, when she had recovered
+sufficiently from her fright to sit up and polish the 'cuckoo froth'
+from her whiskers, she peeped out; and lo and behold in a runway, with
+his paws tucked away cosily before him, the cat sat and waited.... The
+White Rabbit very silently withdrew, and escaped by the further side
+of the bush. That was the fourth lesson she learned: Beware of the
+cat--the patient hunter.
+
+It was not until she was three parts grown that the White Doe realised
+that she was not in all respects like other rabbits. By then she had
+learned many things. She knew that the badger and the hedgehog and the
+squirrel and the shrew are quite harmless, but that the fox and the
+stoat and the cat must be avoided. She knew that the meadow-grass
+tastes better than either the cockfoot or the couch; and that the
+surest way to come to grief is to bolt into a hole without first
+finding out whether it has a back door or no. By degrees, however, she
+began to find out something more important still, namely, that the
+rest of the Fur Folk turned aside from her path. Did she hop into the
+clearing where the other rabbits came of nights to feed, or visited
+the Dark Pool among the sallies, then the circle was immediately
+broken up, and vanishing feet fired a whole volley of signals from the
+bushes. If she fed in the daytime, the squirrels overhead chattered
+and speculated until the jays took up the matter, and half the
+woodside was in a fluster. This knowledge did not come in a day. The
+pignut flowers died, and the enchanter's nightshade had sent up its
+faint spires in dark places before the White Rabbit realised her
+powers. It was the fox who opened her eyes to the fact that a certain
+magic was hers in her perilous ways. One evening after sunset she
+squatted upon a 'rabbit's table.' There is a rabbit 'table' in almost
+every glade. It is generally a moss-grown tree stump, or more seldom
+an ant-hill, upon which the rabbits love to sit for the sake of the
+expansive view (comparatively speaking) which the extra twelve inches
+affords them. It is also very often a trysting-place. The White Rabbit
+was washing herself. It was the penalty which she paid for her
+uniqueness, that she was obliged to spend no mean portion of the day
+combing her pink ears and cleansing her silky stockings. Hence she
+neither heard nor winded the fox's approach until he snapped a twig in
+the clearing itself. Then, looking up, she saw in the shadows what
+appeared to be a pair of red stars. The blood of the White Rabbit
+seemed turned to water; she was paralysed with fear; even her nose
+ceased its eternal tremolo. She could only stare back, bemused with
+terror. It must be said that the fox had not entered the glade with
+any fixed idea of hunting there, he was merely passing through it;
+hence the increased awfulness of the apparition of the ghost-rabbit on
+the moss cushion. It was nearly dark, but a shaft of light came down
+aslant between two tree-tops. In the gloom she appeared larger than
+her natural size--misty, luminous. The hair along the fox's spine
+bristled, a growl rose in his throat. It was so quiet, so light; as
+if fascinated he began to tiptoe forward. Remember that there is
+hardly anything white known in the woods, except here and there a
+flower. There is neither white bird nor beast; even the white eggs of
+the pigeon are laid where none of the Fur Folk can see them, except it
+be Koutchee the squirrel. Men--wiseacres--who would judge Nature by
+their printed books, talk grandly of the benefit of Protective
+Resemblance, and the Survival of the Fittest. They have left out of
+count the germ planted in the being of the higher Fur Folk--a germ
+which is often carried from birth to death undreamed of,
+undeveloped--but which in man, another step up the ladder,
+becomes a power which is accountable for untold cruelty and
+strife--superstition. Had all rabbits been white since the first of
+the race, then indeed the fox's hunting would be easy enough; but when
+once in ten generations a white rabbit appears, its chances of life
+are many times greater than those of its fellows, for in the eyes of
+the hunters it is compassed round with magic, a thing set apart.
+
+The fox crept to within eight feet of the mystery and cowered down,
+for there was little or no scent to enlighten him as to its nature.
+The White Rabbit's red eyes were wide with horror, but under the
+nightmare spell of the fox's proximity she could not move. Fear
+clogged her limbs, and she watched him, fascinated. She was, of
+course, entirely unaware that it was she herself who thus checked him.
+She believed herself almost invisible, and feared to move lest she
+should betray her presence, thus obeying the arbitrary law of her
+race: Lie still and he may pass you by. So they gazed eye to eye while
+one might pant half a score of times, and then a heron, sweeping by
+with a shriek which ripped the silence of the night, broke the spell.
+With a snarl the fox leaped sideways into the bushes; and the rabbit,
+ears flattened, paws twitching, crouched where she was until the rush
+of his footsteps died away. After this adventure the White Rabbit
+gradually grew bolder. She lived in some ready-made burrows in the
+corner of the wood, and fed in the field below Garry's Hill. But if a
+prowling cat or fox came by, and the rest of the community dived
+underground, the White One merely sat at the hole's mouth and waited;
+and in two cases out of three the hunter, after a stealthy glance,
+passed on. The third case was generally a cat who, more accustomed to
+the mysterious ways of men, their dependents and belongings, was not
+afraid to stalk the White Doe of Garry's Hill.
+
+By this time it was August, and the birds went to moult in the deepest
+thickets of Knockdane. Only an occasional robin sang a bar or two of
+his roundelay, or a chiff-chaff, who had forgotten the rhythm of his
+call, cried 'chaff-chaff' in the beech trees. Big spikes of purple
+loosestrife crowned the damper clearings, and missel thrushes went out
+to the fields in straggling bands. The mornings grew cooler and later,
+damp mists steamed up from the river, and the beeches began to turn
+orange and brown. One fine night the cuckoos disappeared, and the
+corn-crakes prepared to follow them, for the corn was ripe, and all
+through the hazy days the whirr of machinery was heard from the hills,
+like some gigantic grasshopper. The squirrels and oxeyes squabbled in
+the hazels, and the badgers went harvesting when the moon rose. To the
+Fur Folk the autumn was a faint echo of the spring. There was
+something in the mild, still weather, and equal hours of day and
+night, which stirred them to vague repetition of their doings early in
+the year. The rabbits wandered away from their burrows, and made
+desultory scrapings by the pathsides, and the birds, the throstle and
+pigeon, sang again half heartedly. The White Rabbit, with no idea why
+she did so, also dutifully scratched little holes in the moss, and
+followed faint trails which led nowhere in particular. However, the
+first frost put an end to all this; and after the frosts came the
+November gales, which slashed the sleet across the woods. Once or
+twice the men came to shoot in Knockdane, but the White Rabbit was
+safe enough, for she never made a 'form,' but always lay underground.
+In fact, there was little enough covert in that part of Knockdane in
+the winter, and in January, when the foxes were ravenous, the woods
+were quite bare. However, the White Rabbit passed unscathed through
+that time of peril; even the traps, which doubly decimated her
+companions, spared her. Nature, who had put a mark upon her which set
+her apart from her fellows, had in compensation gifted her with keener
+wits and judgment. As everybody knows, a rabbit track runs hop-dot
+down the hedgerow like a rosary of beads, and Paddy Magragh set his
+snares cunningly in the beads, which are the little patches from which
+the rabbits hop over the tussocks; but the White Doe went safely to
+and fro, merely skipping aside if the wicked loop struck her nose.
+Perhaps, again, it was her colour which saved her here, for many a
+bunny blundered into the noose when his fellows chased him in sport or
+anger; but the brown rabbits ignored the White Doe, and she hopped
+leisurely between her hole and the meadow unharmed. Nevertheless,
+towards the end of the winter, she, with the rest of the rabbit kind,
+suffered grievously from famine, for the weather had spoiled all the
+greenery in the woods. Here again it was the White Rabbit who first
+set the example of climbing into the boughs of a fallen thorn tree to
+gnaw a meagre sustenance from the bark of the ivy entwined in it. The
+idea became fashionable in her burrow; and, clambering clumsily among
+the branches three or four feet from the ground, the rabbits chiselled
+away at the ivy until its twigs were as white as bone.
+
+With February--the famine month--the love season began in earnest. All
+the other rabbits who lived in the outlying collection of burrows with
+the White Doe, forsook them and wandered down into the woods; while up
+on Garry's Hill the ground was dotted with the little tufts of grey
+wool, ripped from one rival by another. The White Rabbit paid no
+attention to these changes at first, but led her own contented
+spinster life. The Wild Folk concern themselves very little about the
+doings of their neighbours; and had every rabbit in Knockdane been
+suddenly wiped out of existence, the White One would not have altered
+her habits in a single particular.
+
+It was not until the woodcock began to mate that the White Rabbit
+found out that she was lonely. Then she left her burrow and went out
+into the woods, which was a dangerous thing to do in daylight. The
+robin was reciting his marriage vows to his mate under a holly bush;
+and the pigeons, recklessly bold, flapped lazily from tree to tree.
+The White Rabbit scraped enthusiastically for a few minutes, for she
+felt impelled to unaccountable energy that day, but when she had dug a
+few inches she broke off, for she could not remember what to do with
+the hole when she had finished it. Near at hand a buck rabbit stamped,
+and presently another, larger than he, came out of the bushes and
+fought him. The White Doe hopped towards them, but being stranger
+rabbits they broke off their tournament, and fled at the sight of her
+whiteness. She saw many rabbits that day, and half of them ran away,
+and the other half were indifferent. The White Rabbit had never felt
+so lonely before--not even when her mother had been taken from her.
+Presently she came upon a luckless rabbit which had been killed by a
+stoat an hour before. The White Rabbit did not know this, and went up
+to sniff at him. Here at last was something which would not run from
+her; but when she smelt the fresh blood and saw the wound behind his
+ear, she turned and galloped away. There was fear everywhere. She was
+feared by her own kind; and she again feared the blood-hunters. A wren
+caught sight of her and began to scold--it, too, was afraid. The
+White Rabbit was very sorrowful.
+
+The Love Longing was not always so strong. Sometimes for weeks at a
+time she lived alone as happily as heretofore. Then it would break out
+again, and send her into the woods; but she never found a mate,
+although young rabbits played outside the burrows, and the birds were
+all nesting. So March turned to April, and April to May, and the
+lowest bracken fronds opened like green wings before the crimped tops
+were uncurled. Then again one day the Love Longing came upon the White
+Rabbit, and she went to the Dark Pool where the Fur Folk go to drink.
+There are willow saplings all round, and the chaffinches were
+collecting the down for nest-lining, for the seeds were ripening. On
+the further side the White Doe passed a rabbit's 'registry' tree. Most
+woods have their own registry where the buck rabbits repair in spring,
+and each tries to scrape away the bark and set the imprint of his
+teeth a little higher than his fellows. Most of the rabbit duels take
+place near these trees. Sometimes it is a young sycamore, or a laurel,
+or a beech, which is chosen out from among the rest; but in this part
+of Knockdane it was a willow sapling, peeled and scored for two feet
+above the ground, and with little paths, beaten hard by rabbity feet,
+converging to it from every direction. As the White Doe passed by, she
+saw a brown buck rabbit, on his hind legs, leisurely rubbing his
+whiskers against the trunk; and hopping up quietly behind him she
+touched him with her white nose. He darted away a few paces, and sat
+rigid. The White Doe approached him beseechingly and caressed him with
+a whisker kiss; but he only stared horror-stricken at her wonderful
+pink eyes, beat his fore paws once or twice in surprise and dismay,
+and scudded out of sight.
+
+All that day the Love Longing would not be satisfied, and when the
+White Rabbit fed outside her burrow after dark, the restlessness in
+her grew so strong that she crept from the shadow of the trees to
+Garry's Hill. She had scarcely ever visited her native warren, and on
+the rare occasions on which she wandered thither, the whole burrow had
+been thrown into a panic. It was dark on the hill, for the moon was
+behind the clouds. The rabbit people were all munching busily, and the
+White Rabbit, happy in a sense of companionship, crouched near them.
+Now and then one bunny, in the sheer joy of living, skipped three feet
+into the air, and the older bucks chivied the younger ones in and out
+of the earthworks which many generations of excavators had thrown up.
+Two rabbits were playing 'tig' on the slope, dodging one another
+backwards and forwards. The White Doe watched their twinkling white
+scuts for a minute, and then, just as the moon broke from behind the
+clouds, with a hop, skip, and jump she launched herself playfully
+between the couple. They stood still for one paralysed instant, and
+then, stamping frantically, the whole community stampeded in every
+direction. The White Rabbit did not realise that she was responsible
+for this flight, but, believing it to mean cat or stoat, she bolted
+with the rest. She plunged down a burrow and scurried along
+never-ending corridors and side-ways. She could hear footsteps which
+fled before her, and all round the passages rang with muffled danger
+signals. At last she entered a hide-up, and hearing shuffling feet,
+explored it to its end. In the dark she collided with something which
+was furry and soft, and felt twitching whiskers brush her face.
+Another rabbit had taken refuge there; and surely it was--yes, it
+was--the noses of the Fur Folk are as trustworthy as our eyes--the
+same who had repulsed her in the wood that morning. But obviously he
+did not recognise her in the darkness, for he cowered to her at the
+end of the passage. There was comfort in companionship, and they
+huddled together, fearful lest something stealthy and terrible should
+sniff its way towards them. The White Rabbit thought of stoats, but
+the other dreaded nameless things--magic things, white things--which
+leaped out of the gloom. Every now and then the White Rabbit turned
+her head and nestled against the soft fur of the other's shoulder.
+Here was rabbit--normal rabbit, brown rabbit--and yet he did not
+shrink from her, for in her turn she felt a tremulous nose sniff at
+her ears....
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+An hour afterwards the business of the Garry's Hill warren went on as
+usual. The White Doe was still below ground, but after midnight she
+came out with the Brown Buck behind her. The rest of the warren
+stamped, but little recked she. If the Brown Buck was staggered at the
+sight of her in the moonlight, he did not show it. White or brown, did
+he not know the scent of her who had come to him in the burrow, and
+who perhaps had stood between him and the misty terror that had leaped
+upon him in the dark. This was rabbit--strange, it is true--but still
+rabbit and wholly lovable. He put his head under her chin that she
+might scratch his ears, and this is the greatest token of esteem among
+the rabbit kind. Thus the spell was broken, and the fear which was
+round the White Doe was gone, for she had become as other rabbits.
+She had entered into her inheritance, the inheritance of
+motherhood--the highest happiness known in the woods.
+
+They nestled side by side under the old whitethorn which, for once in
+a way, forgot to moan as the wind went down. The moon set, and the fur
+of the White Doe gleamed in the starlight. But now the rabbits around
+only munched unconcernedly. There was no more mystery about her; for,
+in the words of the greatest love song ever penned, and as true of the
+beasts as of the men for whom it was written, she was her belovčd's,
+and his desire was towards her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+UNDER THE MOON
+
+
+A little band of forewandered plover flapped southwards drearily. To
+the east the mountains were still encumbered with the great snowclouds
+which had driven over Knockdane an hour before, and converted Garry's
+Hill into a white sugar loaf. Now it was evening, and as the red sun
+sank, he flushed the fields with a dream-pink, while the moon
+struggled over the stormy hills.
+
+Cuni hopped out into the cold air and shook each paw delicately, for
+the snow clung to them. Her eyes looked bigger and her ears longer
+than when we saw her last, for the cruel February weather, which
+spared neither the Fur nor the Feather Folk, had pressed the rabbits
+sorely. For weeks frost and thaw had alternated night by night, and
+slowly killed every green leaf and blade of grass. Sometimes cold rain
+fell and soaked the woods, at others snow came and covered them.
+Within five hundred yards of the warren there was not a tuft of grass
+large enough to make a 'form'; and the rabbits lay below ground in
+their damp burrows, and tried to deaden the hunger pain with sleep.
+
+Although it was scarcely an hour since the snowstorm had blown by,
+Fluff-Button had already left Garry's Hill for the woods; and a neat
+trail--two little tentative punches of the forefeet over-passed by the
+bolder impression of the hind--indicated which path he had taken. Cuni
+followed him across the field. The snow was not more than two inches
+deep and the longest grass blades peered through it.
+
+Knockdane Woods are surrounded by a mason-built stone wall six feet
+high; but in one spot the ivy, insinuating itself between the stones,
+has loosened them, and the smaller Fur Folk--the rabbits, rats, and
+stoats--have scratched a tunnel leading into the woods. Through this
+passage Cuni hopped, and passed from the bleakness of the white fields
+into an enchanted palace. Every twig and bough bore its burden of
+whiteness. The fir trees were converted into huge Christmas trees, and
+the beeches' branches were etched against a sky suffused with the
+illusive lilac reflections of the snow. There was an uncanny white
+glamour over the woods, and except for the distant roar of the
+unfrozen river rushing between its banks, a vast silence had fallen
+upon Knockdane.
+
+Not far from the wall, in a clearing, there is a pool. It is black and
+stagnant, with banks overgrown with yellow pimpernel, water flags, and
+rushes; nevertheless many of the Fur Folk depend upon it for their
+water supply. To-night it was darned across with ice needles, and the
+silver 'cat-ice' round the edge crackled under Cuni's paws. As she
+expected, Fluff-Button was seated on the other bank taking a tonic. In
+winter when the grass is sodden and tasteless, rabbits are seized with
+a burning desire for strong astringent food, and they often wander far
+from their burrows to seek rushes, or the dry bark of saplings.
+To-night Fluff-Button gnawed the knotted roots of the wild iris, and
+as their bitterness burnt his mouth and made him sneeze, his nose
+quivered with pleasure. On any other night Cuni would have kept at a
+respectful distance from her lord; but to-night, in spite of the frost
+and snow, the Love Longing was beginning to awaken among the rabbit
+kind, and instinctively she felt that he would not repulse her. She
+approached him diffidently, and, instead of chasing her away, he
+merely glanced up and coughed. She squatted at his side and chiselled
+away at the iris roots, until the moon grew bright enough to light
+snow candles on every twig and bough.
+
+[Illustration: FLUFF-BUTTON WAS SEATED ON THE OTHER BANK TAKING A
+TONIC]
+
+So busy were they that they never heard the footsteps of Garry Skehan,
+when, half an hour later, he crossed the snowy hill to Knockdane, nor
+noticed how they paused at the spot where the double trail entered
+the wood. The woodcraft of Garry Skehan was of a rough and ready sort;
+for him wild creatures were divided into two broad classes--those
+which could be trapped and those which could not--but even he could
+tell that this was a rabbit run, and he chuckled over it. By and by he
+tramped away over the crisp snow, so softly that not even the drowsy
+pigeons overhead heard him.
+
+Many of the Fur Folk passed outside the wall that night, and each one
+stopped to look at the place where Garry Skehan had knelt and scored
+the surface with his clumsy boots. First of all a rat came along,
+trailing his naked tail callously on the snow behind him. He gave one
+glance at the spot, and then hurriedly crossed the wall lower down. By
+and by a stoat passed. It is not in stoat nature to resist a hole
+wherever it may lead, and this one gingerly thrust in his nose; but at
+that moment he caught sight of something under his feet and drew back
+quietly. The mice came by and danced fairy quadrilles over the snow,
+but they also left the hole in the wall alone.
+
+As the moon rose higher the frost began to bite, and the snowflakes,
+which had hitherto dropped rhythmically from the branches, were welded
+firmly together; while every leaf upon the ground was so crisped with
+rime that it crackled under the touch. Fluff-Button and Cuni, having
+made a scanty meal of such bramble leaves and ferns as remained green,
+turned homewards. Cuni went first, for her mate dallied behind to
+scratch his whiskers against a tree trunk. She came to the hole in the
+wall and hopped inside, for among the stones and mortar was hollowed a
+little chamber. There was a thin wind blowing, which had drifted the
+snow against the opposite opening and blocked it up, but the drift was
+not thick, and crumbled away when Cuni thrust her nose against it. The
+field was a white blank, marked with inky shadows below the trees, and
+not a living thing was in sight.
+
+With one comprehensive hop Cuni alighted in the drift, and at the same
+instant something seized her hind leg. 'When in doubt, skip!' is the
+rabbit maxim, which she obeyed instantly, but she was rudely jerked
+back into the snow, and the grip on her leg tightened. She whisked
+round to see her foe, and behold there was nothing there. Cuni was
+terrified. She began to struggle desperately, but although the enemy's
+clutch tightened, there was nothing to be seen but a long strand of
+copper wire on the snow. Just then there was a rattle of stones, and
+Fluff-Button hopped through the wall. He noticed nothing amiss, and
+seeing that the snow was scraped away all round he began to munch the
+frozen grass blades. In some measure his presence reassured Cuni. She
+ceased to struggle, and in the perfect bliss of her mate's proximity
+almost forgot the mysterious enemy that held her.
+
+Meanwhile the face of the night was changed. A snowstorm came up and
+drove tiny stinging flakes over the woods. They sifted into the
+rabbits' coats until Fluff-Button hopped inside the wall, shaking his
+ears. Cuni tried to follow, and although that unknown _something_
+clutched her again, yet it permitted her to creep just inside the
+hole. Her body prevented the entrance of the driving snow, and
+Fluff-Button came and snuggled against her warm vest, while his
+twitching whiskers left soft 'butterfly kisses' on her nose. In the
+mother-instinct, which is as easily awakened in the woods as among
+men, Cuni forgot that Fluff-Button was the King-Buck whose will was
+law in the warren, and only remembered that he was cold and came to
+her for warmth. She disregarded the snow which chilled her from
+without, and licked him with her warm tongue as tenderly as if he had
+been a sleepy suckling in the nesting burrow.
+
+The snowstorm passed and the rabbits came out again. The moon sailed
+up a sky as black and mysterious as a forest pool; and drowned the
+stars, until only one great white one survived, and blinked down like
+a wicked eye. Fluff-Button hopped away evidently expecting his mate to
+follow him, and was much perplexed to find that she was unable to do
+so. He sniffed her all over carefully, beseeching her to accompany
+him. Cuni tried her best, but in vain, and lay down panting.
+Fluff-Button became seriously annoyed. He was not used to
+disobedience, and it must be told that he kicked his mate hard with
+his strong hind leg. Finding that this did no good, he became alarmed.
+Wild creatures hate and fear the unknown, and Cuni's predicament was a
+most uncanny thing to rabbit ideas. Fluff-Button hopped away and began
+to feed doubtfully on an old turnip rind some thirty yards off, and
+took no notice of his mate's signals and struggles.
+
+At last Cuni lay still and watched him. Nature is kind to her wild
+children, and after the first biting coldness of the snow sends a
+blessed lethargy which soothes away the pain. Cuni was fast drifting
+into this dreamy state when her senses suddenly returned to her and
+she sat up alertly. Silhouetted against the white field stole a lithe
+form--pads which made no noise, eyes gleaming faintly red, ears cocked
+forward towards the prey ahead of him in the snow, while the moonlight
+laid a long grotesque shadow behind. The fox was thin and weak with
+famine, and his whole attention was riveted upon Fluff-Button, who sat
+with his back turned. He began to stalk his victim as noiselessly as a
+cat, taking advantage of every ant-hill or snowdrift to screen
+himself.
+
+There are two laws which have been given to the rabbit kind in the
+hour of danger. One is, 'Squat and be still'; and the other is,
+'Scoot, if you will, but let your fellows know it.' A few rabbits obey
+the first all their lives; but the majority--Cuni among the
+number--'scoot' on an alarm, but as they run they stamp upon the
+ground that their friends may hear and do likewise. However, Cuni was
+wounded, and her wise instinct bade her lie still, and then the fox
+would pass her by. With frightened fascinated eyes she watched the
+dark form slide over the snow, clapping flat if the unconscious
+Fluff-Button chanced to move.
+
+'Lie still,' whispered Instinct, numbing her limbs with fear, 'he will
+never see you.' But the Angel who works for the good of the race, and
+who sacrifices his units that his tens may be saved, cried: 'Stamp
+aloud and warn him, no matter what it may cost.' The two impulses
+struggled together in Cuni's heart, and the fox cramped his limbs
+together for the final rush.
+
+'Thump!' It was a very feeble little sound, muffled by the soft snow.
+'Again!' cried the stronger Angel, and summoning up all her strength,
+Cuni stamped again. This time Fluff-Button heard. Without as much as a
+glance behind, he bolted for the wall, leaped over his mate, dashed
+into the tunnel, and the scurry of his steps died away.
+
+The fox checked abruptly; he knew that in the woods he had no chance
+against a cunning buck rabbit, and if Cuni had lain still perhaps all
+might have been well. Unluckily panic seized her, and, stamping again
+and again, she struggled for her freedom. The fox saw her and began to
+stalk anew, for there seemed something uncanny about this rabbit, and
+he dared not risk a rush too soon. Cuni forgot her pain, she forgot
+her fear and even that desire to live which is so firmly implanted in
+each one of the Fur Folk, in her overmastering rage at the thing which
+held her. With tooth and claw she attacked the peg round which the
+wire was twisted, but the frost had bound it firmly to the snow. Ah! a
+last spasmodic jerk wrenched it up, and trailing a broken leg, Cuni
+crept into the wall--free. Alas! just the other side she was brought
+up with a jerk. The peg was wedged between two stones, and she was as
+much a prisoner as ever, although just beyond the fox's reach. She
+heard his stealthy pads scrunch on the snow the other side of the
+wall, and then he found the hole. He lay down on his side and thrust
+his head into the opening; and when he snorted, Cuni felt his hot
+breath on her whiskers. He began to whimper eagerly, and scrape at the
+loose stones and mortar. He worked his shoulders further and further
+in, and the little chamber was filled with dust. Presently he drew
+back--his cunning wits had told him of a better way. Just here the
+wall was too high to leap, but further down it was lower, and there he
+could climb over. Cuni heard his footsteps tiptoe away, and then her
+Guardian Angel whispered that her teeth were sharp and pointed out a
+way to freedom--but not the cost. She listened to the counsel, for the
+desire to live burnt fiercely within her and her leg was twisted and
+useless now, a mere encumbrance. There was a short, sharp struggle,
+and the snare and its captive were parted indeed. Stiff and numbed,
+she crept away among the trees.
+
+Twenty yards further on there was a clearing where the snow lay soft
+and deep. Here Fluff-Button's trail could be seen plainly, and the
+wide tracks showed that he had crossed it at full gallop. Cuni set out
+to follow it, plodding along in the muffling snow, and stumbling into
+drifts at every step. The woods were dead--neither Fur nor Feather
+Folk stirred--and Fluff-Button's solitary trail alone broke the
+blankness before her; but whereas his consisted of four regular
+punctures, that which she left beside it had three only, and, in place
+of the fourth, a red stain. She dared not pause, for the twilight was
+full of a horror which was all the greater that it was nameless and
+but dimly realised--the fear of the hunted when strength fails. The
+shadows seemed full of shining eyes and crouching forms which would
+spring if she lay down, for she did not know that the fox had already
+given up the quest, and left her alone.
+
+The snow was soft and deadly cold. It clogged her limbs like so much
+clay, and the very air was so chilled that she seemed to draw her
+breath in nothingness.
+
+Still Fluff-Button's trail ran forward towards the Pine Tree burrows,
+which are warm and deep, and down which no fox can pass; and Cuni
+stumbled on blindly, for it is the instinct of the Fur Folk when
+maimed or sick to death to seek some hiding-place where not even the
+stars can spy upon them.
+
+Presently she fell into a deeper drift, and because she was too tired
+to struggle out, she lay still. It was good to rest awhile before
+setting out once more, and feel the pain and fear slip away before the
+blessed peace which stole over her. The snow now seemed so warm and
+dark that she believed herself in the Pine Tree burrows, and nestled
+down as contentedly as if she leaned against Fluff-Button's soft coat.
+Her nose ceased to quiver as her breath came more and more faintly,
+and her big brown eye closed; while her spirit drifted further and
+further away, until it silently crossed the borderland into the
+country from which there is no return.
+
+A cloud blotted out the moon and wrapped the woods from end to end in
+the vast silence of snow. Great flakes as big as pigeon's feathers
+floated down into the clearing. The double trail was covered up, and
+the drifts piled higher and higher, until not even the tip of a dark
+ear peeped out to show where little Cuni lay.
+
+
+
+
+STORIES FROM THE LIFE OF GRIMALKIN THE CAT
+
+[Illustration: STORIES FROM THE LIFE OF GRIMALKIN THE CAT]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE FIRST HUNTING
+
+
+When it was discovered that the stable-cat had a litter of kittens in
+the hayloft, sentence of death was pronounced immediately, and before
+noon three little grey corpses floated in the horse pond. The fourth
+kitten, _the_ kitten, with whom this history deals, was actually in
+the water, when the cook came by and begged for his life in order that
+he might later rid the kitchen of mice, in spite of the gardener's
+assertion that 'Thim wild cats had a divil in thim as big as an ass,
+an' would niver quit ramblin'.' However, in his early days, Grimalkin
+showed no signs of any such demoniacal possession. He was a strangely
+sedate kitten. Possibly his narrow escape had affected his spirits,
+for he spent his days in eating such scraps as came in his way, in
+sleeping, and in evading the flying feet of the cook and her
+satellites. Hence, for many days his horizon was bounded by the four
+walls of the kitchen and the square of backyard, in the corner of
+which was the ashpit--to feline ideas the Elysian Fields. The yard was
+enclosed by a high wall, and wooden doors shut it off from the outside
+world, so that at the time of which I write, Grimalkin had had but
+most fleeting glimpses of what lay beyond.
+
+In one place the wall was overhung by a laurel bush, and here the
+sparrows used to squabble and chatter all day long, except when now
+and then a sinuous black form stole along the coping and dropped into
+the yard. This was the farmyard mouser, Sir Charles, a worthy who,
+although he possessed a name befitting a Crusader, was nevertheless a
+prowler, a poacher, and a buccaneer born and bred. One half of his
+time he spent in filching stray morsels from the kitchen and in dozing
+in the sun, while the rest of his days were passed--Grimalkin did not
+know where. But Paddy Magragh, the earthstopper of Knockdane, could
+have told you how often he saw the glossy black form sneaking along
+the hedgerows, or 'lying up' beside a rabbit burrow.
+
+About the time that Grimalkin's eyes intensified from their original
+pale kitten blue to the yellow of maturer cathood, it happened that
+Sir Charles returned from a three weeks' sojourn in the woods. His
+coat was sleek and glossy, and comfortable and contented was his face,
+as of one who had lived well for some time. The early autumn evening
+was drawing in after a still, misty day. Sir Charles squatted by the
+ashpit wall; and Grimalkin from the scullery steps noted with
+admiration how he drew his supple paw behind his ears after applying
+it to his tongue, and how he scientifically smoothed his sooty
+waistcoat. Suddenly he ceased his ablutions and gazed fixedly at the
+foot of the wall, lashing his tail lightly. Grimalkin, following the
+direction of his eyes, saw a tiny grey dot moving among the
+cobblestones. The black cat made a dart--springing out and back in two
+nimble bounds--then cantered across the yard with it in his mouth. He
+dropped it on the stones and watched it scurry for covert, but before
+it could reach it he headed it off and struck it with his paw.
+Henceforth it ran round in little futile circles as though bewildered,
+and every time it scuttled out of striking distance he carried it back
+to the middle of the yard. Suddenly he caught sight of Grimalkin,
+crouched hard by with his eyes as round as a pigeon's as he watched
+this most fascinating game. The veteran breathed a low growl over his
+shoulder which made the kitten shrink hastily behind the doorpost; but
+the next minute he was peeping out again, staring with all his eyes,
+and no wonder, for, for the first time in his life, Grimalkin was
+witnessing the death-game which the cat kind play over their 'kill.'
+At last the little grey beast would run away no more, but lay still,
+gasping; and even when its captor pushed it with his paw it did not
+try to escape. The black cat stood up and yawned--the sport was over.
+Had it been a rat or a mouse he would have killed it outright and then
+feasted--but a shrew! Sir Charles was an old hunter, but since the
+long-gone day when he struck down his first rabbit, he had never
+tasted a shrew. He strolled away and left it where it lay. No sooner
+was his back turned than Grimalkin slipped across the yard and
+approached circumspectly. For him so far the animal kingdom had
+consisted of three divisions only: cats, men, and cockroaches.
+Evidently this was a fourth species, for, although not very much
+larger than a cockroach, instead of being rust coloured it was grey,
+and its coat was furry like his own.
+
+He touched it stealthily with his paw, but it did not move. Grimalkin
+was disappointed. He had liked to see it run about and struggle, and
+now it was so still; nevertheless there was something mysteriously
+alluring about it, and all unconsciously he began to leap and gambol
+round it even as the other cat had done. He gathered it up in his
+paws and flung it over his head, leaping after it and shaking it, but
+its nose only twitched feebly and it fumbled with its paws. By now it
+was nearly dark, and Cook, who had an idea that a cat of any age was
+necessarily possessed of a charm to scare away mice, came out to look
+for him. For the first time in his life Grimalkin turned and spat at
+her, lest she should intend to snatch his treasure from him. Then he
+darted with it into the kitchen, and took refuge under the dresser.
+
+'Shure, he has a mouse cot at last,' said Cook, well pleased. She
+turned down the light, raked out the fire and left the room, locking
+the door behind her. Then Grimalkin crept on to the hearth, carrying
+his mouse with him. As a rule he drowsed happily all evening, for then
+there was peace in the kitchen, and no fear of heavy felt-shod feet
+descending upon his tail. To-night, however, he did not sleep, but sat
+and watched the glow of the embers slowly fade beneath a coat of white
+ash. Presently a cinder dropped with a crash, and that was a sign for
+the cockroaches to come out. They ran to and fro in the shadows, and
+the red light turned their wing-cases to copper. Grimalkin often
+caught and ate beetles, but to-night he did not look at them, but
+wandered restlessly about the room. After one circuit of the walls he
+came back to the hearth again. The mouse lay where he had left it, and
+a bright red bead had risen among its fur. Grimalkin touched it
+stealthily with his tongue. It left a warm saline taste in his
+mouth--a taste he had never known before--the taste of fresh blood. He
+drew back licking his chops. All at once he felt afraid of this small
+still thing; but the taste of the blood mounted to his head like
+strong wine. The beetles still ran to and fro upon the hearth, but he
+did not look at them. He felt a vague indescribable yearning for
+something. He was not cold nor hungry, nor thirsty nor in pain, and
+yet he was not comfortable. Grimalkin did not know that it was the
+taste of the blood which had awakened this strange indefinable desire
+in him; nevertheless it was so, and an instinct was roused which would
+make it impossible for him to spend another night between four walls.
+
+The shutter of the window was carelessly fastened, and a sudden
+draught of air blew it in. The lower half of the casement was open,
+and the night wind bore in the rustle of the trees, and the sough of
+the breeze in the laurel bush by the wall--the laurel bush which
+formed a bridge from the yard to the woods, across which so many
+generations of cats had gone forth to their hunting.
+
+Overhead the skies were cloudy, with here and there a befogged star.
+The air swayed by the south wind was hot and heavy. Great moths and
+wheeling bats flitted by. From the ash tree the leaves fell now and
+then with a patter like a footstep. The woods came up almost to the
+doors of the house, and as Grimalkin listened, the piteous scream of a
+rabbit close at hand made his whiskers stiffen and his tail move. The
+roar of the river over the weir rose and fell, now low now loud, as
+the night wind carried it by. Grimalkin uttered an almost inaudible
+cry. The Night Longing, that mysterious power which draws all animals,
+wild and tame, gripped him. You may hear a dog howling the night-long
+by his kennel--the Night Longing which he cannot obey hangs heavy over
+his mind. When evening comes the purring tabby dozing by the fire
+rises and steals into the cold and darkness without. It is always the
+same. Man has taken them and tamed them, worked them and cherished
+them, but once in a while the woods call--the woods where their
+fathers were born and hunted and died--and they go. It is also certain
+that those among men who spend much time alone under the free sky,
+feel the Night Longing also, and obey it.
+
+The sweet clean smells of the night called to Grimalkin to come. He
+did not know what this impelling force might mean. He could not know
+that for centuries this had been the hour for his ancestors to rise
+and go forth to the night's hunting. He only knew that, come what
+might, he must leap out into the darkness, over the garden wall and
+into the woods beyond. They filled the night with that vast silence
+which is full of movement. They were his inheritance. He came from the
+hedgerows and thickets, and thither he would return. Behind him lay
+the dark kitchen where the embers threw a glow over the dead
+mouse--the spoils of his first hunting; and in front of him were the
+woods and the night. Grimalkin poised himself upon the window-sill for
+a moment, then the Night Longing called again, and he leaped.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE STEALTHY DEATH
+
+
+In September daylight and darkness are equally divided. The days are
+still and mellow, with a blue haze which clings to the shadows of the
+woods; and at night the big moon rolls over the eastern mountains, and
+turns the fog in the valleys into a silver sheet.
+
+All through the warm nights the Fur Folk come and go through Knockdane
+Woods, for the men sleep in the Great White House and no one disturbs
+them. Strange things happen at night under the trees of which humans
+have no idea; and one of the strangest of all in Knockdane is the tale
+of how Grimalkin the cat tried a fall with the Stealthy Death and
+escaped alive.
+
+For many months Grimalkin had lived a dual life, spending part of the
+day at the Great White House, but wandering back to the woods at
+night. But as time went on, and his strength and cunning increased,
+his visits to men became fewer and shorter, and his absences stretched
+into days and weeks. No cat will stay by the hearth in early summer
+when the young rabbits are out, especially when the blood of semi-wild
+ancestors runs in his veins. The keepers grew to recognise Grimalkin
+and to hate him; and, indeed, he was recognisable enough--a huge grey
+tabby, strong enough to pull down a grown rabbit, and cunning enough
+to know a keeper with a gun from a prowling poacher like himself.
+
+There are some nights on which, although they may seem eminently
+favourable to a mere human hunter, the Fur Folk do not stir abroad. On
+the other hand, there are others on which they come forth in their
+scores--the hunters and the hunted--and such nights are known in the
+woods as hunters' nights. It was such a night in Knockdane. The air
+was warm, but a little breeze was stirring, and one by one the leaves
+floated down on their fallen fellows with a rustle like a faint
+footstep. Big white moths whirred round the ivy blossoms and bats
+wheeled through the clearings. The moon rose early, and by the time
+the afterglow had faded she was high in the sky, casting long shadows
+across the Hollow Field.
+
+Grimalkin trotted quickly through the wood with the easy swing and
+depressed tail of a cat who knows where he is going. Every now and
+then he paused with uplifted paw as some twig fell with a crackle to
+the ground, or a patter of leaves told of game afoot, and the green
+light flickered in his eyes. The fence which separates the Hollow
+Field from the wood had run to waste for many years, before the
+blackthorns, each as thick as a man's arm, had been trimmed; and their
+roots had been undermined in every direction by rabbits. Inside the
+field the fence's foot was overgrown with tussocks of long grass,
+honeycombed by runways. It was easy to crouch in one of these until a
+young rabbit hopped within distance, and then a few soft steps--a
+pounce--and the kill. Grimalkin slid into the grass, which closed over
+his striped back and hid him.
+
+The moon was bright as day. Further down the fence half a dozen
+rabbits were feeding; but the other side of the field, beyond which
+lay a beech wood, was deep in shadow. Shrill threads of sound from a
+neighbouring grass tuft meant that the field mice were squabbling
+among the fallen beech nuts; but Grimalkin only cocked one ear and
+tucked his paws away neatly against his chest. It was a hunter's night
+and he awaited nobler quarry.
+
+A long hour passed. Then one of the rabbits sat up and kicked the
+ground uneasily, while the rest listened. A rabbit was cantering
+across the field towards them. She picked her way among the thistles,
+and stopped every now and then quivering. She did not seem in a hurry,
+and yet was apparently quite unaware of their presence. The other
+rabbits thumped suspiciously and scattered--there was something
+uncanny about the way this rabbit ran. She came straight towards
+Grimalkin; her eyes were wide and staring as she glanced behind her,
+and her limbs moved stiffly. Grimalkin drew himself together. As she
+lilted within a yard of him, he sprang and struck. The rabbit sobbed,
+and rolled over panting. Beautiful, lithe, cruel, Grimalkin leaped
+upon her and dealt the death blow, ere commencing the death-game which
+the cat kind always play over the stricken quarry. He stood listening
+for a moment, and a rustle in the grass made him pause. His ear caught
+the faint unmistakable sound of a hunter who hunts his quarry by
+scent, and who smells fresh blood near at hand. Down towards the
+rabbit stole a stealthy dark shape, sniffing as it came upon the line.
+Keen, the stoat, seldom misses his kill, and woe betide the beast who
+crosses his trail; he hunts for the joy of killing, and in the woods
+they call him in whispers, 'the Stealthy Death.' The stoat paused and
+saw the dead rabbit, and the cat standing over it with a wicked gleam
+in his small eyes. He squeaked once, and then--like a bent
+watch-spring loosed--flung himself upon his enemy. Had his fangs sunk
+where he intended--into the great arteries of the neck--Grimalkin
+would speedily have lain beside the rabbit; but he partially missed
+his hold, and fastening into the shoulder instead, clung there like a
+leech. Grimalkin felt the hot blood trickle down, and, wild with fear
+and wrath, he smote and bit desperately at the clinging death which
+hung upon his neck. He had never encountered an enemy who fought after
+this fashion. His claws ripped the stoat's flank. With a squeak, Keen
+shifted his hold from the shoulder to the throat, half throttling
+Grimalkin. The combat raged to and fro, the cat striking, spitting,
+writhing, and the stoat battered, torn, flung this way and that, but
+all the while burying his fangs deeper in his victim's flesh. The
+death which Keen deals is slow but very sure. The dog worries, and the
+cat tears his prey, but the stoat silently sucks the life-blood, until
+the quarry, struggle as he may, succumbs at last, with only four tiny
+wounds in the throat to show how his strength was drained away.
+
+A battle on these terms could not last. Already the great cat was
+tiring--weakened by loss of blood and the weight on his neck. He
+rolled over exhausted, and although his claws tore feebly at his
+enemy, his eyes were half closed and his tongue lolled out. Keen knew
+that his time had come. He loosened his hold for an instant,
+instinctively seeking a fresh grip upon the great blood-vessels
+behind the ear. But that instant proved his undoing. Grimalkin, roused
+from his stupor by the prick of a new wound, rose with a sudden
+convulsive effort. His enemy was off his guard, and left his side
+exposed. Instantly Grimalkin buried his teeth in it. He held on
+grimly, crushing the life out of the slender writhing form until it
+ceased to quiver and throb, and hung limp. Then he flung it aside, and
+Keen, his white chest stained scarlet, lay stretched on the grass
+beside the dead rabbit.
+
+Grimalkin did not stay to look at this, his record kill. It was no
+time to triumph. His life-blood had been drained freely, he felt weary
+and strangely weak. He crawled to the hedgerow, and sought an old lair
+of his, a deserted rabbit burrow. Dead leaves had drifted in, and it
+was dry and safe. Here Grimalkin lay and nursed his wounds, until the
+sunshine striking on the hedge side, and the singing of the flies over
+the grey and brown spots in the grass, brought home to him the fact
+that he was hungry, and must go out and hunt in the woods again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+'THE COLLARED BUCK'
+
+
+On the northern slope of Knockdane there is a little glen whose sides
+are hung with ivy and aromatic ale-hoof, and which is so deep that
+even on the longest day of the year the sun can never climb high
+enough to shine upon its southern wall. The glen is strewn with
+limestone rocks, and at its head stands a twisted crab-apple tree.
+Beneath the roots of the latter there is a dry roomy chamber into
+which dead leaves have either drifted or been carried; for the Crab
+Tree burrow has been beloved of the Fur Folk ever since the tree
+itself began to bear a yearly load of wizened fruit. Some have used it
+as a den, some as a nursery, and many more as a sanctuary. Grimalkin
+adapted it to the first of these uses, and took up his abode there at
+the end of November.
+
+Frost and snow seldom come to Knockdane before January. During the
+close of the year the weather is damp and mild; rain drips
+relentlessly upon the sodden ground; and the scarlet and orange
+agarics in the moss are the only things which flourish. One morning in
+mid-December Grimalkin went hunting among the bramble thickets of
+upper Knockdane. The whole place was traversed by an elaborate system
+of runways, the geography of which was accurately known to the rabbit
+people alone. A warm mist lay over the woods, distilling into
+great drops on every grass blade and twig ere dripping to the
+saturated ground. Indeed, it was hard to tell which was the most
+water-logged--the earth or the air. Like all his race, Grimalkin hated
+the wet, and he shook his head impatiently as the water trickled
+inside his ears. The air was so damp and heavy among the briars that
+there was little or no scent, so that when a rabbity waft came to his
+nostrils he knew that the trail must be fresh. He turned down a side
+alley, and suddenly came face to face with the most amazing rabbit
+which he had ever beheld. It was large and grey, but the strangest
+thing about it was a broad white stripe which passed completely round
+its neck and ended in a pointed gorget. The rabbit was squatting with
+its ears flattened and its eyes half closed, and in this attitude the
+strange collar stood out round its neck in so uncanny a fashion that
+Grimalkin paused doubtfully. Suddenly fear leaped into its eyes--its
+ears sprang up vertically, and just as Grimalkin cramped himself
+together for a rush, the strange rabbit wheeled round and burst out of
+the 'form.' Grimalkin pulled himself up abruptly, for he was too
+experienced a hunter to give chase; but even in that brief space he
+had time to remark that its tail was not carried in the usual jaunty
+rabbit manner, but was depressed like that of a hare.
+
+That was the first time that Grimalkin met the Collared Buck rabbit of
+upper Knockdane. The Collared Buck, like the lost Incas, was the last
+of his race. Years before, a whole colony of white-necked rabbits had
+lived in the hedgerows outside the wood, but their ornament had proved
+a fatal guide to foxes and stoats, and this winter the sole survivor
+lived in Knockdane, a hermit and a solitary. He had his headquarters
+in a burrow in the elder thicket above Grimalkin's glen; but as in
+that wet season, like many other of the holes in Knockdane, it was
+often full of water, he was obliged to 'lie up' in the woods, whether
+he liked or not. Very early in the morning, after moonset, he went out
+to feed in the sheep field by a well-worn track; but, as soon as the
+'false dawn' appeared, he returned to the wood, and made a 'form' in
+some patch of fern or bramble, where he passed the day. Grimalkin the
+cat never wasted his time over rabbits unless there was reasonable
+chance of success, and although he often crossed the Collared Buck's
+hot trail he never turned aside to follow it. Sometimes indeed he
+caught a glimpse of the Buck himself lilting across a clearing in the
+starlight, or feeding with a wary eye fixed on covert; but this
+rabbit's remarkable appearance was only equalled by his cunning, as
+indeed Grimalkin soon saw for himself.
+
+One crisp January day Grimalkin was taking a sun-bath in the fork of a
+large beech tree, when a sudden 'bang-bang' apprised him that men were
+in the wood, and that they were there with intent to slay. Grimalkin
+regarded men with more hatred and less fear than did the Fur Folk
+themselves, for his early days by the fireside had made an indelible
+impression upon him; but he was aware of the limitations of human
+discernment, and knew that if he remained where he was he would be
+reasonably safe. The reports of the guns came nearer, and presently a
+pair of jays flew overhead, squawking to all the birds within earshot
+that it was time to move on. In front of the beech tree the trees grew
+more sparsely, and the ground was encumbered with a low growth of fern
+and bramble. By and by the shooting party came out of the covert and
+advanced slowly up the glade. Grimalkin, blinking down from his coign
+of vantage, saw rabbit after rabbit bolt from its 'form' only to turn
+a somersault and collapse into a palpitating heap. Just below the
+beech tree there was a thick patch of briars, broken up by numerous
+passages and clearings. Grimalkin, unlike the men below, had a
+bird's-eye view of the place, and just before the line of beaters came
+abreast of it a rabbit hopped out of a runway. His white necklet
+proclaimed that he was the Collared Buck. He sat up upon his curious
+hare-like tail, and peered through the bushes. Just then another shot
+was fired, and a luckless rabbit close by crawled screaming through
+the fern. The Collared Buck made up his mind--he rolled over limply
+upon his back and lay still. The beaters came up and began to whack
+the bushes, but he never twitched a whisker, and he might have escaped
+notice altogether had not one man caught sight of his white gorget
+gleaming in the grass, and walked over to pick up, as he considered,
+the dead rabbit. The Collared one lay like a stone until a hand was
+put out to seize him, then he suddenly leaped sideways and ran for his
+life. Bang! bang! bang! he bolted down the whole line of guns, and
+each fired as he passed; but although the shot clipped twigs from the
+bushes all round him, he ran on unscathed. Just out of shot he paused,
+and then quietly and deliberately crept down an adjacent burrow,
+leaving the sportsmen the poorer of self-respect and cartridges.
+
+After this the weather became fine and warm, and the rabbits used to
+come out of their burrows to take sun-baths. Three times Grimalkin saw
+the Collared Buck basking outside his hole above the glen, with his
+legs sprawled on the dry leaves, and his eyes blinking blissfully in
+the heat. Three times did Grimalkin then attempt to stalk his prey,
+and three times did the Buck take alarm, and hop underground with
+insulting leisure. The desire to circumvent the Collared Buck became
+an obsession with Grimalkin. He spent hours at a stretch watching the
+burrow mouth; all in vain. He often caught a glimpse of the white
+collar, or saw the drooping scut flit into the bushes, but he never
+gave chase on these occasions, for he knew well that in a race he was
+no match for a rabbit, and that his skill in hunting depended less
+upon his legs than upon his patience. So the Collared Buck fed nightly
+in the fields, and arrogantly chiselled his mark upon the old willow
+tree which is the trysting place of the buck rabbits in spring, and
+upon which each sets the imprint of his teeth.
+
+Earlier in the autumn Grimalkin had lived principally upon the
+squirrels who squabbled among the beech-mast, but as the season
+advanced, Koutchee, who, though a noisy meddlesome fellow, is no fool,
+grew wary, and the suspicion of a barred tabby tail twitching in
+covert was sufficient to send him scuttling up a tree. Henceforth
+Grimalkin lived chiefly upon thrushes. The ripening of the haws
+brought in hordes of missel-thrushes, redwings, and blackbirds, who
+tore at the crimson berries and littered them over the countryside
+with the wasteful profusion of the Feather Folk who take no thought
+for the morrow, and then came, full cropped and drowsy, to roost in
+Knockdane. At dark Grimalkin used to creep beneath the bushes which
+were weighted down with the sleepy birds, and took his toll. The
+redwings were his favourite game, for it was possible to strike one
+down silently; whereas no sooner did he miss a spring at throstle or
+blackbird than the whole wood knew of the occurrence. Creeping in the
+darkness among the locked laurel stems, Grimalkin often knew that he
+was not the only hunter abroad. Sometimes as a cloud came over the
+moon, a blackbird 'spinked' agonizedly, and then all at once the whole
+hillside seemed to spring into rushing whirring life as every bird
+within earshot dashed out. There would be dire confusion for a few
+minutes until the flock settled in another thicket, and then the
+patter of pads tiptoeing away told that the fox was also hunting that
+way that night.
+
+One evening Grimalkin was prowling on such an excursion along the
+edge of the wood. Just in front of him a deep drain, cut straight
+through the hedgebank, opened into the field. This cutting was a
+favourite path of all the Fur Folk, and its muddy bottom was trampled
+by many feet, from the splay pugs of the badger to the fairy spoors of
+the rats. It was for the latter that Grimalkin waited, under a fern
+stub. Famine had gripped the rats with the rest of the Wood People,
+and drove them out to feed on the rotting beech-mast far from their
+holes. The blackbirds were arguing together loudly as they settled
+down in the laurels for the night; nevertheless through all the din
+Grimalkin detected a distant scurry and patter of feet. His practised
+ear soon recognised that the oncoming steps belonged to a running
+rabbit, and just behind he caught the galloping rustle of some
+pursuer. Grimalkin the cat feared neither fox nor dog, and he knew
+that the smaller folk all feared him and turned aside from his path;
+so that, with a glance to locate a convenient tree in case of
+emergency, he remained where he was. The bushes suddenly parted and
+out sprang the Collared Buck. His ears were laid down and his eyes
+showed the whites as he glanced behind him. He came straight as an
+arrow for the drain; not until he was almost upon it did he catch
+sight of Grimalkin, and at that moment Redpad the fox came leaping
+upon his trail. The Collared Buck saw that he was in a trap. He was
+yet three yards from the bank when he jumped, but the force of his
+rush was with him and carried him into the drain. At the same instant
+the cat's claws tore his flank, but the smart merely spurred him to
+further efforts. He changed feet nimbly, and shot through the hedge
+far out into the field beyond. Grimalkin alighted on the ditch bottom
+in a smother of dead leaves, not three feet from the fox's nose. He
+put his back against the bank, and his eyes looked ugly as he breathed
+a menace. The fox stopped dead, and they glared eye to eye while one
+might pant a score of times. Then the fox dropped his eyes uneasily.
+He dared not face the great cat's scimitar claws in the narrow path,
+and he slid cautiously back in his tracks out of striking distance
+before leaping into the bushes.
+
+Grimalkin caught a rat and a bird that night, and at dawn went back to
+his lair. He licked his muddy coat dry, and being full fed and
+comfortable for the first time for many days, he sang a low song to
+himself, which made the little mice, among the ivy at the cave's
+mouth, cower and hide. But by and by the purring ceased, and
+Grimalkin, thoughtfully watching the dim light on the floor, growled
+softly at the recollection of the baulked spring in the hedge bottom;
+and in his dreams that night--for the Fur Folk often dream--his claws
+worked softly as though he had struck them into the kill.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After that Grimalkin watched the hedge bottom for two nights, but the
+Collared Buck was wary, and went out to feed by another way. On the
+third evening he came again, but a breath of wind warned him in time
+of his enemy's presence. This happened once or twice, and then
+Grimalkin grew tired of a fruitless vigil in the damp ditch and laid
+other plans.
+
+One January night Grimalkin came out of his cave, and stealing across
+the glen, climbed the opposite wall. It was dark under the trees, but
+a white blur in the shadows guided him to the mouth of the burrow in
+the elders. Very very cautiously he sniffed at the place. All was
+well. The Buck had not yet gone out. Grimalkin squatted down within
+striking distance, tucked his paws away cosily in front of him, and
+waited.
+
+An hour passed--there was a stir in the burrow, and the Collared Buck
+crept out, his white throat a beacon in the starlight. So swiftly that
+it seemed as but one movement, Grimalkin took half a dozen quick
+steps and leaped, but even as he did so the big rabbit stamped a
+sudden alarm. They rolled over together, Grimalkin bearing down his
+prey as a tiger will a deer, but the latter was frenzied with fear,
+and in his agony launched a desperate kick which caught Grimalkin upon
+the point of the nose. As he staggered back he felt the rabbit slip
+from between his claws. The Collared Buck bounded away among the
+elders, stamping an alarm at every stride, until his dancing white
+collar disappeared among the bushes. Grimalkin sat up and wiped the
+blood from his face. He realised that another point had been scored
+against him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+An hour later as Grimalkin was passing the well-worn track to the
+Sheep Field, dawn was breaking, and a fine rain began to fall. He
+followed a path among the furze bushes, and on turning a corner caught
+sight of a rabbit in the grass. He stalked it scientifically, and from
+nearer covert looked at it again. There was no doubt but that it was
+the Collared Buck. He was lying prone upon his chest as though for a
+sun-bath, and apparently had noticed nothing amiss. But why should he
+bask when rain was falling? Grimalkin was uneasy. The Fur Folk fear
+what is unusual; nevertheless because he was hungry, and his enemy so
+close, he sprang. His claws sank deep into the white collar, but the
+Collared Buck neither moved nor gasped. His body was warm and limp,
+and round his neck, although Grimalkin never noticed it, was twisted a
+wicked strand of brass wire. It never occurred to Grimalkin to
+question how his long-sought quarry had died. He drew himself up and
+his tail swayed with triumph. The Collared Buck lay beneath his claws
+and old scores were repaid. He began to play the death-game which the
+cat kind always play over the kill. First of all he touched the rabbit
+with his paw, daring it to rise up and run from him; then, as though
+to make surety doubly sure, he leaped upon it and struck again. While
+there is life in bird or beast they will struggle from the death-play
+blindly, but the Collared Buck lay placidly still with the rain
+draggling his fur and his eyes staring. Even his sensitive nose never
+quivered; for, although Grimalkin did not know it, the wire round his
+neck had long ago choked the breath in his throat. Next Grimalkin
+rolled upon the ground, and drawing the limp form towards him, licked
+its fur and caressed it, while he sang a song praising its strength
+and cunning, and vaunting his own superior skill as a hunter. The
+wrens in the furze scolded and flew away, for few of the lesser folk
+are bold enough to stand by while Grimalkin plays after the kill. He
+gambolled to and fro like a kitten for the joy of feeling the strong
+muscles swell in his limbs; and growling, he dared any of the Wood
+People to snatch his prey from him. So absorbed was he in his game
+that he never heard a step on the close turf, and only when a
+blackbird chuckled an alarm did he look up to see Paddy Magragh
+standing watching him, with a bundle of rabbit snares in his hand.
+Then all make-believe was at an end. Should he, Grimalkin, Cat-King of
+Knockdane, give up his kill? He growled menacingly, and dragged at the
+body, until the peg round which the wire was twisted, already loosened
+by the rabbit's death-struggles, was pulled out of the ground.
+
+'Drop it, ye thafe,' shouted Paddy Magragh, flinging his stick at the
+cat. It missed its mark, and Grimalkin merely glared as he dragged his
+kill towards the bushes a few yards away. Magragh had lost his cudgel,
+but he strode up to kick his antagonist aside with his heavy boots.
+However, Grimalkin turned upon him with such a ferocious snarl that he
+drew back, for no leather would have been proof against those teeth.
+By the time he had fetched his stick, Grimalkin, tripping over his
+burden, had almost gained the bushes. He gave chase instantly, but
+Grimalkin had never yet abandoned his prey, and only trotted the
+faster. They reached the bushes simultaneously. The earthstopper
+struck out brutally with his stick and knocked aside Grimalkin, who
+rolled over and over half stunned; but then Magragh lost his
+advantage, for he rashly stooped and laid hold of the rabbit. In an
+instant, with a strangled yell, Grimalkin's teeth met in his wrist. He
+sprang back with an oath as the blood trickled down.
+
+'Begob! there's something not right wid that cat,' he muttered
+fearfully, stepping aside. 'And the rabbit is a quare one. 'Tis a drop
+o' holy wather, not a stick, ye'd want for the likes o' him, I'm
+thinking.'
+
+So without further interference Grimalkin returned to the limp body of
+the Collared Buck and dragged it laboriously into the bushes. Once
+protected by the kindly furze thorns he crouched down panting, lest
+another attack should be meditated, but it did not come; and presently
+he heard the earthstopper's heavy tread on the turf as he walked away.
+
+Then indeed Grimalkin's triumph was complete. He had even outwitted
+man himself, and robbed him of his kill. He turned to the rabbit once
+more, and played out the death-game to an end before returning to his
+lair.
+
+[Illustration: GRIMALKIN]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+ZOE
+
+
+The day on which the first swallow came was marked with white in
+Grimalkin's calendar. He was looking for chaffinches' nests in the big
+whitethorn hedge at the back of Ballymore Rectory, when he suddenly
+spied a rat. The rat was sitting up eating a snail, and every now and
+then it cast a beady glance around; but Grimalkin slid through the
+grass like a snake, and it did not see him. He had cramped his limbs
+together for a spring when all at once something fell like a miniature
+thunderbolt from a neighbouring crab-tree, and alighted just six
+inches behind the rat, who dropped his supper and vanished in a
+twinkling.
+
+Grimalkin was astonished. It was a cat--but what a cat! She was small,
+but such was the length of her fur that she appeared much larger than
+she really was. She had a foam-white vest and socks, but the rest of
+her coat was deep mouse colour, and a wide ruffle stood out on either
+side of her face. Had it been a tom-cat who had leaped at his game,
+Grimalkin's paw would speedily have buffeted his ears. As it was, he
+crept forward humbly and tried to attract her attention. Zoe's back
+gradually rose to a semicircle, and when he touched her she struck
+him smartly across the face. Certainly love can work miracles, or else
+Grimalkin, King-Cat of Knockdane, would never have suffered such a
+blow quietly; but as it was he only passed his tongue deprecatingly
+over his whiskers. Zoe eyed him to see whether he took his punishment
+with due humility, and then sat down to wipe her ears with her fluffy
+white paw. Presently Grimalkin rolled over on to his back, rubbing his
+tabby ears. A deep rumbling purr vibrated his throat: 'Prr-r-eaow!'
+cried Grimalkin, with that subtle inflection which cats understand to
+mean: 'You are altogether desirable.' Zoe crept forward, and
+Grimalkin, rearing up his tabby length, rubbed his whiskers vigorously
+against her cheek. She too began to purr, but very softly and evenly;
+and by and by when she trotted away, she glanced back to intimate to
+him that he might follow if he wished.
+
+After that they often met. Zoe was the cherished pet of the Rectory,
+and was consequently shut up every night; nevertheless she often
+eluded her mistress and stole down the whitethorn hedge where
+Grimalkin caught cockchafers--a trick learned from the blackbeetles of
+his kitchen days. At first she was reluctant to remain out for long
+together. After a little excursion she would pause and turn back.
+Instantly Grimalkin would be at her side imploring her with all
+feline caresses to accompany him. He could not understand the ties of
+custom which bound her to her human friends. He had broken them long
+ago when a kitten, and was now as truly wild as any of the Fur Folk in
+Knockdane. But Zoe and her parents before her had lived by the
+fireside and eaten men's food, and it was more difficult for them to
+hear the call of the woods.
+
+Once for three days she stayed at home; but on the third evening she
+looked down the field, and saw Grimalkin waiting. A little cry rose in
+her throat; she dropped out of the window and ran to him.
+
+They hunted together until the long sunbeams were cut off by the hill,
+and the dew began to fall. A score of blackbirds piped in Knockdane,
+and a corncrake rasped in the meadow. The darkness fell, and the night
+peoples--the badgers, bats, and owls--came out. When the night was
+half gone, Zoe's instinct to return to her human friends awoke, but
+she was tired, and Grimalkin's presence was very dear to her. She felt
+drawn two ways. Instinct bade her remain in the woods; custom, parent
+of instinct, commanded her to return home. The shadows under the oak
+trees were full of the mysterious sights and sounds of the night. A
+skylark on the hill believed that he saw the false dawn, and rose
+singing to meet it; and a cuckoo in the valley awoke and fluted
+drowsily. Out in the woods the ways of men seem very small and far
+away. Grimalkin looked round. 'Prr-r-eaow!' he cried, which being
+interpreted is: 'O my love, the desirable one'; and the cuckoo's voice
+mingled with the murmur of the river. Zoe's doubts fled. She forgot
+her former life, and all the kindness which she had always received
+from man. Grimalkin was calling and her heart went out to
+him--Knockdane was calling and she obeyed it. She followed her mate to
+his lair.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the beginning of July Zoe left Grimalkin altogether. Now and then
+he caught a glimpse of her, but she always fled from him as though he
+had been some dangerous thing, and for many nights he hunted alone.
+
+Years before, a south-westerly gale had driven in from the Atlantic,
+and ploughed a deep furrow through the fir grove at the top of
+Knockdane, piling the snapped trunks on one another. Nobody moved
+them, and they lay there in rotting heaps; but their fall let in the
+sunshine and rain to the earth, and the next summer a multitude of
+plants grew up where previously had been nothing but gloomy firs.
+Briars ran riot over the decaying branches, grass grew rank and long,
+and alders pushed a way to the air and light. These were woven into a
+jungle so dense that only the rabbits thoroughly knew their way about
+in it; but the foxes and cats followed their runways and often hunted
+them on their own ground.
+
+Early one morning Grimalkin went to the 'Jungle.' No dew had fallen
+for many days, and the sun rose up a cloudless sky. Grimalkin glided
+down a rabbit track, and so into a little clearing surrounded by walls
+of thorn and wild rose. Here lay a tree trunk which had been uprooted
+by the storm. Under its roots was a little cavern half hidden by ivy
+and broken branches. Grimalkin jumped upon the trunk, and squatted
+down to watch for rabbits and enjoy the morning sunshine. Presently a
+bough snapped behind him, and he turned his head very slightly. His
+muscles were tense to spring, when a soft voice of infinite
+motherliness thrilled him. 'Purr-r-utchuck!' it said, which in cat
+language means: 'Thy mother loves thee, little love!' Trotting towards
+the tree came Zoe. She was thin and her coat looked rough, but her
+eyes had a tender glow. Grimalkin watched her glide into the lair
+under the ivy, and then he leaped after her. Carefully concealed from
+curious eyes was a little chamber lined with grass bents. On the
+ground squeaked and squirmed a heap of grey and white fur, and
+encircling it proudly with her body lay Zoe. She purred softly to her
+brood, and licked the tiny round heads thrust forward so eagerly for a
+meal. She never noticed Grimalkin until his shadow darkened the
+doorway, and then she sprang up--a very fierce mother--with back
+arched. In the woods motherhood for a time swamps all other feelings;
+and Zoe now looked upon her former lover as she would have done upon
+any other creature who threatened her kittens.
+
+However, Grimalkin had no evil intentions. He thrust his head into the
+nursery and touched Zoe's whiskers; and, although her claws were drawn
+back to strike, she suffered the caress. One of the kittens, mewing
+plaintively, crawled to Grimalkin, and thrust its minute pink nose
+into his side. Grimalkin stood frozen with horror for a moment,
+glaring at his son, then with a hiss of indignation he leaped into the
+bushes and fled. Henceforth he avoided the old fir tree, although he
+often met Zoe elsewhere.
+
+That summer was long remembered in the countryside as 'The year of the
+great drought.' No dew or rain fell, and the whole land leaped and
+quivered in the heat all day long. The pools and brooks dwindled,
+leaving cracked patches of mud to show where they had been. Brooding
+birds upon the nest gaped with thirst, but dared not leave their eggs
+to seek the distant river. For the Fur Folk in Knockdane there was
+only one little trickle of tepid water left; and all day long it was
+crowded with thirsty birds who struggled with one another for room to
+drink and bathe. It was hard work for Zoe in these days, for she had
+to hunt for five besides herself. She grew very thin; but as the
+kittens throve she did not spare herself, for that is the way of
+mothers, human and furred.
+
+One blazing noon she left her family for a little while, and was
+sitting with Grimalkin in a hawthorn some little way from the
+'Jungle.' Their attention was attracted by the thud of footsteps, and
+they saw Paddy Magragh the earthstopper. He had paused to draw his
+pipe from his pocket and light it. The cats watched intently lest he
+should discover them, but he threw away the match and passed on.
+
+By and by Grimalkin looked down the path and saw what looked like a
+row of orange crocus flowers, which grew up in a moment and died down,
+leaving the ground black behind them. The cats came down from the
+tree, and at the first whiff of the burnt grass Zoe's back rose. She
+knew that smell better than did Grimalkin, for she was more
+accustomed to the ways of men, and had sat by the fireside; but there
+the flames had been caged behind iron bars--here in the free woods
+they had it all their own way. Grimalkin growled, and then,
+stealthily, as though he had sighted a rabbit snare, he slipped into
+the bushes and glided away. Zoe stood there longer, for although she
+hated and feared the fire, yet it was less strange to her than to her
+mate.
+
+The flames crept along until they came to a large tuft of grass, as
+dry as tinder. There was a sudden flare and the grass was gone; but
+the topmost tongue licked a bramble bush, and in an instant it was in
+a blaze. At night a fire puts on a certain majesty with which to cloak
+its terrors; but by day it has nothing to redeem its native
+fierceness. The brushwood was parched with the drought and the flames
+roared up the dry stems.
+
+Did some kind angel stoop and whisper a word of warning to Zoe? She
+suddenly turned and ran to the 'Jungle,' which was not very far away.
+The kittens were hungry and begged a meal, but she disregarded them,
+and, picking up the youngest, set off at a steady pace across
+Knockdane. The woods were quite silent but for the song of the birds.
+Close to the nursery an old blackbird was feeding a brood of
+fledglings, and a hedgehog nosed along the path. Above the tree tops a
+faint smoke rose, quivering in the sunshine.
+
+Zoe trotted away with her head up, carrying the kitten very carefully
+lest her teeth should lacerate its tender skin. She crossed Knockdane
+and sought the open country, for she mistrusted every tree and thicket
+since she knew what she had left in the woods behind. She found an
+empty rabbit hole, laid the kitten inside, and cantered back to
+Knockdane; but it was more than half a mile away, and by the time she
+reached it, little white ashes were floating over the 'Jungle' like
+snowflakes, and the fire was singing merrily to itself. Nevertheless a
+wide path separated it from where the kittens lay, and so far the
+danger did not seem so very pressing.
+
+Zoe picked up a second youngster and carried it off. As she set her
+face towards Knockdane for the second time she saw that a thick smoke
+was rolling up and reddening the sun. The country lay still in the
+heat haze. As yet no one seemed to have noticed anything unusual on
+the hill, for the valley was sparsely populated, and most people were
+enjoying a siesta. When Zoe reached the 'Jungle' she saw a frightened
+rabbit scudding away. The fire was raging in the saplings near and
+licking away the brushwood with a fierce hiss. A charred space,
+littered with red embers, lay in a circle of fire which was
+encroaching ever further and further into the wood. The laurels
+crackled as the heat changed them to molten gold and ruby before
+dropping them into the flames. There was no time to be lost. Already
+blazing fragments were dropping from the tree into the dead grass at
+the edge of the 'Jungle,' and the brushwood burned like tinder when
+kindled.
+
+Zoe took up her third kitten, and this time she ran faster than
+before. The old blackbird was croaking to her brood, beseeching them
+to use their wings to escape, but they only gaped foolishly for more
+worms. The hedgehog was waddling through the grass as fast as his
+short legs would permit. Zoe easily overtook and passed him, but the
+kittens were heavy and the day very hot. The sun came through the
+leaves, and cast chequered patterns on the path. The woods were very
+still, but for the rush and crackle of the fire.
+
+For the third time Zoe toiled back up the hill. The air seemed hotter
+and heavier than ever, and smoke hung among the trees. Suddenly she
+came upon the vanguard of the fire. It had leaped the path and was
+creeping into the 'Jungle' with a roar. Alder, fir branch, and briar
+in turn flared up and fell before it, and the yellow flames streamed
+skywards, dissolving into sparks and smoke. Behind lay utter
+desolation. The charred tree-trunks stood up among the surrounding
+blackness, and the leaves which the fire could not reach hung
+blistered from their twigs. The fire was not two hundred yards away
+from the fir tree. It was to be a race--Zoe against the flames; but
+the former had a mile to travel, and a kitten to carry into the
+bargain.
+
+Her eyes smarted from the smoke and she was dizzy with fatigue, but
+she gallantly took up her fourth baby, and ran for its life. She
+caught a glimpse of some men hastening up the hill, but did not heed
+them. She laid her kitten with the rest of the litter, and made the
+best of her way back to Knockdane.
+
+The 'Jungle' was crowned with flames. Everything was thickly peppered
+with ashes and the sun shone luridly through the smoke. For a moment
+Zoe was utterly at a loss--then she limped up the accustomed path
+towards the fir tree. Once or twice she trod on a burning cinder, and
+the heat made her whiskers shrivel; but she kept on bravely for the
+sake of the baby in the pine-tree nursery.
+
+She darted to the nest. There was just half a minute to spare before
+the fire would sweep up to the tree. The earth was burning hot, and
+already the ivy leaves were blistering. She plunged into the hole and
+groped desperately for her treasure. The moments flew by--she could
+not find it. Her eyes were accustomed to see in the gloom, but this
+darkness was impenetrable. Ah! at last she touched the mewing kitten,
+and gripping it turned to fly. Outside she shrank back, for she was
+met by a veritable wall of flame. The fir tree was surrounded by fire,
+for the grass was blazing, and the bushes were kindling in every
+direction. There was only one place through which escape could be
+made--where the burning zone was narrowest. Zoe gripped the kitten
+tighter, laid back her ears, closed her eyes, and leaped. For one
+fierce moment the fire actually licked her body, and then she dropped
+safely on the ashes beyond. Her whiskers were gone, her beautiful
+ruffle had shrivelled away, her coat was black with ashes; but the
+kitten for whom she had dared so much was safe. She crawled wearily
+away, dragging it after her, while the fire leaped and danced round
+the old fir tree.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At sunset, as Grimalkin prowled through the fields at the back of the
+church (for he avoided the woods while that mysterious bright power
+hunted there) he saw Zoe, again carrying a singed kitten. In the hour
+of danger old ties had reasserted themselves. She was going back to
+man, for with all his ignorance he had treated her better than the
+wild had done, and already four of the kittens lay in the Rectory
+hayloft.
+
+She put up her back when she saw Grimalkin, but he made no attempt to
+stop her, and only trotted behind with a puzzled air. They came to the
+gate of the Rectory yard, and Zoe crawled underneath; but Grimalkin
+heard the scorched woods calling to him, and he could not follow, for
+he hated the abodes of men. 'Meaow!' he cried, but Zoe took no notice.
+At that moment a girl came into the yard, and stopped short in
+surprise: 'Why, Zoe, my pet!' she cried joyfully. Zoe, trained in
+caution by weeks of woodland life, climbed into the hayloft. The girl
+knew better than to follow her there, but presently she came back
+bearing a saucer of milk for the parched throat, and laid it down
+outside. Grimalkin turned and crept away.
+
+That night the drought broke, and a thunderstorm burst over Knockdane.
+The rain poured in torrents and doused out the fire completely. But
+for many months there was a wide black clearing where the 'Jungle' had
+been; and a charred log in the middle was all that was left of Zoe's
+nursery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+WHERE THE BATTLE IS TO THE STRONG
+
+
+In March the nights are long and winds are cold; food is scarce, yet
+hunters must live.
+
+Grimalkin passed down the palings at the woodside, and stole on
+noiseless feet among the grass-tufts under the stormy dawn.
+
+Four summers have passed over Grimalkin's head since we saw him last;
+four years of uninterrupted supremacy in the woods. His own kind
+feared him; the lesser Fur Folk fled from him; the gamekeeper hated
+him. He was the patriarch of his race, a Prince among his people. But
+these four years, while raising Grimalkin to the height of his fame,
+had taken their toll. His coat already showed a suspicion of grey
+along the spine and jowl; his eyes were keen as ever, but many kills
+had blunted the mighty claws and teeth; and his whiskers had fallen
+in. Nevertheless the Spring Longing danced as gladsomely in his blood
+as when he had been a kitten.
+
+March mornings are stormy. The wind woke at daybreak and sighed up the
+valley. The trees of Knockdane swept a stately arpeggio in answer as
+the steely south-easter roared louder through the organ pipe of the
+woods, and bent the tasselled larch on which the storm-cock chanted
+to the celandines.
+
+The sunrise was pale and watery, fitful gusts shook the bushes.
+Grimalkin's thoughts ran on rabbits--the rabbits always come out on
+the Long Bank first of all. He squatted under a briar brake, tucked
+his paws away cosily before him, and watched.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A rustle among the brambles, a stir on the dead leaves. Grimalkin's
+muscles stiffened, and his whiskers twitched. He crouched flat, then
+slid forward sinuously, paw after paw. Never yet had he failed in his
+spring on a March rabbit. His eye dilated and his muscles swelled with
+the thought of victory. Then came the rub. The quarry, nervously
+nibbling at the open grass, was outside striking distance. A young cat
+might have risked a spring and failure. Grimalkin was too old a
+hunter, and sat down to wait.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Again the grasses stirred, and green eyes, keen and deadly, were
+framed in the waving stems. The hunter knew them well. A reproduction
+of his own, they belonged to his great-grandson, a worthy whose
+well-groomed face betrayed all feline vices.
+
+The newcomer licked his lips, his face took a smug complacent
+expression. He also scrutinised the rabbit--he also would wait. If
+there should be a battle, well and good--let the strongest win.
+Grimalkin made no sign save that he bared his teeth in a silent snarl
+of concentrated hate; but hot anger boiled within him, for it is one
+of the laws of the Fur Folk, that if one beast hunts the quarry of
+another of the same kind, the latter may kill him if he will. But
+never before had another cat dared to stalk Grimalkin's game, or beard
+him to his face. It was intolerable, and he half turned, and in so
+doing betrayed himself. The rabbit is the wariest of Wood Folk. If he
+were not so he would have died out centuries ago. He sat up with alert
+ears, and lilted suspiciously to a distance. The hunters saw that
+their game had disappointed them, but they scarcely heeded it. They
+watched one another for a minute with slowly undulating tail-tips.
+Then very evenly and softly from the patriarch's throat rose the
+challenge of Clan Cattus: 'mi-ee-awl.' His grandson answered, flinging
+back the cry loudly and defiantly, interlarding it with those insults
+of which a tom-cat is such an unrivalled master.
+
+The heroes circled round one another, and then closed, striking out
+tufts of fur until the ground was sprinkled with them. They buffeted
+one another until they were utterly exhausted, and then drew back to
+recover before renewing the attack. Grimalkin strained every sinew to
+teach this upstart the respect due to his position and years, but--try
+as he would--not a blow went home. Feint, counterfeint, undercut and
+smashing downward stroke, all were parried, and Grimalkin sank down
+breathless after every round with blood trickling from his ears. A new
+sensation assailed him--his limbs seemed numb and feeble. He was
+weary. It was not now revenge for which he sought--he was struggling
+despairingly for the right to live. His blows grew more feeble, and
+foam hung on his jaws. Now was the time for the superiority of young
+blood to tell. Down came the iron paw, armed with the strong curved
+claws, upon the veteran's skull. Grimalkin yelled and leaped back as a
+hot red curtain fell before his sight. Baffled and half stunned, he
+crept away, cowed, into the bramble covert.
+
+The victor sat up and licked his wounds. Henceforth there was a new
+king for the cat-folk in Knockdane.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The day was well begun. Why did the throstle pipe overhead? Why did
+the daffodils dance in the breeze? Why was the Spring Longing so
+insolently apparent in every bud and bough, and why did they flaunt it
+so heartlessly in his face? Could they restore a darkened eye, or
+rejuvenate weakened limbs? Thus might have mused Grimalkin of
+Knockdane, who was king there no more. It had come at last, a cold
+hand which grips man and beast alike, certain and irremediable. _Old
+Age_ was stealing fast behind him. And old age means more to the Fur
+Folk than to human beings. When their strength once declines ever so
+slightly, they must go to the wall to make room for stronger hunters.
+They are the lawful prey of any who can take them. If by any chance
+they escape death by their fellows, nothing remains but Starvation--a
+slower agony.
+
+Grimalkin could not look into the future and see what Fate had in
+store for him, but perhaps he was all the happier for it. Mortified
+and baffled as he was at his defeat, he did not realise that a day
+would come when he must pass by the full-grown buck rabbit for the
+young and sickly, or later on prey on grass-mice which he now
+disdained. But this day was still far off. Loud called the March wind
+overhead. Grimalkin rose, and ceased to try and tear the darkness from
+his blinded eye. He was hungry, and his hunter's skill still remained
+to him. What he lacked in strength and endurance must be compensated
+for by cunning. He crept from his hiding-place, and stole silently
+down the path to his hunting grounds.
+
+So passes Grimalkin from this tale, through the grey trees, into the
+depths of the mysterious woods, where the race is only to the swift
+and the battle to the strong, and about which man can know nothing
+certainly.
+
+
+
+
+THE BIOGRAPHY OF STUBBS THE BADGER
+
+[Illustration: THE BIOGRAPHY OF STUBBS THE BADGER]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE TWILIGHT HUNTERS
+
+
+The spoor was impressed deeply in the muddy ground where a stream ran
+by the path. The broad toes were well defined, and the punctures of
+the great digging claws had cut the clay. 'There's badgers in the auld
+earth again,' said Paddy Magragh, standing up.
+
+It was a mild evening in March, with a grey sky streaked with faint
+reflections of the unseen sunset. Paddy turned to the right, up a
+track used more often by the Fur Folk than by man. There was a shallow
+pit here, and under the brim opened the mouth of a big burrow.
+Generations of persevering diggers had lived and died there, and each
+had added his quota to the mound outside the hole, and excavated yet
+another chamber among the honeycomb of galleries tunnelled into the
+hill. However, for some years, the 'earth' had been empty, and the
+dead leaves had drifted thickly against the entrance. The rabbits had
+dug burrows about the place; and after a hard-pressed fox had taken
+refuge there, two winters before, Magragh himself had built up the
+'set' with stones and earth, so strongly that fox-pads could not open
+it. Now, however, the barricade was scraped away, and leaves and grass
+littered the mound outside. Magragh looked up at the fading sky and
+turned homewards, but after a few steps he returned. Had Fate set him
+in another sphere, he might have been a great naturalist. As it was,
+although he had a profound knowledge of those of the Wild Folk who
+furnished 'shpoort' for himself and his fellow men, of the lesser
+breeds he was almost entirely ignorant. Nevertheless, the spirit of
+the true naturalist slept in him, unsuspected, and to-night, for once
+in a way, it awoke. He would not admit to himself that he desired to
+see the inmates of this burrow without chance of 'shpoort' or
+slaughter, but muttered shamefacedly: 'Shure, I'll watch a bit see
+would the craythurs come out to-night.' Those who spend much time
+alone under the free sky acquire this habit of soliloquy; indeed,
+after a while, each finds himself his own best company.
+
+Paddy Magragh sat down under a tree, and watched the light fade from
+the surrounding bushes. The bats hawked to and fro, and a blackbird
+'chink-chinked' in notes like the dripping of water. A rabbit came out
+of a hole hard by with his scut buttoned down, and slid away to feed,
+so softly that his footsteps never stirred the leaves; but he did not
+see Paddy Magragh, who, in his tattered coat and broken boots, looked
+as shapeless and as knotted as the old stump against which he leaned.
+The woods were quite quiet but for the trickling of the little stream
+near at hand, and even the nibbling of the rabbit in the brambles was
+plainly audible.
+
+When it was so dark that the shrews could only be located by their
+voices as they squabbled in the dead leaves, there came a rustle at
+the 'earth' mouth, and a striped snout was poked out. After the snout
+slid a long grey body--a shadow among the shadows--humped and clumsy,
+yet so silent that not a twig snapped under the heavy pads. Magragh
+sat with his hands clasped over his 'ash-plant.' The badger snuffed
+suspiciously, then waddled off by a little, well-worn path. A minute
+or two afterwards, from the stream, could be heard the sound of water
+lapped down a thirsty throat. Paddy was wise. He sat for another ten
+minutes. The silence grew more tense and the darkness deeper. Then,
+without any warning, a badger, larger than the last, scurried across
+the pit so quickly that Magragh's old eyes had barely caught sight of
+him before he vanished in the shadows.
+
+'A pair o' thim,' said the old man, hobbling homewards.
+
+A week later he waited there again; waited until the woodcock had
+settled down to feed, and the light was almost gone, leaving the pit
+so dark that his eyes saw nothing when his ears caught the rustle of a
+single hunter turning up the hill from the 'earth.'
+
+'There's cubs wid'in,' opined Paddy Magragh.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tunnelled ten yards into the hillside, up a narrow gallery to the
+right, and then down another, dug at right angles to avoid a rock
+proof against even a badger's claws, was the nursery; and here the
+cubs were born at the end of March. If Mother Badger had been wary
+before, she now increased her caution to an unheard-of degree. Even
+the distant shuffle of her mate's footsteps, as he went out to feed,
+was sufficient to rouse her to a rumbling growl. She herself never
+stirred outside the 'earth' until after midnight, and, even then, the
+'wick-wick' of a wakeful throstle set her heart thudding.
+
+It was the middle of April before Mother Badger took her cubs into
+the woods. She chose a starlit night--the badgers love the stars
+better than the moon--and led them to the burrow mouth. They crawled
+up the mound outside, and then flopped down to rest; for their longest
+journey hitherto had been across their nursery, and their short legs
+soon grew weary. Although the alternate tracts of their pied snouts
+were well defined, the black was washed over with chocolate colour;
+otherwise they were exact replicas of their parents.
+
+Mother Badger did not dare to lead them far afield that night. As it
+was, once or twice she took alarm and hustled them underground.
+However, the cubs did not trouble about the limitations of their
+bounds. The sand at the burrow mouth was light and dry, and they
+delightedly thrust their paws into it and scattered it about, just as
+children at the seaside dabble their feet in the water. The biggest
+cub found a rabbit scrape, and, thrusting in his nose, dug lustily.
+Presently one of his sisters came pushing up and they fought
+viciously, rolling over and over to the bottom of the mound, with
+locked claws. This roused Mother Badger, who lay above the 'earth'
+with one eye on her cubs and the other upon the woods. She waddled
+down and cuffed them; then brought them back, and licked and fed them
+tenderly. Long before dawn she took them below ground again; even
+before Father Badger had returned home, grunting, to his solitary
+dormitory.
+
+[Illustration: HOMEWARD BOUND]
+
+The next night, however, they went as far as the Hollow Field. Mother
+went first, and the cubs, their eyes fixed upon her shaggy, bumping
+quarters, followed her closely in single file. Her feet made no sound;
+but now and then one of the little ones, less used to tread where the
+least rustle aroused the whole woodside, snapped a twig. That was
+their first real hunting. Last night by the 'earth' had merely been
+play, but now they learned the science of smells, for a badger relies
+very greatly upon his nose. They learned that, as the night wore on,
+the scent grew stronger or fainter according to the dew-fall and the
+wind and the state of the ground, and to what different smells
+belonged. A strong taint blew aslant the hedge--that was fox. Mother
+Badger sampled it scientifically, and the cubs dutifully followed her
+example. The rabbit trails intersected one another in a labyrinth, but
+the badger has no dealings with grown rabbits, and they passed these
+by. Every tree and herb and bird and beast has its own particular
+odour, and, as there is no directory of scent in the woods but that
+which each of the Fur Folk compiles for himself, the little badgers
+had to learn each separately.
+
+Thus, follow-my-leader-wise, they entered the Hollow Field, and Mother
+Badger sought a likely spot where the babies might receive a first
+lesson in beetle-hunting. She dug up the turf, and grunted for her
+family to turn over the scrapings. He who nosed deepest obtained the
+morsel--a dor-beetle, well-flavoured, and devoured with gusto with the
+condiment of Nature's providing.
+
+Presently, the Mother Badger craned her long neck, and her little eyes
+twinkled. She had winded something else which would afford a very good
+object-lesson, besides supper, for the cubs. Each little one tiptoed
+up and sniffed in turn: it was an unknown smell, but good--decidedly
+good. 'Hunt it!' grunted Mother Badger, as plainly as grunt could
+speak. Listening, they heard needlets of sound, and the ghost of a
+rustle, as though some tiny thing thrust the grass-blades aside. The
+eldest cub went first. He located it, as he thought exactly, and
+snapped gingerly. He caught a mouthful of grass only, and the rest had
+no better fortune. Mother Badger saw that she must assist, or else her
+pupils would go supperless. She thrust in her snout, drew out a mouse,
+and dropped it before them. The cubs rushed in helter-skelter, and
+the eldest presently pushed his way out of the scrimmage with the
+rest of his brothers and sisters tugging and snatching at the mouse
+which dangled from his mouth. He tore it to pieces, growling, and the
+others kept at a safe distance, for he was the biggest and strongest
+of the litter. After this they turned down the field to the pool in
+the middle, and here Mother Badger showed them another game. On the
+bank the meadow-sweet grew rankly, and hearing the familiar
+'plop-plop' of a frog in the dew-soaked herbage, she set the example
+of chasing it. The cubs grew eager, and hunted with little squeaks and
+snorts of excitement. Frog was better than mouse, for it could not run
+from them so silently. Now and then there was a splash as some
+amphibian, more lucky than his fellows, dived through the crowfoots
+into the pond. When this occurred the cubs were puzzled--water was a
+mystery to them--but another frog was soon afoot, and the chase began
+again.
+
+Thus, night by night, they learned field-craft, and gradually grew to
+know the geography of the woods, with every pool and thicket and
+pathway.
+
+At the top of Knockdane there are three or four acres, which are so
+rock-encumbered, and so overgrown with heather and bracken, that an
+occasional broken-topped fir or oak sapling is the only tree which
+will grow there. Here and there a narrow path twists through the fern,
+and the industrious rabbit people, who live among the rocks, keep the
+grass on those spots close and green. Above this, the hill grows
+steeper till it meets a grey crag which drops sheer down from the fir
+wood, whose brow, shaggy with gorse and ling, overhangs the place. The
+Fur Folk all visit this wilderness. The rabbits and squirrels love it,
+because the grass and fir-cones there are good, and the blood-hunters
+follow them thither. There the badgers went one evening at sunset, and
+feasted on the great worms which were tempted out by the coolness of
+the night, and on the pignuts in the clearings. After their surfeit
+the cubs could scarcely waddle among the bracken, for their tight
+little bodies brushed the stems on either side. Under the crag they
+stopped to drink, where the water dripped from the height above; and
+as five badgers guzzling in the mud made much commotion and splashing,
+Mother Badger never heard the thud of approaching feet until they were
+almost on the top of her party. She grunted of danger, imminent and
+serious, and gathered her cubs together. Dinny Purcell had made a
+short-cut through Knockdane, on his way home from a meeting of the
+local branch of the Gaelic League at Whelan's 'public'; and, as the
+proceedings had terminated agreeably with some toasts to the success
+of the League, Dinny felt valiant enough to defy any number of ghosts.
+Mother Badger stood on the other side of the little marsh, and growled
+thunderously; but Dinny did not hear, and stumbling and cursing,
+knee-deep in mud, came on. The cubs glided into the fern, but the old
+badger stood her ground. She had never met her match where strength
+was concerned, therefore she did not trouble to use her teeth, but set
+her snout against the intruder's legs and shoved.
+
+'Holy Mother--it's the divil,' hiccoughed Dinny Purcell, crossing
+himself; and he tried to run faster, but Mother Badger growled and
+thrust again.
+
+'Give over,' muttered Dinny, fuddled with drink, and striking out
+timorously with his stick, he thwacked Mother Badger's shaggy coat,
+and thereby incited her to charge again. Dinny would gladly have taken
+to his heels, but as his feet were stuck fast in the mud it was
+impossible; and sobered by superstitious fears, he remembered his
+match-box, and fumbled for it. Mother Badger was normally placid and
+slow to wrath, but this man's presence so near to her cubs angered
+her. She caught the top of his boot--it was well for Dinny that her
+fangs missed his leg--and bit it. Just then he found his matches, and
+struck one. It was hot--bright--pungent, such as she had never winded
+before. She backed hastily, but as what a badger has seized that will
+he hold as long as there is breath in him, she ripped the boot from
+top to sole. Dinny yelled, and dropping the match, which fell
+sputtering into a puddle, he swung himself on to an adjacent rock and
+tucked up his legs. 'It's the divil, an' he runnin' like a pig,' he
+groaned.
+
+But Mother Badger had no mind to fight for fighting's sake. Had she
+not feared for her cubs, she would have fled at once from a creature
+who could summon that hot, bright mystery at will. She withdrew
+cautiously in her tracks, and one by one her cubs followed her from
+rock or heather tuft where each lay. Once in the darkness, beyond the
+reek of whisky and the dreaded voice of man, they breathed more
+freely; and they bumped along in single file down to the beech and
+bramble woods which lie by the Hollow Field, and which from bud-time
+to leaf-fall are seldom visited by men.
+
+But, from that day to this, Dinny Purcell swears that the devil met
+him that night in Knockdane, in token of which he shows his split
+boot-leather; and for every time of telling, the devil increases so
+much in size and ferocity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Towards the end of May the cubs were weaned, and henceforth they
+hunted less with their parents, and more often alone, or in couples.
+In this litter of four there were two sows and two boars, of which one
+was the little badger who has hitherto been referred to as the 'eldest
+cub,' but because his legs and likewise his snout were short and
+stumpy, even for a badger, he was afterwards known in Knockdane as
+Stubbs. It is he with whom this history deals.
+
+The young ones opened the other galleries of the old 'earth,' and
+slept in dormitories away from the nursery. But in June, when the
+nights were short, and the badgers sometimes went hunting before the
+sun was well set, and stayed out until the dawn had broken over the
+hills, now and then it happened that morning overtook one of the
+family far from home, and, blinded by the early sunshine, he was
+obliged to seek some hide-up for the day.
+
+By August, Stubbs was almost full-grown, and his knowledge of
+field-craft was profound. He could detect a nest of young rabbits
+hidden any distance underground, and once he had located the place, no
+power on earth could hinder him from digging them out. He would work
+all night, dislodging stones and shovelling earth, if at the end there
+was a chance of a meal of rabbits. If, during his task, the
+unfortunate doe-rabbit came home, he paid no attention to her. She
+might stamp as much as she pleased at the stumpy tail protruding from
+her nursery--nothing would turn Stubbs aside from his purpose. He
+could also locate truffles six inches underground--the big knobby ones
+which grow under oak trees, and the little potato-like ones which
+smell so strong, and are found under laurels in Knockdane. Besides
+this, he could wind a man a quarter of a mile away, and he knew every
+'shore' and rock and tree in Knockdane.
+
+The badger's daily round is more monotonous than those of most of the
+Fur Folk. He is too large greatly to fear any other beast, and he is
+so wary that he seldom comes in collision with man. Year in, year out,
+from spring to autumn, autumn to spring, his comings and goings follow
+the set rules of his ancestors. Now and again, however, a badger is
+born to a more stirring career, and such a one was Stubbs.
+
+In September the badgers lived well, and their sides grew sleek and
+round. They dug up the bykes of the orange-bellied bumble-bees,
+regardless of their stings, and guzzled over the sticky sweetness of
+the honeycomb. Later they visited the crab-trees, and spent many a
+blissful hour scrunching the sour pippins, and dropping the pieces
+about the grass, for the badger is an untidy feeder.
+
+At the end of the month the 'earth' was littered down in preparation
+for the winter's Big Sleep. The whole family were still living under
+one roof, so to speak, but as they mostly occupied galleries far
+apart, it was almost more like a hotel. More than half a badger's life
+is spent in sleep--profound, blissful sleep, in a world of great
+silences and deep shadows. In October came a night with frost nip in
+the air, and a damp mist. Stubbs felt the chill in his bones as he
+crept to the entrance of the 'earth'; nevertheless, because he was
+hungry, he went out. Shortly afterwards his brother came up, snuffed
+the wind, stretched himself and yawned--then, because he was sleepy,
+and the night undesirable, he waddled back again and slept the clock
+round. The next night the rest did likewise--why hunt when they were
+not hungry? There are few winter nights in Knockdane that are not
+either cold or wet, and such nights the badgers eschewed. Now and
+again they went out for a few hours, but in the small hours when the
+morning frost set the grass in the meadows crackling with rime, they
+grunted disgustedly and returned to bed.
+
+The whole family--parents and young ones--slept through December
+without ever stirring out, for snow was on the ground most of the
+month; but in January I know not what mysterious influence, creeping
+underground, knocked at the closed doors of the badgers' brains, and
+told them that the frost was gone and the night was warm. Stubbs woke
+first, and groped his way out. The air was mild and damp, and the roar
+of the river was borne to him as, rain-laden, it plunged over the
+weir. The dead leaves were moist and limp, and overhead a foggy moon
+peered through the bare trees. He trotted stiffly down the woods and
+visited his old haunts, but, go where he would, he could find nothing
+to eat but a few sodden mushrooms. An hour later he returned, wet and
+chilled, and lay down in his dormitory to suck his paws meditatively,
+until sleep overtook him again. His head dropped on his forepads, and,
+with a sigh, he fell into a slumber which lasted, with few waking
+hours, until the Spring Longing came to the woods, and roused him with
+the rest of the Fur Folk.
+
+Spring nights are stormy with driving rain-showers, but under the
+trees the Fur Folk are sheltered from the blustering winds, and come
+and go from dusk to dawn; for the day on which the first throstle
+sings is the beginning of the new year in the woods.
+
+The badgers came out with the rest, but they were lean with long
+fasting, and their toes were tender with much drowsy sucking. Stubbs
+went through the elder trees, whose buds were growing big and purple,
+and he dug up and ate the wild arum tubers. They were very bitter and
+burning to taste, but a badger's palate is not a delicate one, and he
+devoured them greedily. Besides, there was nothing else left to eat in
+the woods, for, during the recent famine time, they had been patrolled
+up and down by bird and beast.
+
+In March, Mother Badger had another litter of cubs in the old nursery,
+but there were fewer grown badgers in the 'earth' at this time, for
+the younger boar cub of the previous season had been 'stopped' out one
+February night, and had never come home again--perhaps the Carkenny
+hounds knew why. Stubbs lived a bachelor life by himself at one end of
+the 'earth.' Even now he was scarcely thoroughly awake after his long
+sleep, and on any cold or wet night he lay abed. By April, however, he
+felt better, and put on flesh; and it was then that he finally broke
+with his family. One night he went round by the Heronry where grew
+Father Badger's 'Claw-Clapping' tree, a young wych-elm. Father Badger
+used to resort thither to polish his long digging claws and to scratch
+himself, and his feet had patted down a little track round the roots.
+Stubbs went up to the sapling, and began, with great satisfaction, to
+chisel off strips of bark, for he was proud of his claws. He grunted
+contentedly, and rubbed his shaggy sides up and down--and, the next
+minute, heavy as he was, he was sent flying head over heels; for
+Father Badger had come along, and was wroth to find his place usurped.
+For the first time he realised that, during the Big Sleep, the cub had
+become a full-grown badger almost as strong as himself. Therefore he
+challenged; and it was a sign that Stubbs had arrived at adult badger
+estate that he accepted his father's challenge. They ran at one
+another, growling ferociously, but they did not use their teeth, only
+thrust with their snouts; for it is the law of the Fur Folk that two
+of a kind shall not fight to the death, and it is a law that is not
+often broken. However, Father Badger was the older and the heavier,
+and, although a year later Stubbs would have been fully his match, he
+drove his son away. After that Stubbs did not return to the 'earth'
+among the elder trees, but led a nomadic life in the woods for some
+weeks, sleeping in a dry drain or old rabbit-hole, and at night
+wandering miles abroad over the countryside. In those days there was a
+drouth in Knockdane, and the streams dried up. It was serious for the
+badger people, for they were often obliged to search very far afield
+for water. Sometimes a shower fell, but never enough to fill the
+springs. At such times the badgers resorted to a hollow in a path,
+along which horses had passed in winter when the mud was deep. Now,
+after a shower, each hoof-mark was a clay goblet of water, and the
+badgers' thirsty red tongues used to lick out the contents gratefully.
+
+One close night in May, Stubbs went down to the Great White House,
+where the men live. The Great White House stands on a little oasis of
+open grass, but the woods come up close round, and the rabbits
+trespass under the very windows. In the field round, the men have
+planted roots which are new to badger palates, and some of them are
+very good. Stubbs sampled them all. Some were narcissus and hyacinth,
+evil-tasting and slimy, and he threw them aside. Others, the crocus
+and tulip, were better; but best of all were the snowdrops, which were
+sweet and nutty, and of these Stubbs ate all he could find. At last he
+ventured quite close to the walls of the house. Faint notes of music
+beat from one of the windows, and these made Stubbs raise his head
+suspiciously. All at once it seemed that eyes were watching him from
+the shadow to his leeward side--mysterious eyes, eager yet timid. He
+grunted, and dug up another bulb, but the sensation of being watched
+grew stronger. Instinctively he knew that it was not an enemy who
+spied upon him thus--rather the contrary. He could neither see, hear,
+nor wind anything unusual, but that mysterious sense which is perhaps
+the parent, not the outcome, of the other senses, told him that the
+watcher was hidden under the oak tree to his right, and that he would
+do well to pursue it thither. Suddenly the shutters of a window were
+thrown open, and a golden beam of light was flung across the darkness.
+It lit up the rough bark of the oak tree on the lawn, and at the foot
+of the latter, blinking resentfully in the light, Stubbs saw the owner
+of the watching eyes. In a second or two the light was shut off, and
+the music grew muffled again; but Stubbs thought no more of bulbs, for
+he heard the patter of feet which scampered back to the wood, and gave
+chase.
+
+Perhaps she did not run very fast, at all events he soon came up with
+her. In size she was less than himself, but judged by badger standards
+her charms were surpassing. Also she did not repulse him, for she came
+from the Ballinakill 'earth' outside Knockdane, and had dwelt mateless
+for many days.
+
+So Stubbs and Grunter hunted together that night; that is, Grunter set
+the pace and chose the paths, and Stubbs followed. They went by the
+main badger path, and crossed the lane which runs across Knockdane,
+slithering down a five-foot drop which is scored in every direction by
+deep claw-prints, and entered the Big Meadow together. The cattle
+slept in the dewy grass, and, stealing in among them, the badgers
+hunted every inch of ground for beetles. Every now and then a
+'bum-clock' boomed overhead, and then fell 'splotch' to earth. Small
+chance had it when the badgers' noses probed for it in the grass: but
+Grunter took the lion's share, for in the wood there is a law that,
+during the days of courtship, the female may take what she will and
+her mate shall not gainsay her.
+
+Henceforward they hunted together night after night. Sometimes they
+sought for partridges' eggs--eggs are a badger tit-bit, when he can
+find them, which is not often--and these went down, shell and all,
+'crunch-squolch.' Sometimes they beat a way through the standing
+meadow grass, leaving a track behind which two days' sun would not
+eradicate, or searched for wasps' nests in the hedge-banks. These were
+honeymoon nights, and, sweet though they were, they could not last for
+ever. It was the weather which first stimulated the pair to find a
+permanent 'set.' It was showery, with now a cool wet evening which
+made the badgers think of the comfort of a deep burrow in preference
+to a makeshift rabbit-hole or drain; and then again came a hot starlit
+night, a hunter's night, when Stubbs filed his claws on a tree-trunk
+because of the wasted digger's energy within him.
+
+On the second such night they went to Larch Hill. The soil there is
+dry and sandy, and it is a pleasant place--cool in summer and warm in
+winter--and, wherever the wind stirs, the supple larches bend before
+it, and nod and whisper mysteriously among themselves. Here there was
+an empty rabbit burrow, and Stubbs poked in his nose, and snuffled.
+Grunter shouldered him aside and crawled in until only her shaggy
+hind-quarters appeared. Then she began to dig, and a continuous shower
+of sand spurted out between her hind-legs. When the heap bid fair to
+block her in altogether, she backed awkwardly, shovelling it out as
+she came. This was Stubbs' chance. He lumbered into the cavity, and
+scraped likewise until his coat was full of dust. Grunter tried to
+press in after him, but a well-directed kick sent her sprawling upon
+her broad back, and she was obliged to wait outside until her mate was
+tired. So they worked alternately, until a most respectable tunnel had
+been driven under the larch trees.
+
+Meanwhile, however, the herons flew in from the bogs, full cropped
+after the night's fishing, and the morning wind was heavy with the
+scent of elder flowers. The caverns of shadow around began to resolve
+themselves into cool green arcades, and the woodcock croaked during
+their aerial rompings overhead. The larks sang up on the hill, and the
+wood birds answered with a blast of song. The badgers were tired and
+dusty and sleepy. Grunter crept into the half-completed 'earth'; and
+Stubbs, after pausing to lick his sore pads, followed her. They lay
+down with grunts of content, snout to snout, stomachs upwards, and in
+two minutes were snoring comfortably. That was their house-warming.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+BORRIGAN'S BAITING
+
+
+'Get out, ye baste!' growled Marky Borrigan, shaking the sack he
+carried over the mouth of a barrel. There was a stifled grunt, a
+struggle, and a grey bundle fell into the cask with a thud.
+
+'Shure, we have him all safe,' said Borrigan, with a grin.
+
+'Begob, that was a good night's work,' said Micksey Bolger, henchman
+and confederate of the said Mark. 'Where had ye him cot?'
+
+''Twas over in Knockdane. I was there at two o'clock this morning and
+up at the "earth." I had the sack wid a bit o' cord run round the
+mouth, an' I put it down the hole wid just the mouth set open, an' the
+twine fast to a three-thrunk. I sent the dog huntin' down the wood,
+and by and by I heard this felly cantherin' up as it might be a pig.
+He stopped just fernent me, and bedam, he cut a look on me as wicked
+as a Christian, an' I t'rew the stick at him an' druve him into the
+sack in the hole. But, indade, whin I come to pick it up he was
+fightin' inside like the divil an' all his childher, and a terrible
+job I had to git him here, six mile in the ass-cair.'
+
+'He's a gran' big felly,' said Bolger, peering into the cask. 'I'm
+told Andy Grace'll bring his tarrier, an' there are two boys from
+Ballyoughter wid a dog that won the coorsin' there at the New Year,
+and two three more. This chap is fresh an' in fine condition. Bedam,
+he'll put up a great fight this evening!'
+
+'Put him, barrel an' all, into the ould barn,' said Borrigan. 'The
+flure there is concrate, an' he'll not get away on us.'
+
+They carried the barrel into the barn, and went away, and the yard was
+left quiet.
+
+All Stubbs' preconceived notions of life had been rudely shaken, when
+he had darted into his burrow, only to find it changed into a
+treacherous cul-de-sac; and they had been still more overset when he
+found himself thus unceremoniously imprisoned in the barrel. At first
+he was bewildered into quietude, but as, in spite of his stolid ways,
+a badger is as plucky a beast as hunts the woods, he soon began to
+revolve plans of escape. When all had been quiet for an hour and a
+half (a badger's wits are like his legs, slow but serviceable), Stubbs
+stood up and upset the barrel. The barn was lighted by a single
+loophole, and was quite empty. The floor was of concrete and
+undiggable, but the walls were plaster, and Stubbs' claws--the
+strongest in the woods--stripped them bare quickly. Alas! underneath
+were bricks, bricks--nothing but bricks: not a chink or cranny to give
+purchase to his claws. In fear and trembling he hid in the cask again,
+where the mild light of the summer morning could not filter; and
+there, ostrich-like, he believed himself safe.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That day was a holiday, and therefore it was arranged that, in the
+afternoon, the cur dogs of the neighbourhood should have an
+opportunity of trying their mettle against Stubbs' formidable teeth
+and claws. It was very hot, and the badger, accustomed to the fresh
+mildness of the hours of darkness and the cool of the burrows, gasped
+in the stuffy barn. There had been a pan of water in the place, but in
+his first terrified scamper he had upset this, and it had not been
+refilled. He panted, and watched a dusty streak of sunlight creep from
+west to east along the wall. Every time that he heard a louder voice
+or step outside, he fled into the barrel; for hitherto he had known
+nothing but the silence and shadows of the woods at night, and noise
+and light were both terrible to him.
+
+At last he heard footsteps clatter up to the barn. The door was flung
+open, and a flood of sunlight poured in.
+
+'All right! he's in the tub,' said Borrigan, looking inside. Stubbs
+felt himself lifted up and carried out. There was much clamour of
+voices and shuffling of feet.
+
+'Take two to one on Grace's tarrier.' ... 'Not weight enough. Shure,
+none o' them dogs could pull him down.' ... 'A shilling on Comerford's
+sheep-dog!' and so on.
+
+The barrel was turned upon its side, and Stubbs, half blinded by the
+glare, and wholly terrified, saw many men peering at him. The cluster
+of grinning faces all seemed to be part of one awful monster; and he
+slunk back, growling, with bared teeth.
+
+'Begob, he'll put up a fight,' said Micksey Bolger. 'Let the dogs come
+at him wan be wan, at first.'
+
+The first was a medium-sized dog, with prick ears, and a woolly yellow
+coat. He evinced a decided desire to fly at the throats of the rest of
+his kind, but this being checked, he advanced truculently to the
+barrel, with his scruff standing up. Some one kicked the tub and
+shouted: 'Git up, ye divil'; and there was a chorus of yells from the
+bystanders. Stubbs bundled out in a hurry, and at the same moment the
+dog flew at his throat. The unprovoked assault restored his wits to
+the badger. At any rate here was a definite enemy, who fought, not
+with sacking and rope, but by recognised methods. He struck out,
+scoring his assailant's shoulder, and then backed hastily into the
+barrel, until only his striped snout could be seen. A badger realises
+that his weakness lies in his lack of agility, and by preference he
+fights with his back to a tree, that he may not be taken in the rear.
+Three times the dog charged the barrel; and each time, strong and
+vigilant, the badger drove him back, amid the shouts of the men and
+the yells of the surrounding dogs. For the fourth time the dog--the
+blood trickling down his muzzle--rushed in. His temper was up, he was
+utterly reckless, and he left his shoulder unguarded. Like lightning
+Stubbs' claws fell--and under that stroke the dog's ribs were laid
+bare. His owner came forward and carried him out of the ring, and the
+next dog was brought out.
+
+Of the fight which Stubbs fought for the next hour I shall say little
+more, for it is neither good to read about nor to write of. It will be
+sufficient to say that of the five dogs which at last were set upon
+him at once, four bear scars to this day, and the fifth never moved
+again. Although Stubbs still crouched victoriously in the barrel, he
+had sustained three or four wounds. His eyes were red, for he was very
+angry, and he growled continuously; but he was very tired. However,
+there was no dog left to match him.
+
+The men stood round undecidedly, when suddenly a voice in the group
+said: 'Shure, ye should set Kinchella's dog agin him!'
+
+'Me dog's too good for this sort of job,' returned Kinchella. But his
+voice was none of the steadiest, for, in addition to the farm and a
+flourishing poaching business, Borrigan showed the match-box in the
+window.[4]
+
+[4] In some parts of Ireland a box of matches in a cottage window is a
+secret sign that the place is a 'shebeen,' or house where drink is
+distilled, or sold without a licence.
+
+'Ah, now, what hurt to him,' said Mark in honeyed tones, for he was in
+no hurry for his customers to depart. 'Shure, he is twice the size o'
+that little baste there, and he'd have him pulled down aisy.'
+
+'Pull him down, is it?' broke in another. 'Begob, that badger would
+skkin anny dog between this an' the say, let alone that bit of a
+sheep-dog o' Kinchella's.'
+
+'He'd pull him down fast enough,' retorted Kinchella sharply, 'but
+I've no mind to have him kilt on me, an' that lad's claws cut like a
+mower!'
+
+'Bring him, an' let us see it!' shouted another. 'Didn't me little
+tarrier ate the face off him lasht week, an' him runnin' from him like
+a rabbit.'
+
+Kinchella turned round scowling. 'Bedam, but I'll fetch him,' he said
+thickly; 'an' whin he has this baste aten, ye'll alther ye singin'.'
+And he strode heavily away.
+
+Now James Kinchella's dog, Moss, was well known. He was a big grey
+sheep-dog with a wall eye; and although he counted a collie among his
+immediate ancestors, the rest of his pedigree was buried in oblivion.
+However, he was reckoned the best cattle dog in the country; and
+besides, had the name for killing a dog (let alone a fox) in half the
+time taken by his peers. He was the apple of his master's eye, and in
+a cooler moment Kinchella would sooner have tackled the badger
+himself, bare handed; but as it was, he presently reappeared with the
+dog in a leash.
+
+Stubbs was exhausted, for, besides the strain of his imprisonment, he
+had been fighting for his life for more than an hour; nevertheless,
+when some one kicked the barrel and shouted at him, he prepared for
+battle again. But it was a hot evening, and the dog was not inclined
+to fight. He sat down and yawned. To his master's orders he merely
+whined apologetically and wagged his tail. 'More power to ye,' shouted
+Grace sarcastically. Kinchella had been drinking, and his eyes were
+hot and angry. He dealt his dog an unaccustomed kick, and urged him
+savagely towards the barrel. Moss rose, hurt and puzzled; then
+catching sight of Stubbs, he instantly associated him with the
+outrage, and flew at his throat. The badger snapped back again, and
+they grappled together. In many respects they were evenly matched, for
+although the dog was the larger and more active of the two, the badger
+was heavy, and furthermore was protected by the barrel. However, Moss
+was too clever to be rash. He knew the power of Stubbs' paw, so he
+circled round just out of reach, endeavouring to tempt his opponent
+into the open that he might take him in the flank. But the badger was
+also very wary. He knew the strength of his position, and refused to
+budge. These feinting tactics went on for some minutes, and then the
+men began to jeer: 'He should have him cot by now' ... 'Indeed, he is
+a great lad on his pins' ... 'Not so handy wid his teeth'....
+
+'Damn it,' shouted Kinchella, 'what chance has the dog wid ye dirthy
+barrels?' And striding forward, in his drunken rage he tipped up the
+cask, and tumbled the badger into the open yard, just as the dog
+rushed in.
+
+They met in a smother of dust, and whirled round. Now and then white
+fangs snapped, and once--twice the great claws of the badger fell and
+rose again, stained crimson. It was a fight to the death, and no man
+there dared interfere; not even James Kinchella, who looked on, half
+sobered by the result of what he had done. Gradually the dust cleared,
+and the combatants, locked together, heaved this way and that in their
+struggle. The dog had seized the badger behind the left ear and
+shoulder, and again and again in his frenzy he almost lifted his
+antagonist from the ground; but the latter had a lower hold, and
+slowly and surely he was seeking his way to his enemy's throat. The
+dog felt the relentless fangs closing more and more tightly, and he
+fought madly for breath; but however torn, battered, beaten a badger
+may be, he never quits his hold, even in death. Gradually his teeth
+met ... the dog's struggles grew weaker ... his head lolled back.
+
+'Pull off your divil, Borrigan!' yelled Kinchella, breaking into the
+ring; but he was powerless to loosen Stubbs' jaws--those terrible jaws
+that are designed for such work as this.
+
+'Shure, he has him kilt!' said Bolger.
+
+It was many minutes before the two could be separated, for the badger
+clung to his dying adversary with a tenacity which defied them all.
+Then the dog lay limp and still, and Stubbs himself was in little
+better plight.
+
+James Kinchella, completely sobered, picked up the body of his dog and
+walked in silence to the gate. The men made way for him to pass, and
+there were no more jeers nor laughter. 'Ye should put a bullet into
+that felly's head, Borrigan,' growled the owner of the other dead dog.
+
+But Borrigan knew that the publican at Rathmore would pay well for the
+loan of the badger, and, without heeding the openly expressed anger of
+the men, he drove Stubbs back to the barn, and locked the door.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Some hours later the last drunken shouts had died away, and the yard
+was quiet once more. Stubbs had been hiding in a corner under a wisp
+of straw, but now that the daylight--the hateful daylight--and the
+noise were gone, he ventured to creep out. He was very tired, and his
+wounds were stiff and sore; nevertheless he was determined to escape.
+He shuffled round the place, testing every brick in the walls.
+Presently one pale moon-beam filtered through the keyhole. The moon
+was rising just as he had seen her rise night after night, behind the
+larches in front of the badger earth, miles away in Knockdane. There
+was only one crack, and that a very little one; nevertheless he
+worked his claws into the interstice and dug. Some minutes' hard
+labour, and then the loosened brick fell out. Inside, the mortar had
+crumbled a little, and broke away in cakes; nevertheless the bricks
+were sound, and now and then one jammed obliquely across the opening,
+and it gave him much trouble to dislodge it. At the end of two hours
+he had made quite a creditable breach in the masonry; but the wall was
+far more strongly built than that of most Irish barns, and he seemed
+as far as ever from the fresh air. Time after time he drew back
+panting, his tongue dry with dust; but nothing in the woods is stouter
+than a badger's claws except a badger's heart, and he always fell to
+work again. By and by he came to a place where the bricks had broken,
+and he tore them away more easily, scraping them out behind him with
+his sturdy hind-legs. Once a shrewd kick sent one flying across the
+barn with a clatter, and Stubbs scurried into the straw, in terror
+lest the men should be upon him again; but luckily Borrigan slept
+soundly, and never dreamed of how his captive was employing the night.
+
+The moonlight began to fade, and the breeze which heralds the dawn
+sighed around the farm. Stubbs knew instinctively that morning was
+not far away, and that were he not free by then his chances of escape
+would be poor indeed. But surely a fresher draught blew through the
+stones? He stuck in his claws and scraped again, and five minutes
+later a brick fell--not inside the barn, but outwards with a thud into
+the field behind. He had made an opening at last. It was child's play
+to enlarge the hole that his head might enter; and where a badger's
+head and shoulders can go the rest of him can follow. He wormed his
+way between the bricks, and tumbled head over heels into the nettle
+bed below the wall.
+
+No one saw him canter across the fields. The grass was soaked with
+dew, and the moon, red and luminous in the haze, looked at him like a
+friendly eye. He pattered along at his best pace, for the east was
+growing bright, and he feared lest daylight should find him in the
+open. He knew the country immediately round Knockdane as he knew the
+passage of his own burrow, but these fields were strange to him.
+However, he picked his way with that unerring instinct which is the
+peculiar heritage of the Wild Folk, and of men who live as the Wild
+Folk live. He turned northwards, and, fording the trout stream where
+he paused to drink deeply and cool his sore feet, entered the
+low-lying fields which lie between Coolgraney and Knockdane. The
+grass was all but hidden under a blue blur of scabious, and the
+cobwebs in the hedges were elaborately studded with dew-drops. In some
+places the corn was already ripening, and the sparrows harvested there
+before the farmer was astir. A kestrel patrolled the fields for
+breakfast, and a hare lilted back to her form. Lazy pigeons flapped
+over the barley fields, and the rabbits kicked up their scuts and
+bolted into the hedges as the badger trudged past.
+
+As he climbed the long slopes at the back of Knockdane, the early
+beams of the August sunrise shot over the hill. A cock-pheasant,
+gobbling blackberries, ran away at his approach, and boomed, crowing,
+over the hedge. Something must indeed be amiss that the badger was
+astir after sunrise. Stubbs had never seen the sun so high in all his
+life, and to his eyes the whole world was bathed in perplexing
+glare--green, blue, and golden. He climbed painfully over the boundary
+wall and into the grateful shadows of the wood, where the mists, as
+though entangled in the tree-trunks, were long in lifting.
+
+He turned down the well-known track, and presently, like the gates of
+a city of refuge, the mouth of the 'earth' opened before him. Not a
+leaf stirred, but scent lay long on the warm air, and his nose told
+him that Grunter was down there before him. He slid underground, and
+limped through the comfortable darkness to the dormitory. There she
+slept with her limbs extended awkwardly. She did not awaken; and
+Stubbs, flinging himself down with his head between her fore-paws,
+closed his eyes with a sigh of content. Two minutes later he was
+completely oblivious to light or darkness, man or beast, as he sank
+into a blessed sleep which bade fair to last far into the succeeding
+night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE LARCH HILL 'EARTH'
+
+
+On the sunny side of the wood where the larches spindle up tall and
+thin, each trying to outstrip the rest in the race for free air and
+sunshine, is the 'earth' which Stubbs and Grunter dug, as has been
+already related. It had originally been an old rabbit burrow, but no
+rabbits had used it for many years, although it was well drained,
+warm, and dry. It consisted of one long main tunnel, with other side
+chambers communicating with it, and of a smaller gallery running
+parallel to the first. The 'earth' had only one main entrance,
+although there was a rabbit-hole some distance off which opened into
+the upper of the two principal galleries; but its roof was so low that
+a badger could hardly have crept along it.
+
+As a spider sits in the centre of his web, so the badgers lay in the
+middle hall of their abode. Long, grey and sprawling, they snored
+noisily in their sleep like pigs, with their pied snouts nestled
+together in the stuffy darkness. At moonrise, however, Grunter woke,
+punctual as an alarum clock. She rose from the warm bed of moss, and
+stretched herself so vigorously that she woke her lord, who smote his
+head against the roof and growled. She glided past him down the
+passage, and came to the main entrance, where the fresh night air blew
+in. Grunter was hungry. The last two nights it had rained, and the
+badgers had lain a-bed, but to-night was fine and mild again. She
+thrust her long snout right and left, and sampled all the strong damp
+odours of the night before she ventured to trust herself to the woods;
+but all was still, and she pattered away. Five minutes later Stubbs
+stole out. By that mysterious telepathy which is the secret of the Fur
+Folk, he knew whither she had gone, and followed her down the main
+highroad of the badgers of Knockdane, under the wet bushes to the
+fields by the river bank.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Greybrush came along about two hours later, and snuffed thoughtfully
+at the hole. Greybrush was a Ballymore fox. He had been born in a
+hedgerow during the spring, and now that autumn was coming on, he
+sought winter quarters in Knockdane. There were certainly many
+desirable points about this 'set.' He sat down and sucked his pads,
+for they were wet with dew, shook his brush plumy again, and
+meditated. The upshot of his meditations was that he presently entered
+the 'earth.'
+
+Before the autumn sun had struggled through the mist, the badgers came
+home, grunting with comfort begotten of a raided bees' byke and
+truffles. But when Stubbs poked his snout into the burrow he drew it
+out again smartly, and his grunt said plainly and indignantly: 'Fox!'
+Then more cautiously they proceeded to investigate. Stubbs crept in
+first, and Grunter followed exactly two feet behind, in approved
+badger fashion. The passage wound downwards, and the air inside being
+hot and still, the scent was very strong. Suddenly the silence was
+broken by a low snarl--the snarl of a full-fed fox awakened from his
+sleep. Stubbs backed precipitately, for the sound was just under his
+paws, and in so doing collided with his mate. For a few seconds there
+was a scrimmage as they jammed shoulder to shoulder in the narrow
+passage. Then Stubbs struggled free, and they fled to discuss the
+situation from a safe distance. A fox is no match for a badger in open
+fight, but in this case the advantage of position decidedly lay with
+the intruder. As they deliberated, the ringing snarl sounded again.
+That settled it. Sleep is a necessity to a badger, and it was already
+long past bed-time. Stubbs was wet, full-fed, drowsy, and in no
+fighting trim. They retired to the draughty main tunnel, and slept
+there on the bare ground.
+
+The next evening the fox went out hunting, and when the badgers woke
+and gingerly investigated the dormitory, they found it empty. They
+immediately took possession again, and sniffing fastidiously, dragged
+out the deep comfortable bedding which they had prepared against the
+winter; for Stubbs hates anything which a fox has tainted.
+
+On his return Greybrush found the passage littered with moss and
+leaves, while porcine snoring resounded throughout the earth. The fox
+was too cunning to assail the badgers in their lair. He dug a hollow
+in the rabbit burrow and slept there, for he was not particular, and
+only desired some place to protect him from the weather; but he had no
+intention of making an 'earth' for himself if he could find one
+already made.
+
+But it certainly was annoying for the badgers, for Greybrush's ideas
+of cleanliness did not coincide with theirs. To find a rabbit's head
+or other refuse lying about, distressed them terribly, and night after
+night Stubbs delayed his hunting that he might scavenge the gallery
+where the fox slept. It is also one of the laws of the badger code
+that the nest shall be spring-cleaned twice a year: in March before
+the cubs are born, and in September, in preparation for the winter's
+sleep. The last-named clearance had only just been effected, and the
+dormitory was in apple-pie order before the fox's intrusion. However,
+the badger is nothing if not persevering, and Stubbs and Grunter
+decided to make one last effort to oust the invader. They entered the
+other gallery one night, prepared to turn their unwelcome lodger out
+of doors; but the fox had opened up the ancient rabbit burrow to serve
+as his back door in case of emergency, and when the indignant badgers
+arrived, they found him 'not at home.' They congratulated themselves
+on having ousted him so easily, and began to refurnish their chamber.
+There happened to be a spell of warm dry weather just then, and the
+fox lay out in the woods without once returning to Larch Hill, so that
+they met with no hindrance. There is a clearing about two hundred
+yards from the mouth of the 'earth,' overgrown with dead grass. Here
+the badgers repaired for their harvesting. They tore up quantities of
+dry grass and moss, and twisted them into long wisps deftly enough. By
+the time Stubbs had made a selection of what he considered the finest
+and driest bedding, the clearing looked as though a herd of pigs had
+been rooting there. The path to the 'earth' was littered with balls of
+grass and moss. Several times Grunter started home with a heavy load,
+but by the time she had reached the burrow she had dropped all but
+one little wisp, which, however, she carried underground, and
+deposited with as much care as if she had housed the whole collection.
+At this rate the badgers' progress was naturally slow, and it was
+nearly a week before all was arranged to their satisfaction.
+
+Alas! the first wet night found the evicted lodger back in his former
+quarters, and the badgers, seriously perturbed, prepared to give
+battle. They found the smaller gallery empty, but a snarl from the
+passage beyond told them where the intruder had ensconced himself, and
+they had perforce to retire baffled. This happened not once but many
+times. Stubbs never came to close grips with his enemy; the fox was
+too clever to be caught napping, and at the sound of shuffling pads in
+the gallery, he used to back hastily into the old rabbit burrow, which
+was too small for the badger's comfort.
+
+So matters dragged on for more than a month, and then the hounds came
+to Knockdane, and precipitated the crisis.
+
+One night the fox went out betimes, but it was damp and raw, and the
+badgers slept longer than usual, for their winter slothfulness was
+creeping over them. The weather also accounted for the fact that Paddy
+Magragh, the earthstopper, went his rounds before moonrise that he
+might return the sooner to his warm cabin. It was only eight o'clock
+when he came by the Larch Hill earth, and examined the marks outside.
+He saw Stubbs' broad spoor (Stubbs' spoor was a spoor to be wondered
+at--two and a half inches in width), and he chuckled, for he had heard
+of Borrigan's 'baitin'' and its sequel. Then he set to work with such
+right good-will that when Grunter wished to go out, an hour later, she
+found a firm barricade of earth and branches piled against the
+burrow's mouth. Grunter was very wary. The hated taint of man hung
+about the place, mingled with the smell of wet earth. What might not
+be lurking outside? She crept back to the entrance to the fox's
+quarters, and picked her way delicately to Greybrush's back door,
+which was so small that it had even escaped the keen eye of Paddy
+Magragh. Then she buttoned down her stumpy tail, and waddled off
+truffle-hunting.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The morning was grey and misty, with a cold nip in the air. Scent lay
+strong in covert--every rabbit which hopped across the path left a
+trail which lingered on the wet leaves. The tits aloft in the bare
+branches chatted together in little splinters of song, and the
+woodpigeons squabbled over clusters of unripe ivy berries. It was as
+though the day was reluctant to come; and at noon, save for a pale
+sun spot in the mist overhead, it was as still and damp as at
+daybreak.
+
+The jays, scolding in the Fir Plantation at the top of the wood, saw
+Greybrush running hard from Carigaboola with seven couple of hounds
+behind him. His tongue was out and his brush was down, and he thought
+gratefully of the 'earth' on Larch Hill as he tore through the
+brambles, and stubbed his nose against tree-roots, as fast as
+his stiff legs would carry him. All the chaffinches cried:
+'Spink--spink--see the fox! 'ware fox!' but as the hounds did not
+understand finch language it did not matter much. He dived in through
+his back door just as the foremost hound burst out of the covert. The
+latter marked the place, and bayed there, with his comrades round him,
+until the men rode up. The huntsman crashed through the bushes and
+looked at the hole, and then he ordered a terrier to be brought and
+put in, that it might bolt the fox. But Paddy Magragh came down the
+path, and although he knew that he ought to have found and stopped
+this hole, yet his love of the hunt was greater than his pride in his
+woodcraft, and he said: 'Bedam, Captain, if ye put a terrier down
+there ye'll niver see the tail of him again. This burra' goes into the
+"earth" below, and there's badgers in it. Shure, they'd ate him.'
+
+But the master, who was young and very foolish, said: 'This is too far
+away to join the big "earth."'
+
+'Them badgers would dig down to hell itself,' said Magragh. But the
+master would have none of it, and called again for a dog.
+
+Now Rip, the kennel terrier of the Carkenny pack, was as game and eke
+as disreputable a little cur as ever ran with hounds. His rough coat
+was pepper and salt, and his right ear was pricked, but the left had
+drooped down ever since it had been torn in a great fight which he had
+with an old dog-fox in Kiltorkan rocks. But he was a bold little
+terrier and went straight into the 'earth' after Greybrush.
+
+Stubbs was awakened by a smell of fox. Smells do not awaken human
+beings as a rule, but a badger's nose is exquisite, and is always
+alert, even when its owner is asleep. Since the fox had come to the
+'earth' this was not an uncommon occurrence; as a rule Stubbs growled
+in his dreams and lay still, but to-day his ear caught the sound of
+scuffling close at hand, and he stood up. The burrow was pitch dark,
+and the narrow passages carried sound like a telephone, but overhead
+Stubbs heard--or rather felt--mysterious thuds. Grunter, quick to take
+alarm, cowered down at the back of the chamber with the moss heaped
+over her back, but the hair along Stubbs' spine rose, and he went out
+to investigate. Now, as we have said, the Larch Hill 'earth' consists
+of two main tunnels connected by a side passage. As Stubbs listened he
+heard something moving along the other gallery, and knew that the fox
+had bolted home in a hurry. Suddenly he whisked round. He was standing
+at the spot where the passages crossed, and something had glided
+behind him into his dormitory. He growled, and waddled back, for he
+guessed what it was. Greybrush was thoroughly frightened, and not
+daring to lie up in his own quarters, he had sought refuge in those of
+the badgers. Stubbs began a systematic search of the chamber. It was
+not large, but it was pitch dark, and so close that his nose could not
+guide him. Halfway round he bumped into Grunter, who had also taken
+the alarm, and for a minute or two there was a wild scuffle before
+they could establish one another's identity. Greybrush, too terrified
+to move, lay still in the middle, which was perhaps the best thing he
+could have done, for the two badgers groped round the walls and thus
+missed him.
+
+But presently another smell was wafted down the gallery. Stubbs' nose
+disentangled it from the scent of fox and damp earth around; and then
+his little pig's-eyes grew red and angry, for he had not forgotten the
+smell of dog which he had learned in Borrigan's yard that summer. The
+terrier was groping his way awkwardly, for the dust in his nose made
+him sneeze, and his eyes were as yet scarcely used to the darkness.
+However, when he discovered which way the fox had gone he gave an
+excited yelp, and came on. Stubbs rumbled threateningly. A badger does
+not fight willingly, and always gives notice when his patience is
+growing short. Rip instantly snarled and rushed in--fox or badger,
+either was a legitimate adversary. In the dark he partially missed his
+hold and seized Stubbs under the ear. Stubbs grunted, and flung his
+head back, but Rip hung on gamely. Then the badger bored forward and
+crushed him against the side of the passage, and he let go for an
+instant; but the next moment he sprang in again, and his teeth met in
+the other's shoulder. What little air there was in the burrow was
+thick with dust, and both the combatants choked for breath. Stubbs cut
+at the terrier with his digging claws, but the space was too confined,
+and only a grunting gasp and momentary tightening of the teeth in his
+neck told that his blows took effect. Rip then shifted his hold again,
+and tugged and dragged at the badger's thick hair, with all four legs
+widely extended. Stubbs lunged forward in vain--his enemy merely
+retreated backwards as he felt the strain on his jaws slackening.
+Suddenly the grip of the terrier's teeth gave way, and he staggered
+back with his mouth full of grey hair. The badger ran forward and in
+the darkness stumbled right on the top of the dog. Something hairy
+brushed his mouth, and his jaws closed like a trap upon the terrier's
+leg. It was well for Rip that it was his leg and not his body which
+those teeth seized, or else all the life would have been squeezed out
+of him very quickly; but as it was, as he fell he twisted himself
+round and snapped at Stubbs' jaw. The badger grunted and let go, and
+the terrier crawled backwards, dragging his broken leg and sobbing in
+his breathing.
+
+But as long as there was life in Rip's shaggy body there was pluck. He
+rested for a few seconds, and then turned to the attack again. The
+badger heard the muffled yelping close at hand, and knew that to win
+his way to the open air he must face the snapping fury in front of
+him. He resolved upon another plan. Grunting and gasping in the
+stifling atmosphere he turned round, and plunging his pads into the
+light soil, he began to throw up a barricade. He dug with his long
+fore-claws, and shovelled the earth with his hind-legs until the pile
+nearly filled the passage. He could hear the terrier whimpering and
+scuffling on the other side as he attempted to climb the barrier, and
+dug the deeper. Only when he had put two feet of earth between
+himself and his assailant did he slink to the bottom of the burrow to
+lick his wounds.
+
+Rip climbed the barricade time after time. Then, when he was finally
+convinced that it was useless, he dragged himself to the light of day
+once more, tattered and torn, with his eyes and nose full of sand. But
+they could see that he had fought a great fight, and Dennis the Whip
+vowed that he should never go underground any more. Indeed, he never
+could do so, but limped on one leg to the end of his days.
+
+How Greybrush ultimately escaped from the badgers I do not know, but
+he was not seen abroad in Knockdane for several days. However, after
+the battle the badgers ceased to try and evict him. Instead, they dug
+a new and deeper gallery at right angles to their former one, and
+dwelt there. So that if you go to Knockdane and ask Paddy Magragh, he
+will show you the Larch Hill 'earth,' and tell you that foxes live in
+the upper tunnels and badgers in the lower. And if you could creep
+down, where even Paddy Magragh cannot go, you might hear the rumbling
+snores of Stubbs from a side dormitory; and in the deepest chamber of
+all, well lined and cosy, the maternal snorts of Grunter, and the
+squeals of her new-born cubs.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lives of the Fur Folk, by M. D. Haviland
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIVES OF THE FUR FOLK ***
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+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lives of the Fur Folk, by M. D. Haviland
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Lives of the Fur Folk
+
+Author: M. D. Haviland
+
+Illustrator: E. Caldwell
+
+Release Date: August 19, 2011 [EBook #37127]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIVES OF THE FUR FOLK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Matthew Wheaton
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<div>
+
+<h1 id="booktitle">Lives of the Fur Folk</h1>
+
+<br>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 416px;">
+<img src="images/p000.jpg" width="416" height="600" alt="frontispiece" title="frontispiece">
+</div>
+
+<p class="h1">Lives of the Fur Folk</p>
+
+<p class="h3">by</p>
+
+<p class="h2">M. D. Haviland</p>
+
+<p class="h3"><i>illustrated by</i></p>
+
+<p class="h2"><span class="smcap"><i>E. Caldwell</i></span></p>
+
+<br>
+
+<p class="h3"><i><span class="smcap">Longmans, Green &amp; Company</span></i><br>
+<i>39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON<br>
+NEW YORK, BOMBAY &amp; CALCUTTA</i><br>
+&middot;1910&middot;</p>
+
+<p class="spacer"></p>
+
+<p class="h3">TO<br>
+E. B. S.</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<h2>PREFACE</h2>
+
+<p>The following, to a certain extent, are composite
+histories&mdash;at present our knowledge of the life of
+the individual wild animal is too limited to admit
+of anything else; but the incidents related are all
+founded on fact, and Redpad, Grimalkin, and the
+rest actually lived, although here they are sometimes
+credited with adventures which in reality befell
+others of their race.</p>
+
+<p>It may be thought that I have gone too far in
+endowing wild animals with the primitive elements
+of superstition, self-sacrifice, &amp;c.; but although the
+majority are certainly guided to a very great extent
+by pure instinct, here and there we find one whose
+actions cannot be altogether explained thus; and
+it must not be forgotten that it is from similar
+exceptions, who lived and died in long past ages,
+that our own powers of reason and reflection, our
+morality, sense of religion, our artists, heroes and
+saints have evolved.<span class="pagenum">[viii]</span></p>
+
+<p>For deciding some knotty points in the natural
+history of the badger, I am indebted to an excellent
+article on the animal by Mr. Douglas English. The
+rest of my information is entirely derived from
+personal observation, or from that of gamekeepers,
+'earthstoppers,' huntsmen and others, whose calling
+has brought them into close contact with wild
+animals. To all these my thanks are due.</p>
+
+<p>M. D. HAVILAND.</p>
+
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Courtown Harbour,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Co. Wexford.</span></span><br>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum">[ix]</span>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" width="80%" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents">
+<tr>
+  <td colspan="3"><i>THE STORY OF REDPAD THE FOX</i></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr">I.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Spring Rains</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr">II.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Hunters</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr">III.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">First Blood</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr">IV.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">How the Debt was paid</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr">V.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Sheep Slayer</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr">VI.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">From Kilmanagh to Knockdane</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td colspan="3"><i>THE STORY OF FLUFF-BUTTON THE RABBIT</i></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr">I.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">How Fluff-Button cried quits</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#bCHAPTER_I">I</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr">II.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Spring Longing</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#bCHAPTER_II">II</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr">III.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Invasion of Garry's Hill</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#bCHAPTER_III">III</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr">IV.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Fear that was in the Way</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#bCHAPTER_IV">IV</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr">V.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Under the Moon</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#bCHAPTER_V">V</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td colspan="3"><i>STORIES FROM THE LIFE OF GRIMALKIN THE CAT</i></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr">I.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The First Hunting</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#cCHAPTER_I">I</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr">II.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Stealthy Death</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#cCHAPTER_II">II</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr"><span class="pagenum">[Pg x]</span>III.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Collared Buck</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#cCHAPTER_III">III</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr">IV.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Zoe</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#cCHAPTER_IV">IV</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr">V.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Where the Battle is to the Strong</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#cCHAPTER_V">V</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td colspan="3"><i>THE BIOGRAPHY OF STUBBS THE BADGER</i></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr">I.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Twilight Hunters</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#dCHAPTER_I">I</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr">II.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Borrigan's Baiting</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#dCHAPTER_II">II</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr">III.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Larch Hill 'Earth'</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#dCHAPTER_III">III</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum">[xi]</span>
+
+<h2>LIST OF PLATES</h2>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" width="80%" cellspacing="0" summary="List of Plates">
+<tr>
+  <td></td>
+  <td  class="tdr">To face page.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left"><span class="smcap">Loneliness and Longing</span></td>
+  <td  class="tdr"><a href="#p1">48</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left"><span class="smcap">Fluff-Button was seated on the other Bank taking a Tonic</span></td>
+  <td  class="tdr"><a href="#p2">124</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left"><span class="smcap">Grimalkin</span></td>
+  <td  class="tdr"><a href="#p3">165</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="left"><span class="smcap">Homeward Bound</span></td>
+  <td  class="tdr"><a href="#p4">190</a></td>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[2]</span></p>
+
+<h2>THE STORY OF REDPAD THE FOX</h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 426px;">
+<img src="images/p002.jpg" width="426" height="600"  alt="p002.jpg" title="p002.jpg">
+</div>
+
+<p class="spacer">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[3]</span>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<p class="h3">THE SPRING RAINS</p>
+
+<div class="p3">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p3-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p3-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>Vix found the old drain at the beginning of March.
+It was warm and roomy, and ran under the gate
+of the Plantation Field. Once upon a time, before
+the reservoir was built further up the hill, the
+stream which rose under St. Bridget's Tower had
+emptied itself through this drain into the bog;
+but that was many years ago, and now the moss
+and ferns grew thickly round the opening, and the
+grating at the further end was choked with rubbish.
+Nevertheless, because it was dry and lonely it suited
+Vix exactly, and the four cubs were born there
+towards the end of the month. They were blind,
+red, squealing creatures who groped and fought in
+the hot darkness to reach Vix and nuzzle at her
+side, and at first she spent most of the twenty-four
+hours among them; but as they grew bigger<span class="pagenum">[4]</span>
+and needed more food she was forced to spend
+much time on hunting excursions. Fortunately,
+however, as rabbits were to be had for the picking
+up in Knockdane Woods over the hill, and mice and
+rats were plentiful in the bog, the neighbouring
+poultry yards were not too severely taxed and Vix's
+nursery remained undiscovered.</p>
+
+<img class="split" src="images/left-fox.jpg" width="100" height="113"  alt="left-fox.jpg" title="left-fox.jpg">
+
+<p>April was ushered in by a cool dark evening
+after heavy rain. The sunset was pale and stormy,
+blotted out by ragged clouds, and as Vix trotted
+home she heard the 'rail' singing up the river.
+The 'rail' is the name which the Fur Folk have
+given to the sound which is heard at night before
+a storm, and it is one of the most mysterious noises
+of the whole countryside. There may be no wind
+stirring at the time, but the Wild Folk hear the
+strange whining far away over the woods and bogs,
+and know that there is a gale blowing up from
+the sea.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/right-fox.jpg" width="100"  height="176" alt="right-fox.jpg" title="right-fox.jpg">
+
+<p>Vix's path lay by the reservoir, and here, startled
+perhaps by some night noise among the rushes, she
+paused. The reservoir had been built many years
+ago when Paddy Magragh's father had plenty of
+money, and much stock which required water.
+He caught the little brook which trickled through
+Vix's drain from St. Bridget's Tower to the bog,
+and turned its course into the big cement basin,
+<span class="pagenum">[5]</span>
+leading off the water by a sluice into a new channel.
+But the farm had fallen on evil days at the hands
+of Paddy Magragh, and the reservoir was choked
+with cresses and duckweed. Much rain had fallen
+this spring, and the basin was dangerously full.
+The sluice was shut fast, but the brown water
+squirted through the chinks and danced down the
+hill. The stream, all wild with joy of the great
+rains, brought down leaves and twigs in its rush,
+and waltzed them round and round in the plaited
+current until it heaped them against the ever-growing
+scum and d&eacute;bris at the sluice. By and by
+the branch of a tree came rolling along, and stuck
+fast. The leaves were driven against it until a
+high barricade was raised, and the water could
+only trickle through the sluice. Then Vix went
+home to her cubs, but the stream still poured into
+the basin from which it could find no outlet. There
+was only one flaw in the cement, and that quite a
+little one, patched with clay and willow withies,
+but the water&mdash;the brown, treacherous water&mdash;found
+it out, and worked silently and steadily all
+night. O a mad, merry miner is the water!</p>
+
+<p>Hard after the 'rail' came the wind and the
+rain. Safe and warm below ground, the foxes heard
+the howling of the gale in the Plantation, and the
+steady splash of rain drops on the sodden ground;<span class="pagenum">[6]</span>
+but the brick walls of the drain were still strong
+and water-tight. Paddy Magragh in his cabin also
+heard the storm roaring outside, and remembered
+that he had left the sluice of the reservoir closed;
+but he dismissed the thought with a characteristic
+'time enough to-morrow.'</p>
+
+<p>Vix was astir at daybreak the next morning.
+The wind still moaned in fitful gusts and brief rain-storms
+drove across the sky. There was a watery
+gleam in the east which told of the sunrise to be,
+and the fields were flooded. Vix reached the
+reservoir. It was full of turbid water which lipped
+to the very brim, and the clay which dammed up
+the broken wall was sodden and dripping.</p>
+
+<p>As Vix watched, a strange thing happened.
+A lump crumbled outwards and a ripple of water
+ran down the slope towards the fence. It swelled
+a little as the hole grew larger, until it became quite
+a broad stream. It sang a merry little song to
+itself as it ran&mdash;so merry that a number of brother
+ripples hastened to join it. They crowded into the
+hole in such numbers, struggling to pass through,
+that suddenly the whole earthwork tottered and
+crumbled away, and the coffee-coloured flood leaped
+through the gap down the hill in the wake of the
+first ripple. Brawling, tumbling, spreading into
+shallow pools and splashing cascades, it raced down<span class="pagenum">[7]</span>
+the field. The hedge barred its way for a moment,
+but urged by the rush behind, it rose, and crept
+between the hawthorns into the ditch on the
+further side. It was many a year since the stream
+had found its way down that ditch. It poured
+into its old bed joyously, and kissed the primroses
+with foam kisses before it drowned them in its cold
+ripples.</p>
+
+<div class="p7">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p7-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p7-2">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p7-3">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>Not until the flood had entered the Plantation
+Field did Vix realise what it meant. Then she ran,
+faster than when the hounds were at her brush,
+straight to the drain where her four ruddy cubs lay
+in the torrent's path. The stream was perilously
+near them. It had carved a way for itself among
+the grass and brambles which choked the ditch,
+and sang to itself lustily on the way to the bog.
+Vix dashed underground, and, seizing the first of
+the warm whining creatures which she stumbled
+over in the darkness, she turned to fly. Too late!
+She was caught in a trap. The water burst into
+the drain, and surging to and fro to find an exit,
+it filled the tunnel to the roof. Vix, half drowned
+but still clinging to the cub, was battered to and fro.
+Something which was not driftwood was driven
+against her in the darkness; but
+though her mother-love was great
+she could not hold two, and it<span class="pagenum">[8]</span>
+slipped past her. Twice she fought her head
+above water, and twice she was washed off her feet.
+The third time, gasping and choking, she gained
+the opening, struggled to land, and laid the dripping
+cub on the bank. But there were three more down
+there. Vix looked at the flood which plunged
+through the drain and into the field through the
+further opening, and that good instinct which
+bids the Wild Folk care first for that which is
+nearest conquered. She picked up the half-drowned
+cub, and galloped up the hill towards
+Knockdane.</p>
+
+<p>When, three hours later, Paddy Magragh strolled
+by, the flood had subsided, and only a trickle
+filtered through the drain, which was half choked
+with rubbish. On the bank lay three little red
+bodies, and there were marks on the wet earth
+where strong frenzied pads had striven to dig down
+to the treasures hidden below.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>That was all that Paddy Magragh ever knew, but
+that spring an old fox cared for her one remaining
+cub in the woods of Knockdane. And that cub
+was Redpad.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/p008.jpg" width="400" height="176"  alt="p008.jpg" title="p008.jpg">
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[9]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<p class="h3">THE HUNTERS</p>
+
+<p>So this was the coming of Redpad to Knockdane.
+A whole book might be written about his early
+adventures, but as this is to be his history, I must
+pass them by to speak of those things which befell
+him as he grew older. It is sufficient to say that
+he entered on his career in the woods with two
+important assets&mdash;a good nose and a good mother;
+and these two will carry one of the Fur Folk far.</p>
+
+<img class="split" src="images/left-fox.jpg" width="100" height="113"  alt="left-fox.jpg" title="left-fox.jpg">
+
+<p>Vix kept her cub in an old rabbit burrow until
+he was old enough to hunt for himself. The first
+blood which Redpad ever drew was, strange to
+say, his own. One May evening he was playing by
+the mouth of the hole, when all at once a rustle in
+a bluebell bed attracted him. His instinct, which
+until now had lain dormant, awoke. He bunched
+his woolly legs together and bared his little milk
+teeth. The flower bells waved to and fro again&mdash;and
+Redpad cleared the intervening space with one
+bound, to land, pads extended, upon a sulky hedgehog.
+He crept whimpering back to his mother to
+lick his sore toes and meditate on one of the oldest
+saws of the Fox Folk, which runs: 'Never spring
+until your nose confirms your eyes and ears.'</p>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/right-fox.jpg" width="100" height="176"  alt="right-fox.jpg" title="right-fox.jpg">
+
+<p>The woods are at their loveliest in May, when<span class="pagenum">[10]</span>
+the chestnut leaves spread out their cool fingers,
+and a filmy green veil of foliage is flung over the
+beeches' naked branches. In the long light evenings
+scores of rabbits grazed along the woodsides, and
+it was upon these that Redpad took his first lessons
+in hunting. He obeyed Vix and her signals implicitly,
+and therefore learned by imitation, which
+is the only form of pedagogy known in the woods.</p>
+
+<p>One evening when the sun shot long slanting
+shadows across Knockdane, the foxes stole out to
+hunt. Between the woods and the river lies a flat
+meadow, and thither Vix led Redpad, the latter
+aping the carriage of his mother's brush to the
+best of his ability. She made him crouch down
+in the thicket twenty yards from the fence, but
+she herself crept forward. Although the bushes
+were too thick to allow her to see into the field,
+yet the air was full of that peculiar silence which
+means that many hearts are beating and many
+ears listening close at hand. But the senses of a
+fox are very keen, and above the murmur of the
+river over its pebbles, Vix could hear eager lips
+snatching and nibbling at the coarse grass, and
+many feet splashing in the dew. She crept forward
+until she could peep into the field, and saw a dozen
+rabbits feeding there. A fox has two methods of
+completing a 'stalk'&mdash;the spring and the rush.<span class="pagenum">[11]</span>
+Vix preferred to spring Thug-like upon her victim,
+but in this case the prey was too far away, and she
+resolved to rush it. Cramping her limbs together
+she dashed through the fence and leaped at the
+bunny she had marked. She might as well have
+pursued a shadow. A dozen pairs of feet stamped
+a warning, and a dozen scuts scuttled into the bushes.
+There was a twang as some reckless rabbit stubbed
+his nose against the wire, and then the patter of
+feet darting in every direction.</p>
+
+<p>Had Vix been hunting alone that evening she
+would have gone supperless, but as it happened,
+one rabbit chose that runway where Redpad
+crouched. It saw its danger too late and swerved&mdash;but
+the cub darted forward and rolled it over,
+almost turning a somersault in the vehemence of
+his rush. Vix came leaping through the bushes
+and tugged the kill away from him. He yielded
+it growling, but ultimately was permitted to
+demolish by far the largest share.</p>
+
+<div class="p11">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p11-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p11-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>By such expeditions Vix taught her cub to know
+every lane, bank, and 'shore'<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> in the country
+round Knockdane, and this knowledge was very
+useful to him when later on he was
+obliged to hunt and be hunted by himself.
+Besides the rabbits, there were
+<span class="pagenum">[12]</span>rats and mice to be had. Vix took Redpad down
+to Kilree Bog, where there are deep ditches choked
+with furze and bramble, and banks tunnelled
+through by burrows. Sometimes they went rat
+hunting by Paddy Magragh's farmstead at moonrise;
+but this was dangerous country, for in
+the yard dwelt a certain long-legged yellow dog
+with a keen nose and ready tongue.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+ <p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a>
+    <a href="#FNanchor_1_1">
+     <span class="label">[1]</span>
+    </a> Shore = A covered drain.</p></div>
+
+<p>September came, and in the fine warm weather
+the foxes spent most of their time above ground.
+Golden ragweed blazed in all the fields, and the
+swallows began to assemble for their journey south.
+Yellow sprays appeared among the dark leaves
+of the beeches, and Redpad attained proportions
+more in keeping with the size of his head. His
+white tagged brush was his great pride, his coat
+was shining with health, and he was remarkable
+for his forepads, which were many shades lighter
+than those of his mother; in fact, they were not
+black at all, but deep bay&mdash;hence his name. Not
+until he was full grown did his mother teach him
+how to hunt that swiftest and wariest of game&mdash;the
+hare. The stoat and the cat claim equal rights
+with the fox over rabbit, squirrel, and rat, but only
+the fox is strong enough to pull down the grown
+hare.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>One hot dark night the foxes awoke just<span class="pagenum">[13]</span>
+before moonrise. Vix stretched herself and whined,
+and Redpad raised his muzzle, which was curled
+round into his brush. The burrow was pitch dark,
+but he felt his mother glide past him, and he rose
+and followed her. Outside they paused and sniffed
+the west wind appreciatively&mdash;the scent was good.</p>
+
+<p>Vix turned down the hill, picking her way
+daintily through the fern and brambles, and Redpad
+followed. Fox language must consist of signs of
+the ears and whiskers, for it is noiseless. Nevertheless
+she conveyed to him whither they were bound.
+They trotted through Knockdane, scaled the high
+boundary wall, and gained the open country, which
+lay placid under the twilight of moonrise.</p>
+
+<p>They hunted far afield that night. Two hours
+before daybreak they crossed the Killeen road
+and came to a wide brook. The moon was high in
+the sky, and every tree and bulrush on the bank
+was plainly visible. The sleepy cattle, chewing
+the cud under a willow, heaved themselves up
+with a grunt and herded together as the foxes
+loped past. They trotted up-wind in silence some
+hundred yards apart, ears alert to catch the least
+sound, brushes drooping. Then Vix suddenly put
+down her nose and broke into a canter, and as
+Redpad galloped after her, the warm wind bore the
+scent of hare to his nostrils.<span class="pagenum">[14]</span></p>
+
+<p>The meadows were dotted with tall thistles and
+ragweed, so that, running close to the ground, the
+foxes could not see far ahead, but one of the axioms
+of the Wild Folk is: hunt with your nose, kill with
+your teeth, and let your eyes take care of themselves.
+The scent led them across the road into a bog.
+Here Redpad, who led the chase, lost the trail at
+the edge of a dyke and was thrown out, but Vix
+leaped over and picked it up on the other side.
+They crossed the bog at full speed, scaring a silent
+heron, who was fishing knee-deep in a pool, almost
+out of his wits. On the other side the trail led over a
+furze-clad hill, and here there were many other scents&mdash;fox,
+rabbit, badger and other hares&mdash;and the foxes
+separated. But Redpad, hunting to and fro like a
+beagle, worked out the line into the grass-lands
+again, and they crossed some stubbles where the
+sheep rushed together into a jostling stamping flock
+at their approach.</p>
+
+<p>Hitherto the hare had kept her lead well, but
+now before dawn the scent clung persistently to
+the dewy grass, and the hunters began to gain
+ground. The chase bent round towards Knockdane
+once more, but the trail curved and twisted in
+turnings as intricate as those of a swallow. The
+'false dawn' appeared over the mountains, and
+the air grew cooler. The foxes' tongues were out,<span class="pagenum">[15]</span>
+and their flanks heaved, but they pressed on as
+keenly as ever, as first one and then the other picked
+up the failing scent.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/p014.jpg" width="300" height="196"  alt="p014.jpg" title="p014.jpg">
+</div>
+
+<p>Several times the hare had doubled back a short
+way and then leaped aside to baffle her pursuers;
+but Vix was cunning, and by casting to right or
+left, never failed to nose out the line.</p>
+
+<p>At last they came to a field not very far from
+their starting point, and here they checked at fault.
+Redpad turned to the right, but Vix snuffled her way
+down the loosely built stone wall which bounded
+the field. Suddenly a hare leaped up almost under
+her feet, and hurled itself at the wall. It clung to
+the top for an instant and then, slowly stiffening,
+dropped back into Vix's jaws. The chase was over.</p>
+
+<p>Redpad galloped back across the field, his coat
+wet with dew and his tongue flopping out. Vix
+was already crouched over her kill. At his approach
+she glanced at him suspiciously, and for the first
+time in his life she growled at him&mdash;not the low
+lazy growl of an old vixen to her riotous cub, but the
+deep menacing rumble of one grown fox to another.
+For this, Redpad's first long chase and kill, was,
+so to speak, the day of his coming of age. Vix's
+instinct told her that the change had come. He
+was no longer the red, woolly cub who had tugged
+at her side, but a full-grown fox able to fend for<span class="pagenum">[16]</span>
+himself, and also able to snatch the kill from her
+had he so chosen. Hence she snarled at him;
+and it was another proof that Redpad had passed
+the days of cubhood that he did not fly at her throat,
+as he assuredly would have done had any other
+fox used him so, but only hovered near to devour
+such morsels as she rejected. For it is one of the
+laws of the Fox Folk that a he-fox shall never attack
+a vixen to snatch her kill from her. It is a wise
+and good law, as are all those which are observed
+in the woods.</p>
+
+<p>When Vix had eaten her fill she rose and quenched
+her great thirst in a stream. But only a little
+remained for Redpad, and his hunger was scarcely
+appeased when they trotted back to Knockdane on
+the hill in the grey dawn.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/p016.jpg" width="400" height="209"  alt="p016.jpg" title="p016.jpg">
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[17]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<p class="h3">FIRST BLOOD</p>
+
+<p>Vix lay under a bush with her brush curled round
+her nose and eyes. Only her ears, ever wakeful
+and alert, kept watch while she slept. It was
+six o'clock, and a still misty morning with a heavy
+dew over everything. Close by lay Redpad with
+his nose on his pads; but he slept more lightly
+than Vix, for he had eaten less than she had done
+after their hunting. Thus he was the first to wake
+at the sound of a yelp in the valley. He sat up
+with a whimper and looked at his mother. He
+expected her to leap up, but she only stretched
+out her forelegs lazily and closed her eyes again.
+Perhaps her heavy meal at dawn had blunted the
+senses which as a rule gave her such timely warning
+of danger. Redpad could neither see nor smell
+anything suspicious, but those noises had convinced
+him that all was not right. He cast a last
+look at Vix, and then trotted away among the
+bushes.</p>
+
+<img class="split" src="images/left-fox.jpg" width="100" height="113"  alt="left-fox.jpg" title="left-fox.jpg">
+
+<p>Presently he met an old badger plodding along.
+The badger was glancing back every now and then
+at the sound of a 'yow-yow-yow' in the valley; and
+by and by a hare scudded past in a panic. All
+the while the clamour was drawing nearer, and<span class="pagenum">[18]</span>
+was interspersed with whip-cracking and shouts.
+It all sounded very loud and alarming to Redpad,
+who was accustomed to the stillness of the woods,
+and he decided to move on. He was cantering
+along a ride when suddenly, on turning a corner,
+he came full upon a horseman. The man stared
+at Redpad, and Redpad stared at the man for a
+few seconds, and then the former leaped into the
+bushes; but as he fled he heard a view-halloa
+behind him.</p>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/right-fox.jpg" width="100" height="176"  alt="right-fox.jpg" title="right-fox.jpg">
+
+<p>He galloped through thickets and crashed
+through briars, and as he ran he heard the pack
+give tongue on his line. Up till now he had not
+realised that the presence of the strangers in the
+wood boded anything evil to the Foxkind, but
+had simply avoided them because they were new
+to him and noisy. At last it dawned on him that
+he was pursued, and he experienced all the fears of
+the hunted. In his extremity he ran back to the
+thicket where he had slept, to seek his cunning
+mother's help. Several times he was obliged to
+go out of his way to evade hounds who were hunting
+up and down the wood; for it was the first time
+that many of the puppies had been out, and the
+experience had proved too much for their wits.
+Some four couple were unpleasantly close to Redpad's
+brush as he entered the thicket, but he dodged<span class="pagenum">[19]</span>
+them, and ran straight to his mother's lair. It
+was still warm, but empty. Redpad made up his
+mind quickly. To his right the wood was less
+thick. Here and there grew an isolated oak or pine,
+and the hillside was covered with rocks and fern.
+A little way off there was a crag some forty feet high
+at whose foot rose a little stream. Redpad pattered
+up this to its source; and about six feet from the
+ground, half hidden by polypody ferns, found a
+cleft in the limestone. A rush and a scramble carried
+him into this retreat, which was just large enough
+to contain him; and the ferns had scarcely ceased
+to wave before the hounds broke out of the covert.</p>
+
+<p>Redpad watched the huntsman put them into the
+patch of bracken. One worked one way, and one
+another, but they had no leader, for the old hounds
+were mostly down in the valley. And the longer
+they lingered, the staler grew the scent.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a lemon-and-white hound on the bank
+of the stream lifted up his voice and announced
+that a fox had passed that way, and the rest rushed
+after him. Two men rode behind the
+hounds, and one said to the other, pointing
+out the pale one who had picked up the
+scent:</p>
+
+<div class="p19">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p19-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p19-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>'That's a grand houn'
+in the makin'.'<span class="pagenum">[20]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Ay,' said the other, 'an' he's as swate on a
+stale line as ever auld Pirate was before him. Hike!
+Hike to Ravager!'</p>
+
+<p>The hounds hunted almost up to the crag, but
+the morning air was merciful, and drew the scent
+above their heads. However, the yellow puppy
+was not to be baulked. There was a narrow ledge
+which ran obliquely from the ground to the cleft
+where Redpad lay hidden, and up this he climbed.
+Redpad was watching the rest of the pack from
+between the fern fronds, when a joyous bay above
+his head proclaimed that he was discovered.</p>
+
+<p>Redpad leaped from his hiding-place and darted
+away with the leading hound not a dozen yards from
+his brush. There was no time to turn or try any
+tricks&mdash;he ran for his life. He led his pursuers
+right across Knockdane, but it seemed as though
+there was a galloping horse in every path and ride,
+and a hound in every brake. In his extremity he
+turned to the moor. He raced up the steep hillside
+through clumps of solemn fir trees, where the tits
+twittered as though there were no such thing as
+man, and through beds of ivy and fern.</p>
+
+<p>At last the long slope of the Big Meadow lay
+before him, and he gathered all his remaining
+strength for the dash over this danger zone. By
+the hedge stood a horse and rider who halloaed as he<span class="pagenum">[21]</span>
+passed, but to fox ideas a man was far less dangerous
+than the hounds behind, and he took no notice.
+He galloped across the field and entered the clump
+of trees in the middle. Suddenly another fox
+leaped up and went away in front of him. It was
+Vix. She knew well who were following their line,
+and cantered at her top speed; but she was still heavy
+and drowsy after her full meal at dawn, and presently
+Redpad, tired as he was, overtook and passed her.</p>
+
+<p>The pack was very close behind as they entered
+the narrow belt of woodland at the top of the field;
+but the hounds were all alone, for the thick hedge
+had stopped the horses at the bottom of the hill, and
+they had been obliged to go a long way round. Redpad's
+tongue was out, for he had run far through the
+wood that morning, and, besides, he was very frightened.
+Just in front of him loomed the high demesne
+wall. Redpad had leaped upon it, when he suddenly
+noticed a thick bush of ivy which overhung the
+coping to his right, and instead of leaping down the
+other side he crept into the ivy and lay there panting.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>A second later Vix came up. Twice she leaped
+and twice she fell back, but the third time she gained
+the coping just as the hounds came up. They
+crowded over the wall on the scent, Ravager leading,
+and poured down the hill on the other side after the
+little red figure half a field's length in front. They<span class="pagenum">[22]</span>
+were so close to him that one spring would have
+landed Redpad in their midst, but he lay like a stone,
+and they passed him by.</p>
+
+<p>'Head them off if ye can, Mike,' yelled the huntsman,
+galloping up. ''Tis an auld fox!'</p>
+
+<p>'It was not, then! Didn't I see him cross the
+path below, an' he a cub?'</p>
+
+<p>'Don't stand there arguin', ye fool! Nip round
+to the gate above, for she's bet, an' we've none
+too many in this country.'</p>
+
+<p>They galloped away, and the 'yowl-yowl' of the
+pack died away over the moor.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>Redpad lay among the ivy until the morning
+mists cleared away; and the croon of the woodpigeons
+was the only sound which broke the stillness.
+Then he leaped from his sanctuary and crept down
+the hill. He sought for his mother high and low,
+through thickets and rocks, but he could not find
+her; and when the autumn moon rose he wandered
+to and fro and yelped for her, but she never came
+back again to Knockdane.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless woodland grief is as short-lived
+as it is poignant, and before September had given
+place to October, Redpad hunted in Knockdane and
+robbed the Ballygallon hen-roosts contentedly alone.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/p022.jpg" width="400" height="195"  alt="p022.jpg" title="p022.jpg">
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum">[23]</span>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<p class="h3">HOW THE DEBT WAS PAID</p>
+
+<p>All the following winter Redpad hunted in Knockdane.
+Several times the hounds came and he had
+to run for his brush, but it takes a great deal to
+catch a hardy Irish fox who is sound in wind and
+limb. When summer came he picked up plenty
+of young rabbits and grew fat. Paddy Magragh
+learned to recognise him, and designated him 'the
+big red felly.' Although he had been deprived of
+his mother so early, yet he learned by experience
+and instinct, those best of teachers, how to overcome
+or circumvent the wiliest of the wood creatures
+for his own ends. He established himself in the
+upper gallery of a badger's 'set.' The badger had
+cleaned it out for his own winter use, but Redpad
+discovered it one day, and adopted it. The badger
+was seriously annoyed and endeavoured to oust the
+intruder by every means in his power, but Redpad
+went on the principle of bowing to the storm.
+When the badger offered to fight him he discreetly
+sought quarters elsewhere; but no sooner had the
+rightful owner triumphantly freed the burrow
+from the hated taint of fox, than he returned.
+At last the badger grew weary of the contest. He
+took up his residence at the bottom of the earth,<span class="pagenum">[24]</span>
+and left Redpad in undisputed possession of the
+upper gallery.</p>
+
+<img class="split" src="images/left-fox.jpg" width="100" height="113"  alt="left-fox.jpg" title="left-fox.jpg">
+
+<p>Winter came round for the second time, and by
+now Redpad had come to his full strength. Knockdane
+seldom sees hard frost or snow, but as a rule
+the south wind blows up a warm mist, and a steady
+rain drips through the leafless trees.</p>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/right-fox.jpg" width="100" height="176"  alt="right-fox.jpg" title="right-fox.jpg">
+
+<p>In December rabbit-traps were set in Knockdane,
+and Redpad was not long in finding them out.
+It was against regulations to set traps in the open,
+but Paddy Magragh, who was in charge of the
+trapping, was not particular; and Redpad's first
+introduction to a rabbit-trap was the snap of steel
+jaws on his toe. He wrenched himself free, but
+he walked lame for many a day afterwards, and he
+had learned his lesson. He soon found out that
+the trapper made his morning and evening rounds
+with fair regularity, and he arranged that his own
+excursions should be made accordingly. He trotted
+round the traps just in front of Magragh, and when
+the latter arrived, more than half of them contained
+nothing but a severed rabbit's head. This happened
+two or three times, and then Magragh, who knew
+nearly as much about wood ways as Redpad himself,
+reversed the order in which he visited the traps,
+and presently caught the thief red-handed.</p>
+
+<p>'Every dog has his day, me fine lad,' muttered<span class="pagenum">[25]</span>
+Magragh, hurling a fir cone after the white-tagged
+brush; 'but I'm thinking the hounds will have
+theirs before so long.'</p>
+
+<p>After that Magragh lifted his traps to the other
+side of Knockdane, for which Redpad had no great
+liking, as there were more farmsteads in the neighbourhood,
+and consequently more cur dogs.</p>
+
+<p>During the fine weather about Christmas time
+Redpad left the main woods, and hunted and slept
+in the thick hedgerows by the river below Knockdane.
+They were full of rats and rabbits, but were
+not a very safe resort, for it is one of the Sabbath
+amusements of the youth of those parts to go out
+with dogs, and hunt any outlying fox in the hedges.
+Redpad could outrun any dog in the country, but
+his slender limbs were no match for the more
+sturdily built terriers and sheep-dogs at close grips,
+so perhaps it was just as well that a cold snap drove
+him back to the woods again.</p>
+
+<div class="p25">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p25-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p25-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>While the frost was on the ground Redpad was
+hungry and robbed hen-roosts recklessly. One
+night twelve hens roosted in an outhouse with a
+defective latch at John Skehan's farm. The next
+morning when the owner went his rounds, three
+corpses lay on the floor, and the rest of the fowls
+had disappeared; all but one broody biddy under
+a basket.</p>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[26]</span>
+
+<p>'Ye may go afther the rest, ye divil,' said John
+Skehan to this survivor bitterly, and dismissed her
+with a kick. His words were fulfilled more literally
+than he expected. She alighted cackling beyond
+the farmyard wall&mdash;a red shadow sprang up silently,
+and John Skehan had a glimpse of a white-tagged
+brush heading towards Knockdane along a path
+strewn with feathers. This was more than flesh
+and blood could stand, and Skehan set his dog after
+the thief. At first the dog gained on Redpad, who
+was weighted with the fowl, but presently the fox
+dropped his burden, and John Skehan chuckled at the
+thought that the robber would not profit by his raid.
+But Redpad increased his lead again, and then picked
+up another hen from behind a hedge. This happened
+twice, and every time he had to leave his booty to
+escape from his pursuer; but the third time he
+succeeded in carrying it in triumph to Knockdane.
+Afterwards it was found that those hens which he
+could not carry away he had deposited in caches
+along the path between Knockdane and the farm,
+in order to remove them at his leisure.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>This misdeed hurried on the day of reckoning.
+John Skehan laid the tattered remains of his poultry
+before the proper authorities, and in consequence
+one day early in the year the hounds came to
+Knockdane. The best hound in the dog-pack that<span class="pagenum">[27]</span>
+season was that Ravager who had been blooded
+on the morning when Vix had been hunted down,
+more than a year before. Redpad had met Ravager
+once before that winter, and had been obliged to
+resort to every trick he knew in order to circumvent
+that sagacious leader of the pack.</p>
+
+<p>Of course Redpad found the 'earth' stopped
+when he returned home at daybreak, and he
+accordingly sought out a hiding-place which had
+already baffled his enemies several times. There was
+an ivy-grown fir tree which the wind had partially
+uprooted and flung against its fellows. It was quite
+easily climbed, and Redpad curled himself up in
+the ivy about fifteen feet from the ground. Here
+he slept very comfortably until noon, and then the
+familiar 'yowl-yowl' awakened him. For an hour
+or more he watched the hounds as they occasionally
+galloped past; and at last two men in pink
+coats rode along and halted under the very tree
+where he lay hidden. Presently a squirrel, passing
+through a neighbouring tree, looked down and
+caught sight of a fox sitting like an owl in an ivy
+bush. Nothing upsets a squirrel so much as curiosity,
+and a fox in a fir tree was something quite outside
+the experience of this particular one. He instantly
+desired to know a hundred things as to the why
+and wherefore of this strange occurrence, and in<span class="pagenum">[28]</span>
+short was transformed into one tense note of
+interrogation.</p>
+
+<p>He chattered tentatively&mdash;the fox did not
+move. Then he chattered defiantly, but still there
+was no sign. He hopped near and dared the fox
+to chase him, but Redpad knew better than to stir.
+Then the squirrel grew almost beside himself with
+passion. He kicked the branch on which he sat,
+he scolded until the woods rang, he jibbered with
+rage. Three jays came up to see what the fuss
+was about, and added their voices to the commotion.
+At last it grew so loud that even the dull human
+ears of the men under the tree remarked that
+something unusual was going on. They looked
+up&mdash;saw something red stir in the ivy and&mdash;'By
+Jove!' said the younger; and his halloa sent
+the squirrel leaping away.</p>
+
+<p>Five minutes later a council was held under the
+tree.</p>
+
+<p>'Who will climb up and fetch him?' asked the
+master; but the 'boys' standing round only grinned
+and shook their heads.</p>
+
+<p>Then old Paddy Magragh, who loved the foxes
+of Knockdane for the sake of the sport which the
+foxes begot, said: 'An' if I fetch him down to yez,
+will yer anner see that he has fair play and a good
+start?'<span class="pagenum">[29]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Yes,' said the master; 'you shall turn him
+down yourself.'</p>
+
+<p>So Paddy began to ascend the tree with a sack
+in one hand and his coat wrapped round the other.
+When he was about half-way up the tree he came
+face to face with Redpad, and the fox looked up
+with a snarl, but he could retreat no further up the
+trunk. Magragh crept closer and held out his coat.
+Quick as lightning Redpad buried his double row of
+ivory fangs in it. But it was too thick for them
+to reach the hand inside, and Magragh, seizing him
+by the back of the neck, tumbled him into the sack.</p>
+
+<p>Redpad was let loose in the middle of the Big
+Meadow. When the sack-mouth was opened, he
+went away like an arrow without a glance behind.</p>
+
+<p>'Good luck to yez,' said Paddy Magragh, 'for,
+begob, 'tis a great hunt ye'll give them to-day.'</p>
+
+<div class="p29">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p29-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p29-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>It is a true saying that a bagged fox will not run
+far, but this was not so with Redpad, for he knew
+every inch of the country, and besides, he had
+not been long enough in the sack to grow cramped.
+He flew over the short grass, and as he cleared the
+demesne wall he heard the pack open behind him.
+To the south lay Carricktriss with its rocks and
+heather blue in the distance; down in the plain
+there was Sutcliffe's Gorse, surrounded by wet fields
+where the horses would sink fetlock deep at every<span class="pagenum">[30]</span>
+step, and hedges impenetrable to anything but a
+blackbird. However, Redpad had made up his
+mind where he was going, and set his mask resolutely
+towards the east. Four miles of meadow-land lie
+between Knockdane and Kiltorkan Hill, but Redpad
+had a map of the country in his head, and he
+knew that no covert in the country was a surer
+refuge for a hunted fox. He slipped across a grass
+field where a couple of hobbled goats bucketted
+away at his approach; and, taking just the same
+line which Vix, his mother, had chosen for her last
+race for life eighteen months before, he galloped over
+the bog.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the fences were wide-topped banks with
+a 'grip'<a name="FNanchor_1_2" id="FNanchor_1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> on the further side, and Redpad took
+them with an easy spring on and off. He was
+running with a good lead over a marshy field when he
+met with his first check at the highroad. A train
+of 'side cars,' 'ass cars,' and pedestrians, nearly a
+quarter of a mile long, were slowly proceeding to
+a funeral at Ballycarnew. Redpad could not cross
+the road under their feet, and was obliged to make
+a long detour which brought the hounds considerably
+nearer his brush&mdash;so much nearer indeed that
+presently he ascended a little knoll covered with
+furze to see if a certain drain was open. Although
+<span class="pagenum">[31]</span>he did not know it, Vix in her extremity had also
+tried to reach this hiding-place, and she too had
+found it blocked. But Vix had been too exhausted
+to run any further and had turned to face the hounds
+in the field beyond, whereas Redpad was still fresh
+and with strength to spare.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_2" id="Footnote_1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Ditch.</p></div>
+
+<p>He looked back at the pack working out his
+line in the fields below him, and saw that Ravager
+was at their head. The horsemen had been stopped
+by a wire fence, and were following far behind.
+For the first time Redpad felt a little anxious. The
+scent was evidently good that day, and Kiltorkan
+was still more than two miles ahead. He quickened
+his pace and tried the old old trick of running
+through a herd of cattle in order to foul the line.
+This checked the hounds for a moment, but Ravager
+cast forward, and presently they came on faster than
+ever.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Redpad was still running strongly, but his tongue
+was out and he was coated with mud. He skirted
+two or three farmsteads, forded a brook where
+he paused to gulp a mouthful of water, and then
+climbed a long gradual slope. At the top he paused
+and looked back. He saw that Ravager with two
+couple of the best hounds was working some fifty
+yards ahead of the rest of the pack, and that some
+distance in the rear rode a man in pink. Kiltorkan<span class="pagenum">[32]</span>
+was about half a mile away, but at its base ran a
+thin shining line of railroad. The Fur Folk of Kiltorkan
+care little for the noisy, fussy train which
+pants down to Waterford twice a day. They have
+found out long ago that it is only formidable in its
+own place, and is hedged in in some mysterious way
+by the wire fence on either side of the embankment.</p>
+
+<p>Whether Redpad had any preconceived plan in
+his head as he raced to the railway I cannot say,
+but as soon as he climbed the bank on to the metals
+he heard a low roar, and round the distant curve
+the mail train swung into view. The hounds were
+now very close behind, for the pace for the last
+half-mile had been terrific. A cunning scheme
+came into Redpad's brain. He raced madly up
+the track towards the oncoming train. Belching
+forth smoke, and shaking the ground with the
+thunder of its rushing wheels, it had fewer terrors
+for him than the hunters behind. It was a hundred
+yards off&mdash;fifty&mdash;thirty&mdash;Redpad leaped aside and
+let the roaring monster hurtle past him, but the
+hounds, running blindly on the hot scent, never saw
+the danger. As Redpad leaped down the embankment
+the engine-driver saw what would occur and
+jammed the brakes to the groaning wheels, but it was
+too late. There was one yell, which rose above the
+clatter of the train, and then all was over.<span class="pagenum">[33]</span></p>
+
+<p>Redpad struggled up the hill with his heart
+thudding against his ribs. At the summit there
+was a cairn of stones strong enough to defy pick
+and spade. Before slipping inside he looked back.
+The remainder of the pack were huddled together
+in the field below the railway. The train was at
+a standstill, and a group of men stood on the track
+looking at something lemon-and-white which lay
+without moving at their feet.</p>
+
+<p>Redpad knew that he had nothing more to fear
+that day. If he had been a philosopher he might
+have reflected upon the saw that 'every dog has his
+day'; but as he was only a fox he crept into Kiltorkan
+Cairn to pant and bite thorns out of his pads.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/p033.jpg" width="400" height="278"  alt="p033.jpg" title="p033.jpg">
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum">[34]</span>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<p class="h3">THE SHEEP SLAYER</p>
+
+<p>The temptation came late in February, for that
+is famine time in the country-side. The rabbits
+were alert, and it was difficult to stalk birds successfully
+when the leaves were off the trees. In three
+days Redpad had only picked up a starved rat
+and a sick pigeon, all skin and bone, and on the
+fourth day he caught nothing at all. His sides had
+fallen in, and his haunch bones stood out. At last
+he went to the moor; but although he hunted there
+for a long while, he did not even see a field-mouse.
+The sun had set when he returned to Knockdane,
+and the stars came out, one by one, in the steely
+sky. It was going to freeze. Redpad jumped
+a wall into a little field, where withered fern grew
+more plentifully than grass, and across which
+the sheep stampeded. These were the ewes with
+young lambs, and they wheeled into a jostling
+flock at his approach. Redpad never looked at
+them as he skirted the field. He was well used
+to sheep, but so far, in his opinion, their only
+use was to foul his line for the hounds. Also,
+even had he been so minded, he could scarcely pull
+down a lamb under the hoofs of the dams, for collectively
+the old ewes were formidable. Therefore<span class="pagenum">[35]</span>
+he did not give them a second thought until he
+came to the far side of the field, when a little cry
+in the fern made him pause with pad upraised.
+He snuffed his way cautiously under the wall; and
+there, sheltered by a boulder from the cold wind,
+lay a newly dropped lamb. It was one of a couple,
+but being sickly, it had not risen and followed
+the dam to the rest of the flock as its fellow did.
+It was too weak to stand, and could only lie and
+shiver as the fox crept up. Redpad was ravenous&mdash;starving,
+in fact&mdash;and far and near the countryside
+was empty in the night. The old ewe was
+not at hand; nothing watched him but the hungry
+stars overhead. He seized the lamb by the shoulder,
+and it did not even bleat as he swung it over the
+wall, and cantered with it to Knockdane. That
+night, for the first time for many days, Redpad
+was full-fed, and slept soundly.</p>
+
+<img class="split" src="images/left-fox.jpg" width="100" height="113"  alt="left-fox.jpg" title="left-fox.jpg">
+
+<p>The theft might have remained undiscovered,
+but unluckily the sheep belonged to Jack Skehan;
+and twice a day, during the lambing time, he went
+along a certain path in Knockdane to visit the
+flock. The next morning, when on his usual round,
+his dog ran on ahead, and presently returned
+carrying the woolly leg of a lamb. On the path
+were unmistakable traces of Redpad's last night's
+meal; and worst of all, in the soft earth where he<span class="pagenum">[36]</span>
+had drunk from a puddle, were the plain prints
+of pads. There was no doubt who had done the
+deed.</p>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/right-fox.jpg" width="100" height="176"  alt="right-fox.jpg" title="right-fox.jpg">
+
+<p>Jack Skehan himself was not kindly disposed
+to the Hunt, and he threw out dark hints as to his
+future plans. However, he had no opportunity of
+carrying these into effect, for Redpad did not
+visit the sheep again after his one theft. What
+with one thing and another, his luck began to turn.
+He picked up two or three snared rabbits and
+other trifles, and the press of famine was over
+for a time.</p>
+
+<p>However, a week later, he was patrolling the
+fir wood at the top of Knockdane. It was a still
+night, mild for the season, with a crescent moon
+struggling behind a mass of little sheep-backed
+clouds. Presently he heard a businesslike patter
+of feet on the fir needles, and snuffing, that his
+nose might confirm his ears in correct fox fashion,
+he winded a dog. Redpad hated dogs only one
+degree less than men, and slipped quietly away
+into the shadows. The footsteps paused undecidedly
+at the spot where he had turned aside, then
+passed on.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly afterwards, Redpad was scaling the
+demesne wall, when a distant rumble of hoofs startled
+him. The ground slopes away gently from the<span class="pagenum">[37]</span>
+end of the wood, over the fields, and then rises
+again to meet the moor. Hence, from the wall,
+Redpad could look down into the field where the
+sheep dwelt. He saw the whole flock&mdash;a grey
+mass in the twilight&mdash;collected in a corner; and
+listening, it seemed to him that he heard a shrill
+yelp. However, it was not repeated, and as he
+winded nothing unusual, for the night air was
+damp and chilled the scent, he continued his way.
+Night after night he went to the moor by the
+same path&mdash;over the wall, and across the little
+field where the sheep grazed among the stones.
+Here he suddenly crossed a line from which the
+Fur Folk usually turn&mdash;the line of fresh blood;
+and among the dwarfed gorse he found the body
+of a young lamb. At that moment the sheep
+stampeded, and one lamb, breaking from the
+flock, bounded hither and thither among the rocks
+with the agility of despair. As it leaped, something
+small and dark sprang beside it. There was a wicked
+snarl, a piteous stifled bleat, and the lamb was
+dragged headlong into the furze. Redpad waited
+no longer, but cantered back to the wood. If
+something was worrying the sheep, this was no
+safe place for him.</p>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/p037.jpg" width="400" height="207"  alt="p037.jpg" title="p037.jpg">
+
+<p>When Jack Skehan
+came up at eight o'clock,<span class="pagenum">[38]</span>
+two lambs were missing. He called a conclave of
+neighbours, and they sat in judgment upon Redpad's
+real and supposed delinquencies. Jack Skehan,
+who was very wrathful, purposed to put a notice
+to 'foxhunters and others' in the local press,
+and resort to drastic measures by means of strychnine;
+but the rest of the council shook their
+heads, for they had no wish to banish the hounds
+from Knockdane. Ultimately they all went down
+to consult Paddy Magragh, whose reputation for
+wisdom was deservedly great where animals were
+concerned. Paddy was smoking in his cabin, and
+after he had heard all that they had to say, he
+said: ''Twas a dog, not a fox, took the lamb
+lasht night, I'm thinking.' And this opinion he
+held to in spite of all arguments against it.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing occurred that night, and the following
+day Paddy Magragh went alone to the field on
+the hill, and searched it thoroughly. He came
+upon the carcase of the lamb in the gorse, and
+he grinned, for he knew the ways of the Fur Folk,
+and their law, better than most of the men round
+Knockdane. The next day, however, there was
+great consternation. Jack Skehan's flock was
+untouched, but Dinny Purcell had left his ewes
+in a field adjoining the wood, and a young lamb
+lay torn and draggled upon the grass. The remains<span class="pagenum">[39]</span>
+were taken triumphantly to Paddy Magragh, and
+the foxlike print of the fangs displayed; and
+secretly even his conviction was shaken, although
+he declared stoutly that it was a dog and not a fox
+that had done the deed.</p>
+
+<p>With one accord it was decreed that poison
+should be laid down; and Jack Skehan went to
+Skelagh and bought strychnine, ostensibly to poison
+rats. Paddy Magragh had manfully opposed this
+scheme, for besides the fact that every fox hunted
+from Knockdane meant ten shillings in his pocket,
+he had 'stopped' the woods for twenty years,
+and took more pride in his foxes than he cared
+to own.</p>
+
+<p>'If ye'll do as I tell ye,' he declared, 'ye'll lay
+the mate on a bit o' paper, an' if it's a fox, he'll
+never touch it at all, for he'd be afeard o' the
+paper, but if it's a dog he'll ate it.'</p>
+
+<p>And this was the utmost they would grant him.
+Indeed, if they had believed him, he could not
+even have extorted this concession.</p>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/p039.jpg" width="400" height="149"  alt="p039.jpg" title="p039.jpg">
+
+<p>They 'doctored' some rabbit paunches with
+strychnine cunningly enough, and laid them seductively
+in the field. It was just before dark when
+they returned home, so they did not see how
+the magpie fluttered down a few minutes later,
+and spying the bait, sidled up to it. He did not<span class="pagenum">[40]</span>
+altogether like the white paper, but he was hungry,
+and a paunch was a paunch. He picked it up
+gingerly and carried it off, for a magpie does not
+care to eat where he has killed&mdash;he is too accustomed
+to traps. Even an egg is impaled on his bill and
+conveyed away. Luckily for this magpie, however,
+it so happened that when he was flying into the
+wood he accidentally let the choice morsel fall out
+of sight among the trees. Therefore, although he
+went supperless to bed, he was fortunate in that
+he roosted in the branches that night, instead of
+lying claws upwards on the ground. Redpad
+found that paunch two days afterwards and ate
+a piece; but something peculiar about the morsel&mdash;in
+its taste or odour&mdash;warned him, and although
+he was very sick for some hours, yet he eventually
+recovered.</p>
+
+<p>There was great jubilation the next morning
+when it was found that some of the poison had
+been taken; but the triumph was short-lived, for
+the following night another lamb had disappeared.
+The next evening Jack Skehan took his old gun
+and the little whippet-nosed dog who worked for
+him among the sheep all day, and sat up to watch.
+The dog sat beside him on a stone, and when he was
+not watching his master for orders, he gazed serenely
+above the heads of the sheep. Nothing, however,<span class="pagenum">[41]</span>
+came, and at six o'clock, tired and chilled, Jack
+Skehan went home.</p>
+
+<p>The poison was still there, but Redpad, made
+wary by his former experience with the rabbit
+paunch, passed it by, and besides, the mysterious
+rustling of the white paper underneath scared him.
+The real sheep slayer never touched it, for he
+seemed to prefer warm meat to cold.</p>
+
+<p>On the two following nights again nothing was
+taken; but on the third morning news was brought
+that an older lamb had been killed in Jack Skehan's
+flock, and that the carcase had not been removed,
+so Paddy Magragh went up to the field.</p>
+
+<p>'Bedam! I'll have the poison thick in every
+field on the farm, and put up the wire besides,'
+stormed Jack Skehan. 'Is al' me sheep to be
+worried on me that the gintry may hunt their
+dirthy foxes over me land? I'll have ivery
+mother's son o' thim prosecuted.'</p>
+
+<p>'Now I'll go bail,' said Paddy Magragh, who
+had picked up the carcase, 'that 'twas a dog had
+this killed.'</p>
+
+<p>'An' what dog in this counthry would touch
+a sheep, an' they wid 'em all day?' demanded
+Garry, Jack Skehan's young brother.</p>
+
+<p>'Where have ye that felly o' yours shut at
+nights?' asked Paddy Magragh, looking at the<span class="pagenum">[42]</span>
+little narrow-headed cur who slunk at Skehan's
+heel.</p>
+
+<p>'Shure he slapes in the cowhouse, and I lets
+him out in the mornin'. But he'd never harm
+a sheep&mdash;I rared him meself.'</p>
+
+<p>Paddy Magragh spat discreetly. 'I'd have me
+cowhouse door mended, an' the window blocked,'
+said he.</p>
+
+<p>'Are ye sayin' that it was a dog all the while?'
+demanded Skehan irately.</p>
+
+<p>'I do not. Maybe 'twas a fox took one or two&mdash;the
+first was a little small one, an' he sick-like.
+But this is a dog, shure enough.' And he looked
+again at Jack Skehan's sheep-dog, who was licking
+his paws thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I'll have the poison down again, an'
+that widout the paper. Shure there's enough o'
+talkin'. If there's another lamb worried on me,
+begob, but I'll poison every fox in Knockdane,'
+grumbled Jack Skehan.</p>
+
+<p>Paddy Magragh said nothing, for he was crafty,
+and the Knockdane foxes were near to his heart and
+his pocket, but that night, after the bait had been
+laid, he went to the field, and, taking the carcase
+of the dead lamb, he put in enough strychnine to
+poison a dozen dogs or foxes either, and left it by
+the gate.<span class="pagenum">[43]</span></p>
+
+<p>'It's a bit o' a risk,' he mumbled, 'but shure,
+if I don't have the right lad cot to-night, Jack
+Skehan is that bitther with the Hunt he'll not
+lave a fox in the woods, what wid the traps an'
+the poison.'</p>
+
+<p>That night the hunger pain hurt Redpad sorely
+again; and if he had reflected upon the subject,
+he might have envied the squirrels, who, during
+that hard March weather, eked out a living upon
+germinating beechmast, or the badgers who dug up
+and ate the acrid tubers of the wild arum. But the
+Fur Folk do not possess the faculty of comparing
+their own lot with that of others. Perhaps they
+are all the happier that they lack it.</p>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/p043.jpg" width="400" height="195"  alt="p043.jpg" title="p043.jpg">
+
+<p>It was after midnight, and the moon was not
+long risen, when Redpad trotted by the gate of the
+field where the sheep were. He had no idea of
+taking a lamb. They were all able to run well by
+now, and he had too much respect for the hoofs
+of the old ewes to attack the entire flock. He
+crept under the gate (there be those who say that
+a fox will not do this, but the hedgerow rabbits
+whom the fox stalks know better) and then he
+found the carcase of the lamb. His recent experience
+with the rabbit paunch had made him wary, otherwise
+he might have eaten of it, for he was very
+hungry; but to his sharp senses something seemed<span class="pagenum">[44]</span>
+not altogether right&mdash;perhaps the taint of human
+hands was still upon the food&mdash;and he passed on.
+For two hours he hunted in the fields, but the
+meagre results only whetted his appetite. Then
+he recollected the dead lamb, and desire for one full
+meal overcame his caution, and he returned to the
+place.</p>
+
+<p>The moon, which had been obscured by sullen
+clouds, here brightened a little, and he caught sight
+of the lamb's carcase in the fern, gleaming in the
+dusk. He was hurrying up to it, when suddenly,
+by a wandering night breeze, he winded dog, and
+at the same instant the clouds broke entirely from
+the moon. Redpad stood petrified, for not thirty
+yards away, his back turned and his foot on the dead
+lamb, crouched Jack Skehan's tried sheep-dog. He
+looked up, and snarled at the sheep who stared
+fearfully at him. Evidently he was devouring
+his last night's kill, before attacking the flock.
+As Redpad watched, the dog tore off a mouthful
+and swallowed it. Then he growled again, and
+Redpad slunk silently away. The dog was lightly
+built, and smaller than he was, but he was thin
+and weak, and in no condition to fight. The Fur
+Folk seldom contest a kill, and besides, in Redpad's
+mind, dogs were so intimately connected with men
+that he was by no means certain that a man might<span class="pagenum">[45]</span>
+not lurk under the wall. But as he went there
+was a half-strangled, hysterical yell behind him.
+The dog suddenly leaped up, and rushed madly
+towards the gate, as though in his terror his first
+instinct was to run home. His agonised eyes,
+fear-stricken, glinted white in the moonlight, and
+there was foam on his jowl. Redpad took the
+wall in one bound, but as he sprang he heard a dull
+thud, as the dog, leaping blindly in the extremity of
+his frenzy, struck the top bar of the gate, and fell
+back struggling convulsively.</p>
+
+<p>Redpad ran as he had seldom run before, for
+he believed that the other pursued him, and that
+the mysterious madness would be upon him too
+if he were overtaken. But the hideous sounds
+which tore the silence of the night behind gradually
+grew fainter, and before he had crossed the demesne
+wall the dog lay still and stiff beside the torn lamb.
+There Paddy Magragh found him at dawn, and went
+home chuckling; and there also, a little later, his
+owner found him, and buried him secretly in the
+corner of a turnip field.</p>
+
+<p>For obvious reasons Jack Skehan did not
+publish the story of that night abroad; but in the
+country round it was noticed ever after that his
+lambing ewes were kept in the home-field; and
+also that from this time onwards he ceased to<span class="pagenum">[46]</span>
+be accompanied everywhere by his favourite dog.
+Until recently, indeed, the identity of the sheep killer
+was only known to three persons&mdash;to Skehan himself,
+who never divulged it; to Paddy Magragh, who
+kept the secret faithfully, and only revealed it long
+afterwards in order, on another occasion, to clear the
+name of the foxes of Knockdane; and lastly to
+Redpad. But for a long while the latter avoided
+the place; for in his memory dwelt the recollection
+of that strange death which men deal to those who
+break the primitive law which ordains that man
+is placed in dominion, not only over the beasts who
+eat his bread, but over the Wild Folk of the hills
+and woods, and that his dependents and possessions
+are sacred, and not to be harmed with impunity.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/p046.jpg" width="400" height="324"  alt="p046.jpg" title="p046.jpg">
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum">[47]</span>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<p class="h3">FROM KILMANAGH TO KNOCKDANE</p>
+
+<p>From Kilmanagh Hill the highlands stretch north
+and south mile after mile, with here and there the
+grey head of a limestone crag protruding through
+the heather. In the less rugged spots the peasants
+have collected the stones and piled them up, so as to
+enclose a tiny half-acre field with a wall as strong
+and high as a rampart; but for the most part the
+country lies derelict in moor and bog&mdash;the home
+of the curlew, plover and hfox. It is a weird land
+this, which in rockbound loneliness looks out over
+the cultivated plain. From its southern limits
+can be seen the sea, a pale streak in the distance;
+and often all day long the Atlantic mists settle
+down and wrap the hills in a chill pall until sunset,
+when the sun breaks out and the moor glows
+beneath him like a wet pebble. But to-night the
+sun had long since disappeared behind the cone of
+Galtymore, and the stars had taken his place, until
+they in their turn were drowned by the January
+moon which rose, polished with frost, above the
+highest of the eastern tiers of mountains. The
+western slopes of Kilmanagh were still hidden in
+deepest shadow, but on the east every bush and<span class="pagenum">[48]</span>
+heather tuft was visible, and the faces of the limestone
+boulders glistened with rime.</p>
+
+<img class="split" src="images/left-fox.jpg" width="100" height="113"  alt="left-fox.jpg" title="left-fox.jpg">
+
+<p>A shadow glided through the bushes, and sprang
+upon a rock. The moonlight shone on the thick
+brush and ruddy pads which Knockdane knew so
+well. But Knockdane was ten miles away over
+the moors. What brought Redpad to Kilmanagh
+that winter's night? Two days before he had left
+his home covert, and travelled after sunset across
+the open country to the foot of these wild highlands
+which lie some four miles to the south of Knockdane.
+He had travelled along leisurely, hunting as he went,
+and sleeping under some rock or bush. He did not
+know why he thus wandered through an unknown
+country. He only felt a desire which he could not
+gratify&mdash;the desire which awakens earliest in the
+Fox People&mdash;the desire of Love. No matter how
+keenly January frosts bite or January sleet showers
+blow, they leave their native haunts, and wander
+away to seek a mate. Perhaps some mysterious
+hereditary instinct led Redpad to the hill, for on
+just such a night his sire had left the highlands and
+come to Knockdane three years before.</p>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/right-fox.jpg" width="100" height="176"  alt="right-fox.jpg" title="right-fox.jpg">
+
+<p>To-night Redpad climbed to the highest peak of
+Kilmanagh Hill to see the moon rise; and there,
+because he was solitary and the Love Desire so
+strong, he raised his long muzzle and yelped out his
+<span class="pagenum">[49]</span>loneliness and longing. A sheep-dog below heard and
+answered with a deep 'row-row-row!' of disgust at the
+chain which prevented him rambling from his home.</p>
+
+<p>'Yap! yap! yap!' shrilly and insistently Redpad,
+silhouetted against the moon, yelped a love
+song and challenge in one.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 422px;">
+<a name="p1" id="p1"></a>
+<img src="images/p048.jpg" width="422" height="600" alt="LONELINESS AND LONGING" title="LONELINESS AND LONGING">
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">LONELINESS AND LONGING</p>
+
+<p>From the shadowed side of Kilmanagh rose
+a call less loud and defiant than his own.
+Redpad swung round, ears cocked, pad raised,
+but the still cold air of mid-January was silent
+but for the sheep-dog's bark. He whimpered a
+little and then plunged into the heather. The
+hillside was very dark, but Redpad's nose was
+keen and told him plainly who had passed that
+way. Where the main peak of Kilmanagh meets
+the more gradual slopes which rise up to meet it
+from the plain, is a little ravine, and here the night
+air bore a faint unmistakable taint to his nostrils&mdash;fox.
+Among the shadows ahead, his eyes, catlike,
+accustomed to see in the gloom, detected something
+which appeared more solid than a shadow. He
+approached it cautiously, while a low growl arose
+in his throat. A pair of ears twitched and then slid
+into the bushes. Redpad put his nose down and
+hunted out the trail as carefully as ever he had done
+that of hare or rabbit. By and by he came to
+a clearing. The moon had just risen above the<span class="pagenum">[50]</span>
+sloping shoulders of Kilmanagh, and to fox eyes
+the hill was light. Here his quest ended, for not
+six yards from him sat the Belov&egrave;d. Her coat
+was as red as that of a winter squirrel, her brush
+was as thick as a pine sapling, and she was as
+desirable as a sunny evening in May. Therefore
+because she satisfied Redpad's longing he called
+her the Belov&egrave;d on the spot, and indeed he never
+knew her by any other name. He came forward
+cautiously, for he doubted what his reception might
+be, leaping this way and that and dropping on his
+forepads like a cub inviting a game. But the
+Belov&egrave;d had also been very solitary. She too had
+yelped the story of her loneliness to the moon. She
+trotted forward and touched Redpad caressingly, and
+then playfully rolled him over with her muzzle.
+They romped together for a few minutes, and either
+gave and received sundry love nips, and then they
+trotted down the hill in company.</p>
+
+<p>The sheep-dog was silent, but a snipe rushed
+up crying 'kek-a-kek.' Rabbits were playing
+among the furze, and there Redpad and his Belov&egrave;d
+hunted together until the moon began to sink,
+and some wet clouds from the west rose over her
+face, bringing warm rain.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>It still wanted some two hours till dawn when<span class="pagenum">[51]</span>
+Redpad and his love came back up the hill, full-fed
+and contented. The Belov&egrave;d trotted in front, and
+her mate followed some little way behind. Suddenly
+the narrow goat-path took a sharp turn, and they
+came full upon an enormous fox. He stood half an
+inch higher at the shoulder than Redpad, and his
+coat was as grey as a badger's. He bared his teeth
+a little at the sight of Redpad, but most of his attention
+was concentrated upon the Belov&egrave;d. He
+crept forward with his long neck stretched out and
+touched her red shoulder. Redpad bared his double
+row of ivory fangs and the hair along his spine rose.
+In another moment he would have flown at his
+rival's throat, had not the Belov&egrave;d, as is the custom
+of the fox-kind, taken the quarrel upon herself.
+She flew at the Grey One with a fierce growl, and
+made her teeth meet in his flank. He would have
+fought with Redpad while he had a pad left to stand
+upon, but by the law of the Woods a fox may not
+attack a vixen in the love season. He felt the
+Belov&egrave;d's strong jaws close like a trap behind his
+ears, and fled. The vixen trotted back slowly to
+her lair, glancing back now and then over her
+shoulder and growling softly at the recollection of
+her recent skirmish and many other things. And
+Redpad, her accepted suitor, followed.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<div class="p51">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p51-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p51-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[52]</span>
+
+<p>The afternoon was dull and raw. The frost
+had gone, and the fields in the plain were studded
+with pools of flood water, for much rain had fallen.</p>
+
+<p>Redpad in his lair was awakened by a frightened
+woodcock which dropped down just in front of
+him. He sat up suspiciously with cocked ears,
+for it is not the way of woodcock after a clear night
+to shift their quarters undisturbed. There was
+a faint halloa at the top of the hill: 'Try-Tra-i-y.'
+Redpad slipped silently from the warm lair, and
+the Belov&egrave;d followed him, for they both knew the
+meaning of that sound. Suddenly there was a
+joyous 'yow-yow-yow.' 'Hike! hike!' came the
+shout again; and Redpad trotted down the hill,
+for although the heather hemmed him in, he knew
+well enough what was forward on the summit.</p>
+
+<p>There is a low stone wall at the foot of Kilmanagh
+which separates a thick gorse brake from the fields,
+and Redpad squatted down behind it to watch.
+The hounds were gradually working down the hill.
+There was a man on a horse standing at a corner
+of the field, and all at once he waved his cap above
+his head. The Grey One was slinking down the
+fence. He had crossed the first field when a couple
+of hounds gave tongue close by. His heart failed
+him&mdash;he swung round to the covert again, leaped
+over Redpad with a snarl, and galloped back up<span class="pagenum">[53]</span>
+the hill. The hounds broke into the field on his
+line, wheeled like a flock of plover, and came straight
+to where Redpad lay. It was time to be stirring&mdash;a
+strange covert is no refuge to a hunted fox. Redpad
+cantered gracefully a little further up the fence, and
+just as he leaped upon the wall in full view of the
+watcher in the field, some erratic puff of wind
+told him that his Belov&egrave;d had just passed that way
+up the hill to safety. He wavered for a moment,
+then the pack spoke again and he leaped. But he
+had not gone a hundred yards before the hounds
+gave tongue behind him, and a distant voice proclaimed:
+'Gone away&mdash;awa-a-y&mdash;awa-a-y!'</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>From the very start Redpad knew where he
+was going, and set his mask towards Knockdane
+on the hill ten miles away. At first the fields he
+crossed were small, and cropped as bare as a billiard-table
+by starveling goats and sheep, while between
+them rose walls of loosely piled stone, five feet high
+and so broad that a horse could walk along the top.
+More than one horseman turned home that day
+with a red bandage round his horse's fetlock, for
+Kilmanagh stones are sharp.</p>
+
+<div class="p53">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p53-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p53-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>Two miles slipped by. Redpad kept up his
+best pace, for he felt instinctively that he had not
+increased his lead during the last half-mile, and the
+scent was good that day. He was in the best of<span class="pagenum">[54]</span>
+condition and ran strongly, but he did not know
+the hiding-places in this part of the country as well
+as those of Knockdane, and was obliged to trust
+more to his legs and less to his wits than was his
+custom.</p>
+
+<p>Presently he turned to the right and climbed
+the steep hillside to the moor. There was a big
+rabbit hole in his path into which he tried to creep,
+but just below the surface it narrowed, and he was
+obliged to back out with his coat full of dust and
+several precious moments lost. He could see the
+hounds&mdash;a pied patch on the fields below him. At
+that distance they appeared to be crawling along, but
+as a matter of fact they were racing at top speed.
+Just behind them rode a horseman on a great
+black horse, but the rest were further behind.</p>
+
+<div class="p54">
+ <div class="split" id="p54-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="split" id="p54-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>Redpad ran on steadily, for he could see Knockdane
+with its crest of trees in the distance. The
+moor was boggy, and he crossed
+patches of quagmire which trembled
+even under his light weight.
+A big grey heron burst out of a
+pool and swung skywards, and the
+snipe sprang up in every direction; but Redpad never
+paused and the hounds never checked, until the men
+began to wonder if their horses would hold out,
+and took what short cuts they might.<span class="pagenum">[55]</span></p>
+
+<p>Three miles further on the moor sloped down
+to the tilled lands again. Redpad was cantering
+along a bohireen<a name="FNanchor_1_3" id="FNanchor_1_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> when he suddenly came full
+upon a countryman mending a wall. The man
+sprang up and shouted, and a big yellow sheep-dog
+darted from his heel. Redpad cleared the fence at
+a bound, and went away over a turnip-field with
+the collie not half a dozen yards behind. The field
+was a wide one, and although he succeeded in
+shaking off his pursuer on the other side, yet the
+sudden effort told upon him. His tongue was out,
+and now and then his gallop dropped into a hurrying
+trot.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_3" id="Footnote_1_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Narrow lane.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>By now he was in fields which he knew well,
+and tried all the familiar hiding-places one after
+another. There is a 'shore' by Kilmacabee and
+a badger set in Charlesfort Wood; but the rain had
+filled the former with water, and the latter was
+blocked up.</p>
+
+<p>The early January evening began to close in
+when the home covert was still three miles away,
+but the scent lay stronger than ever on field and
+bog. Redpad was spattered with mud and his
+breath came in gasps, but he ran on gallantly over
+ploughed fields where the plover rose screaming at
+his approach, and over pastures where the sheep
+<span class="pagenum">[56]</span>stampeded. Once he met a donkey-cart crawling
+down a road. The old woman in it screamed and
+waved her shawl at his approach, and obliged him
+to turn a hundred yards out of his way, but even
+a hundred yards is far to go when limbs are weary,
+and there is withal the certain knowledge that
+the pursuers are gaining ground. Nevertheless he
+could see Knockdane more and more clearly, and
+knew that there was only another half-mile, and
+the river to be forded, before he could lie down
+in the old 'earth.' Looking back he saw that
+the hounds, though tired themselves, were coming
+on faster than ever, and he knew that he must run
+his best if he would arrive at the ford by the old
+willow before them. His heart thudded as though
+it would burst its way through his ears, and his
+famous ruddy pads felt as though each were bound
+to the earth. More than once he lay down with
+closed eyes, and had he been a soft-hearted fox
+or a vixen he would have died there and then;
+but as he was as gallant a fox as ever ran before
+the hounds to a ten mile point, he rose stiffly
+and stumbled aimlessly forward again.</p>
+
+<div class="p56">
+ <div class="split" id="p56-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="split" id="p56-2">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="split" id="p56-3">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>As he crossed the brow of the hill from
+whence the slope fell steeply down to the
+river, the sun came out over the shoulder of
+Knockdane and shone wanly on the flood<span class="pagenum">[57]</span>
+pools in the meadows. The mists were already
+rising, and the great solemn woods on the other
+side lay in shadow. The waterhens feeding on
+the river bank scuttled away as he limped down
+to the water's edge.</p>
+
+<p>The river was in full flood and rushed hurrahing
+seawards, carrying foam flakes and branches of
+trees in its coffee-coloured current. It filled its
+banks to the brim, and not a ripple was left to tell
+where the ford had been. The willow tree which
+grew beside the spot was partially uprooted and
+drooped into the water with its branches festooned
+with flotsam. Redpad paused bewildered, for
+never before had this ford failed him at his need.
+Just then the hounds broke over the brow of the
+hill and tore down the slope. Redpad saw them,
+and determined to make a desperate bid for freedom.
+Very slowly and stiffly he crept out along the
+horizontal trunk of the willow, and so into the
+smaller branches above the water, where a hound
+could not venture. The pack came up and crowded
+baying round the tree. Now and then one tried
+to follow along the trunk, but they were less nimble
+than a fox and slipped back into the water. Redpad
+lay crouched flat with his teeth bared, and no hound
+could reach him from below.</p>
+
+<p>Presently two men rode down and dismounted<span class="pagenum">[58]</span>
+from their tired horses. One was the man on the
+black horse who had ridden so well that day, and
+the other was the huntsman. The latter tried to
+climb out along the tree to Redpad, but it swayed
+so perilously that he was forced to return.</p>
+
+<p>'It's no use, sir,' he said. 'I am afraid we
+can't reach him there. Shure, it's a pity for the
+hounds not to chop him afther all, afther the way
+they hunted him.'</p>
+
+<p>'It was as fine a hunt as ever I saw,' answered the
+other. Then looking at Redpad's half-closed eyes,
+he added: 'But that fellow will never run again&mdash;he
+is dead beat, and it is a pity they did not run into
+the poor brute back yonder where he lay down.
+At all events he has cheated us of his brush, for he
+was as plucky a fox as I ever saw.'</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>With this, his requiem, in his ears, Redpad
+stretched out his muzzle on his pads and closed
+his eyes, as he had done many a morning in the old
+earth in Knockdane. The light of the after-glow
+lit up the bright coats of the two men and the tired
+hounds behind. They were only a few yards away,
+yet he knew that they could not reach him, and
+therefore paid no further attention to them. The
+water lip-lapped round the willow, and the roar of
+the flood deepened as twilight fell, and the night
+wind shivered in the aspens. A waterhen called,
+<span class="pagenum">[59]</span>
+and a flight of wild duck, quacking softly, flew over
+the hill. Redpad straightened himself slowly&mdash;then
+he gave a lurch, and dropped into the water.
+The broad stream caught him, and swept him out
+into the midcurrent. He struggled a little, but
+the eddies bound down each tired limb, and the
+ripples broke against his closed eyes. The water,
+which had so nearly cut short his life in early days,
+was a good friend to him now. As his body was
+borne down the misty stream, away from the clamour
+of the hounds into the august silences of the night,
+the waves lapped gently over his head; and under
+their kisses, his spirit drifted quietly out to the Grey
+Fields of Sleep where the souls of the Fur Folk go.</p>
+
+<p>There is no rain known there nor any sun, and
+no one is ever weary or hungry or afraid, but they
+lie wrapped in warm mists in a country where there
+is no noise nor bright light burning. They sleep on
+there and take their rest, knowing neither joy nor
+grief nor hope nor disappointment until time and
+space shall be no more.</p>
+
+<p>The moon rose over the mountains, and the flood
+sang joyfully on its way to the tumbling waves
+in the estuary.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/p059.jpg" width="400" height="231"  alt="p059.jpg" title="p059.jpg">
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<h2>THE STORY OF FLUFF-BUTTON THE RABBIT</h2>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum">[63]</span>
+
+<h2><a name="bCHAPTER_I" id="bCHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<p class="h3">HOW FLUFF-BUTTON CRIED QUITS</p>
+
+<div class="p63">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p63-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p63-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>A lane winds steeply through Knockdane Wood;
+and at the top of the hill where the trees grow
+sparsely, there is a gate leading to a furze-grown
+field. The grass is cropped short and thick by
+generations of sheep and rabbits; and the slopes
+are dotted with gorse bushes which they have
+nibbled into all kinds of fantastic shapes. Between
+the wood and the field the gorse forms a prickly
+barrier six feet high, but it tapers off to mere pin-cushions
+of eighteen inches in the open. The first
+time that White-Lamb saw the bushes, he stubbed
+his nose into them, and then cried out because the
+thorns pricked. White-Lamb had only lived two
+days of his allotted span, and had not yet learned
+that gorse is prickly.</p>
+
+<img class="split" src="images/left-rabbit.jpg" width="100" height="124"  alt="left-rabbit.jpg" title="left-rabbit.jpg">
+
+<p>There were a score of sheep in the field, and<span class="pagenum">[64]</span>
+each of them had her white lamb (or maybe two)
+running beside her; but only one White-Lamb
+comes into this story, because he was the only one
+who had anything to do with the course of events
+in Knockdane Wood, and even his influence was
+only indirect through Fluff-Button the Rabbit.
+Fluff-Button was a great hero in Knockdane, as
+any of the Fur Folk can tell you; but he would
+never have grown up at all if it had not been for
+White-Lamb, as this story will relate.</p>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/right-rabbit.jpg" width="100" height="193"  alt="right-rabbit.jpg" title="right-rabbit.jpg">
+
+<p>In the year of which I write, March and April
+changed places; for although the human calendars
+said that it was March, and in the woods the catkins
+had not shrivelled on the hazels, yet all day the
+westerly wind drove rain-storms over Knockdane.
+The lambs huddled close to their mothers with
+nothing but their restless tails appearing, when&mdash;hey
+presto&mdash;no sooner had they tucked themselves
+away comfortably, than the squall passed, and the
+sun blazed out upon the wet skirts of the rain.
+Raindrops dripped merrily from the hazel-catkins
+as the wind or a leaping squirrel shook them, and
+the air was full of the scent of wet earth and breaking
+buds.</p>
+
+<p>Towards evening the showers became less frequent,
+and the sun shot long slanting rays over Knockdane.
+The old sheep coughed as they snatched at the wet<span class="pagenum">[65]</span>
+grass, and the field resounded with the incessant
+bleating of the lambs who ran to a strange ewe and
+were butted aside.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Because White-Lamb still kept his close lamb's
+coat, and had not yet lost the instincts of his race
+in the placid vegetable life of his mother, he grew
+restless towards nightfall, and trotted over to the
+gate to look at the woods&mdash;an unknown land to
+him. The Night Longing calls to the animals who
+live under man's dominion as surely as to the Wild
+Folk, but they very seldom hear it. Sometimes,
+however, the sleepy cattle in the meadows lose
+their wits in the dark; and if a man passes by they
+forget that he is their lord and master, who in
+the daytime goads them where he will, and only
+remember that at one time their forefathers charged
+his naked ancestors through the forest, and gored
+and trampled upon them. The old impulses are
+strongest in the young animals, just as among men
+a boy burns with a hundred noble purposes which
+he will forget when he becomes a man, and soils
+his hands in the world's ways.</p>
+
+<p>The path wound away until it was lost to view
+among the fir trees; but right at the end of the
+vista, and barred across perpendicularly by the
+tall stems, was a clearing into which the sunset light
+slanted. As White-Lamb watched the light on<span class="pagenum">[66]</span>
+the path, and listened to the wind among the
+branches, he saw a shadow move among the withered
+fern stumps, and steal quickly towards him. White-Lamb
+watched it approach with his pink-tinted
+ears spread wide, and his innocent face pressed
+against the lower bar of the gate. At first he
+thought that the strange beast was a sheep, but
+a furtive gleam of sunshine touched its back and
+pointed ears and turned them ruddy. It came on
+with an easy silent gait, glancing from side to side,
+and did not perceive White-Lamb until it was quite
+close to him. Then it stopped, and eyed him
+narrowly with a pair of keen yellow eyes. White-Lamb
+felt a vague misgiving, and ran back a few
+steps towards the flock. The other slunk forward
+and slipped through a little hole at the side of the
+gate-post, whence his sharp nose peeped out. A
+dozen rabbits were playing a little distance down
+the fence, close to the sheep, and his attention was
+fixed upon these. Suddenly White-Lamb realised
+that all was not to his liking, and he uttered a loud
+and plaintive bleat. Instantly his mother raised
+her head, saw the intruder, and cried to her companions.
+The whole flock rushed together, each ewe
+with her lamb galloping beside her; and forming
+into a close circle they faced the enemy and stamped
+an insistent warning: 'Fox! fox!' The rabbits<span class="pagenum">[67]</span>
+took the alarm at once, without pausing to discover
+the reason for the stampede. A dozen scuts
+whisked in the air, and then vanished into the
+hedgerow. There was, however, one small rabbit
+who had evidently but just left the nesting burrow,
+for he showed no fear. He hopped a few feet nearer
+the hedge, and then raised himself upon his fluffy
+pad of a tail to peer over the grass.</p>
+
+<p>The fox saw his ears twitch, and glided forward
+a few feet before making a spring. But the old
+ewes took the alarm again, and stampeded. As
+White-Lamb scampered by his mother, his flying
+hoof struck the little rabbit, and brushed him
+aside. The flock then wheeled again upon the fox,
+just in time to see the rabbit's scut uppermost as he
+rolled head over heels into the runway, and hear
+the click of the fox's jaws which closed on the empty
+air at the end of his spring. He stood sulkily
+watching the sheep for a minute or two; but
+though he did not fear them individually, yet
+collectively the old ewes looked dangerously ready
+to trample upon an enemy in defence of their lambs,
+and he thought better of it. He turned away
+and cantered off towards the moor.</p>
+
+<div class="p67">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p67-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p67-2">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p67-3">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p67-4">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>That was the first time that White-Lamb saw
+Fluff-Button the Rabbit, and but for his happy
+instinct to baa for his mother, it<span class="pagenum">[68]</span>
+would have been the last. However, as it was, they
+often saw one another again, for Old Doe Rabbit had
+tunnelled her nesting burrow under a fir tree inside
+the wood, and used to lead her family out to feed
+in the evening. At first there were six of them, but
+as March turned into April, and White-Lamb's body
+grew to proportions more in keeping with his legs,
+foxes, cats and stoats took their toll, and their
+numbers diminished to three. After a time they
+achieved a certain independence. They crept out
+alone, and sat among the bluebells and combed their
+ears and pretended to be grown-up rabbits, until
+a pigeon clattering out of the fir trees or a magpie
+croaking in glee over a throstle's nest, made them
+tumble inside to their mother in a hurry. A mere
+human hunter would have said that there was
+absolutely no difference between Fluff-Button and
+his sisters, but he would have been wrong. Fluff-Button
+was no more like them than all the children
+in a human family are like one another, but only
+another rabbit could have seen the difference.
+They all had the same white dab of a tail, and the
+same ever-twitching whiskers, and they all had to
+go through the same training. All knowledge in
+the woods is divided into two kinds: those things
+which you are born knowing, and those things which
+you find out for yourself. Fluff-Button was born<span class="pagenum">[69]</span>
+knowing that grass was good to eat, but he had
+to find out for himself that the bluebell leaves,
+which look much like grass, are full of unwholesome
+slimy juice and not nice to nibble. He also had
+to find out by experience that while foxes are
+dangerous and should be avoided, sheep are quite
+harmless. When he had learned this, he used often
+to find his way to the Sheep Field all alone, and
+feed among the lambs.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Once a day Paddy Magragh used to climb the
+hill to count the sheep. At his heels slunk a yellow
+terrier with a keen nose and a silent tongue, who
+could do anything from rounding up a sheep for
+his master, to killing a fox single-handed in Knockdane.
+But for this early morning visit, life in the
+Sheep Field was very peaceful. Nothing came
+between the furze bushes and the spring sunshine
+except when a rook flew overhead, croaking a
+quaint spring song to himself, or when a filmy cloud
+raced across the sky. The gorse flowers gave out a
+heavy perfume like warm apricot jam, and the
+fine spell brought out a horde of insects to hum
+round them. The lambs played together among
+the ant-hills, and the little rabbits played also.
+The games they played were the oldest games
+in the world&mdash;tig, catch as catch can, and king
+o' the castle. But though White-Lamb often saw<span class="pagenum">[70]</span>
+Fluff-Button, and used to run and sniff at his little
+brown ears in the grass, I cannot say positively
+whether they ever talked to one another or no.
+I often lay in the bushes and watched them feed
+side by side; but the language of the Woods is
+not that of men. It is a more subtle, and yet a more
+simple language, communicated by movements of
+the eyes, ears, and whiskers, and no man has ever
+thoroughly learned it yet.</p>
+
+<p>The night after the first bluebell had opened,
+Fluff-Button went all alone to the Sheep Field at
+moonrise for the first time. He was now three-parts
+grown, and instead of feeding by the hedgerow
+with one eye on covert, he crept further and further
+out towards the middle of the pasture like any old
+buck rabbit.</p>
+
+<p>It was a chilly night; but the air on the hill was
+less cold than that in the valley, where a damp mist
+lay. A sheep-dog yelped monotonously at the end
+of his chain from a farmhouse beyond the wood;
+and at the bottom of the field short grunts and
+incessant bleating told that the sheep were feeding.
+The Sheep Field was always noisy at night. One or
+another of the ewes would lose sight of her lamb
+behind a bush, and then for a long while either cried
+to the other, and yet neither would stir; and the
+wind everlastingly sang in the trees in Knockdane.<span class="pagenum">[71]</span></p>
+
+<p>By and by a pale April moon rose, and Fluff-Button
+sat up for the tenth time to flick the dew
+from his whiskers. The bushes around him took
+curious shapes in the half-light; and wander
+where he would among them, he saw no other
+rabbit. But suddenly his long ears sprang from
+the horizontal to the vertical, and his forelegs
+stiffened. The turf of the Sheep Field was firm
+and close, and carried the sound of galloping hoofs
+like a telephone. The sheep were on the move.
+Fluff-Button, used to their senseless panics, would
+have paid little heed had not the night air brought
+another faint taint to his nostrils. As it was, he
+hopped away slowly between two furze thickets.
+Almost before he could tumble aside the sheep were
+upon him, ewe and lamb jostling one another, while
+White-Lamb, who headed the stampede, leaped the
+bushes like a chamois. They rushed into a dense
+phalanx, and all stamped their fear and anger at
+something which was approaching them between
+the gorse bushes. Fluff-Button skipped round,
+and it was well that he did so, for there, not five
+yards away, stood Magragh's yellow cur dog with
+his tongue lolling out, and his wicked eyes on the
+sheep. The Night Longing had moved him and
+strange impulses stirred within him. He had
+forgotten all about his quiet domestic life, and his<span class="pagenum">[72]</span>
+love for his master, and only listened to the voice
+which whispered that it would be good to chase
+the silly, woolly things in front of him&mdash;and leap
+upon them&mdash;and worry them. But for the moment
+he stood hesitating, for all his life it had been his
+duty to care for the sheep.</p>
+
+<div class="p71">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p71-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p71-2">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p71-3">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>It was well for the sheep that they stood firm.
+Had they broken and run, the scales, which were
+now evenly weighted, would have turned. The
+dog would have dragged them down from the sheer
+lust of killing; and after that night he would have
+developed into what every farmer hates and fears&mdash;a
+sheep-killing dog. But a weight dropped into the
+other scale, and that weight was Fluff-Button. He
+lay right in the path, and his presence decided the
+matter. Cur Dog forgot those strange impulses
+which bade him kill the sheep, and only remembered
+that here was a rabbit which was lawful prey.</p>
+
+<p>Fluff-Button doubled away nimbly from his
+rush, but even so the dog's jaws snapped together
+just behind his scut. Away they went down the
+field, the rabbit leading by a few bare yards. He
+had no time to double back into the gorse, and
+here there was no covert but a few bushes, therefore
+he headed for the wood.</p>
+
+<p>Cur Dog had won many a Sunday's coursing, and
+had something of the greyhound strain mingled<span class="pagenum">[73]</span>
+with his terrier blood. He did not give tongue,
+but ran silently with his nose to the ground. With
+his pursuer so close behind, Fluff-Button dared
+not try any of those elaborate dodges and twists
+which every rabbit knows, but he tore down the
+field like an arrow. The slope was in Cur Dog's
+favour, for a rabbit never runs his best downhill.
+He decreased his distance by a foot or two, but he
+came no nearer, for Fluff-Button strained every
+sinew, and buttoned down his ears and whiskers, that
+nothing might hinder him in the race.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Thus they reached the fence, and Fluff-Button
+cunningly slipped between two saplings, hoping that
+his enemy would dash into them in the dark, but
+Cur Dog was fortunate, and came through unscratched.
+Then began a long series of turns and
+twists among fern stumps and trees. Several
+times Fluff-Button thought that he had shaken off
+his pursuer, but every time a yelp from behind
+told him that the latter was still hot on the line.
+In a long chase the odds are against the rabbit.
+He is not accustomed to sustained efforts, and
+although only a swift dog can catch him in a dash
+to the burrow's mouth, yet if hunted far he soon
+tires. Fluff-Button longed for a bramble brake,
+but there was none near. His heart thumped
+against his ribs until he felt as though it must burst,<span class="pagenum">[74]</span>
+for just then Cur Dog gave tongue loudly and long,
+with the confidence of a hunter who knows that
+his quarry is weary.</p>
+
+<p>Fluff-Button turned down a ride. The moon
+had risen, and here where the trees grew sparsely
+it was comparatively light. Nevertheless the
+woods on either side were in deepest shadow, and
+Fluff-Button had eyes for nothing but the dog
+behind him. Hence he never saw a dark figure
+standing in the shadows, and he passed so swiftly
+that he scented nothing unusual. Neither did Cur
+Dog see or smell it as he tore down the ride, yelping
+on the trail with his nose to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly there was a flash&mdash;and a loud report
+split the silence of the woods. Cur Dog bounded
+his own height into the air, his howl died into a sob&mdash;he
+rolled over twice and then lay still.</p>
+
+<p>'Not bad in the twilight,' said the keeper,
+jerking the cartridge from his gun.</p>
+
+<p>Fluff-Button heard the report as he scudded
+through the bushes, but he never noticed that the
+galloping feet behind him had ceased. Some fifty
+yards further on was an old rabbit burrow. He
+dived into it, and lay panting in its bottommost
+recess until long after moonset. But no Cur Dog
+came to nose at the burrow's mouth.</p>
+
+<p>Thus Fluff-Button might have cried quits with<span class="pagenum">[75]</span>
+White-Lamb for the time that the latter summoned
+the flock to face the fox. But though the next
+evening found them together in the Sheep Field,
+yet they fed placidly side by side and exchanged no
+word nor sign; for it is not the way of the Wild
+Folk to show gratitude to one another.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/p075.jpg" width="400" height="389"  alt="p075.jpg" title="p075.jpg">
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum">[76]</span>
+
+<h2><a name="bCHAPTER_II" id="bCHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<p class="h3">THE SPRING LONGING</p>
+
+<p>In the valley at the foot of Knockdane Hill there
+is a great meadow. It is like an island surrounded
+by the sea, for the woods come close up to its hedge
+on all sides except on the east, where the river runs;
+and just as an island may have a lake in the middle,
+so in the centre of the Big Meadow there is a little
+copse. The trees in the copse are sycamore and
+red-stemmed pine, and in spring the ground is
+carpeted with celandines and anemones. In the
+copse there is a hollow where long ago men used
+to quarry out stones; but now it is never used, and
+the heaps of flints are draped with bramble and
+cinquefoil trails.</p>
+
+<img class="split" src="images/left-rabbit.jpg" width="100" height="124"  alt="left-rabbit.jpg" title="left-rabbit.jpg">
+
+<p>When the men ceased to dig out gravel and gave
+the copse back to the Fur Folk, an old rabbit made
+his burrow under the roots of a pine tree, and he
+or his descendants lived there ever after. At the
+time of which I write, however, the woods had been
+rigorously trapped during the winter, and one by
+one the inhabitants of the Copse Burrow had
+disappeared until there were only two doe rabbits
+left. One was Mutch, a veteran of four seasons,
+with long yellow teeth and a grey coat, well versed
+in the wiles of the woods; and the other was Cuni,<span class="pagenum">[77]</span>
+who had only been born the previous July, and
+who had fur as brown as her big soft eye.</p>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/right-rabbit.jpg" width="100" height="193"  alt="right-rabbit.jpg" title="right-rabbit.jpg">
+
+<p>From a human point of view a celandine bed is
+the most beautiful thing. It covered the copse with
+a broad sheet, softly green and golden, and the
+first things the rabbits saw when creeping from
+subterranean darkness were the golden flowers.
+Nevertheless, from the rabbit's point of view celandines
+are not so desirable. They are just the
+wrong height, and tickle the bunnies' noses as they
+hop through them; and besides, the broad leaves
+catch and retain raindrops, which is a grievous
+disadvantage when soaked and muddy paws have
+to be licked dry. At least that is what Cuni found.
+She came out when the flowers were all asleep after
+the rain, and the dawn was breaking over the
+mountains. The wind was keen and fresh, and
+bore the strong sweet scent of wet earth with it.
+The pine trees swayed and sighed&mdash;not with the
+boisterous roar with which they struggled with the
+autumn gales, but triumphantly, as though the sap
+were mounting to their topmost twigs. The light
+in the east grew primrose-coloured behind the wind-torn
+clouds, and beyond the river the rooks in the
+Ballylinch elms awoke and clamoured for the sun.</p>
+
+<p>As the gale swept along, the woods were filled
+with a spirit which, although it is as old as the<span class="pagenum">[78]</span>
+world itself, is yet born anew every year&mdash;the mad
+spirit of Spring.</p>
+
+<p>Even old Mutch felt that the season was changing.
+As for Cuni, she leaped three feet into the air, and
+tried to play at hide and seek with herself round
+an ash tree; but Mutch, who was old and surly,
+chased her into a bramble bush. It is a curious
+thing that, just as in human society some old spinsters
+ape masculine dress and ways, and prate much
+about the Rights of Women, because, poor dears,
+they do not know what those rights really are; so
+in the woods old doe rabbits or old hen birds often
+gradually adopt the colours and language of the
+other sex. Therefore Mutch coughed in a deep
+voice and gobbled grass untidily like any old buck
+rabbit, but Cuni fed daintily and watched the
+stormy sunrise.</p>
+
+<p>Presently she heard a rustle in the celandines,
+and sniffed cautiously to discover whether that
+which was coming were harmless rabbit, slinking
+stoat, or prowling cat. Suddenly there was a crisp,
+short thump which made the Copse ring: it was
+a signal. The old doe rose on her hind legs and
+listened; but Cuni peeped through the brambles
+to see from where the noise came.</p>
+
+<p>Fluff-Button sat and kicked the ground loudly
+and persistently. He did not know <i>why</i> he did so<span class="pagenum">[79]</span>
+any more than the celandines around his paws
+knew why they waved in the wind; but Fluff-Button
+knew <i>when</i> he did so and the flowers did
+not&mdash;there lay the difference. He was calling for
+his love, and as though fascinated Cuni's tremulous
+nose was thrust from covert, and she began to steal
+towards him. But as she was about to stamp an
+answer, she looked to the right and saw that old
+Mutch had hopped half-way across the clearing.</p>
+
+<div class="p79">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p79-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p79-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>Fluff-Button turned round and saw two pairs
+of ears twitch. One pair was grey and lopped with
+age, but the second pair was adorable, and he made
+up his mind quickly. He hopped towards Cuni,
+utterly disregarding Mutch, and rose on his haunches
+to display his white vest and long whiskers. Cuni
+was visibly impressed by these, and by the beauty
+of his fine scut. When he tried to caress her she
+did not turn away, but suffered him to nuzzle at
+her furry shoulder, while she gave him delicate
+tickling kisses with her whiskers. After that Fluff-Button
+knew that his cause was won.</p>
+
+<p>By now the sun was up, and the celandine
+calices expanded into perfect golden stars. The
+Spring Longing bade Fluff-Button leave the Copse
+and spend the day in the main wood, and Cuni
+went with him. They crossed the field, and entered
+a clearing where the low briars were draped with<span class="pagenum">[80]</span>
+dry grass. The rabbits crept inside a tuft and
+hollowed it out into a neat round chamber. Fluff-Button
+obliterated the door with two deft touches,
+and then they settled down side by side. No
+hawk had eyes keen enough to detect them from
+above, and any foe on legs might have passed within
+a yard and never have seen them. But there are
+other ways of hunting than by sight.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>Crash! It was noon. The rabbits, dozing contentedly
+in their form, awoke. Fluff-Button's ears
+moved the fraction of an inch, and then he squatted
+down with his eye glued to a peep-hole. Some heavy
+animal was forcing its way through the briars, but
+that did not frighten the rabbits so much as did
+a more distant sound: 'yow, yow, yowl.' 'Good
+dog!' said a voice just above their heads. Suddenly
+something rustled beside the form. The grass curtains
+were violently torn aside, and a huge grey
+rabbit head was thrust in. It was old Mutch. As
+she burst into the form her eyes glinted white as
+she glanced backwards. She thrust Cuni violently
+aside, and squatted down panting in her place,
+while Fluff-Button lay as still as death with his ears
+flattened and his paws bunched together. Cuni,
+terrified, forgot that primary rule of 'lie still,' in
+keeping of which rabbit safety lies, and ran a few<span class="pagenum">[81]</span>
+steps. The man, standing knee-deep in briars,
+saw the grass stir. 'Here! good dog!' he called;
+and motioned with his hand. There was a rush,
+a wild scuffle, and Cuni bolted down the hedge.
+It was well for her that the dog started in pursuit,
+otherwise the gun would have cracked before she
+had gone a dozen yards; but as it was the man
+dared not fire for fear of hitting his dog, and when
+he did so the shot merely buried itself harmlessly
+two feet in front of Cuni's nose.</p>
+
+<p>Now began a long chase. The dog was young
+and headstrong, and the temptation to chase the
+rabbit was too much for him; but afterwards he
+wished that he had obeyed his master's whistle
+and left her alone. For first of all Cuni led him
+through laurels against which he stubbed his nose
+at every turn; and then she took him through some
+brambles where he tore his ears; and last of all she
+raced for the Lower Wood. Here she increased her
+lead a little, and then, looping back upon her trail,
+she ran under a fallen fir tree, and went to ground
+thirty yards further on. The dog went down the
+blind lead first, then had to turn back along the true
+one to the fir tree. It took three minutes for him
+to convince himself that his game was gone, and then
+he returned, panting, to an interview with his irate
+master, after which he was a sadder and wiser dog.<span class="pagenum">[82]</span></p>
+
+<p>Cuni could not stay long underground when the
+Spring Longing was abroad in the wood, and two
+hours afterwards she crept out again. Her instinct
+led her back to the bramble patch, but, alas, the
+form was cold and empty. A jay squawked overhead
+and warned her not to linger. The jay is a
+most untrustworthy watchman and gives a false
+alarm twenty times a day; but the Wood Folk
+know that if by any chance an enemy should pass
+by, the jay will surely see it, therefore they always
+obey his warning. On this occasion the enemy
+turned out to be a stoat, and Cuni fled quaking
+lest it should be on her trail. Not until she was
+far away did she feel safe to continue her search.
+Once she ventured to signal timidly, but the only
+answer she received was from a doe rabbit, who,
+when she found that it was one of her own sex
+who had stamped, looked much as one girl in a
+ballroom might do if another invited her to stand
+up and dance.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/p082.jpg" width="300" height="160"  alt="p082.jpg" title="p082.jpg">
+</div>
+
+<p>At last Cuni came upon a trail. It was cold and
+stale, but unmistakably rabbity, and the Spring
+Longing bade her follow it. It led her through
+devious ways across the Big Meadow into the
+Celandine Copse, and thither Cuni followed it through
+an archway under a bramble. The wind had
+dropped and the Copse was silent but for the<span class="pagenum">[83]</span>
+spring chirp of an oxeye. Under the trees the scent
+was stronger but strangely irregular, as though a
+second and feebler trail were mingled with the first.
+Cuni followed it into the gravel pit, expecting a
+signal, but none came. She slid down a heap of
+tinkling shale, and her nose led her to the old cart
+road on the other side, where the grass was tender
+and beloved by the rabbits.</p>
+
+<p>Cuni could guess well enough what had happened
+here, for the trails were like a double string of beads&mdash;a
+narrow thread where the rabbits had hopped
+straight forward, and here and there an expansion
+where one or other had turned aside to graze.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Cuni turned a corner and came full
+upon Fluff-Button, who was sitting with his back
+turned to her; while just in front of him stood&mdash;Mutch.
+Fluff-Button was feeding in a nervous,
+jerky manner, and when presently Mutch crept
+up to him and touched him pleadingly, he only
+hopped away petulantly.</p>
+
+<p>Mutch, repulsed, sat up and looked round&mdash;to
+see Cuni. Whether the sight awoke in her the old
+mother instinct of the woods to drive away a young
+one able to fend for itself, or whether it was simply
+jealousy, I cannot say, for the Spring Longing works
+strange changes in the beasts; but, anyhow, she
+rushed straight at Cuni and ripped a tuft of fur<span class="pagenum">[84]</span>
+from her flank. Cuni staggered, but Mutch was
+no longer young enough to wheel and pursue her
+advantage quickly, and before she could renew
+her attack, the little rabbit, spurred by the pain and
+fear of the old bully, whisked past Fluff-Button
+into the bushes. Mutch hopped back, full of pride at
+her achievement, and sought to caress Fluff-Button
+with her whiskers. But her jealousy had over-reached
+itself. Fluff-Button had wandered all the
+way from the Wood to the Copse seeking something
+which had gone from him; and although Mutch
+had followed him all the way with caresses he had
+rejected her, for she did not satisfy the longing
+which possessed him. However, when he saw Cuni's
+little white scut scurry by, his instinct told him
+that this was what he sought. He pushed past
+Mutch unceremoniously, and leaving her behind
+to stamp impotent signals, he scampered after
+Cuni.</p>
+
+<p>He found her for the second time crouching
+among the celandines; and this time he did not
+delay, but claimed her at once. Neither did Cuni
+play any more love games, but just nestled against
+him happily.</p>
+
+<p>Could there have been found a fairer Eden than
+that Copse, and could Adam and Eve in their innocence
+have been happier than were Fluff-Button and<span class="pagenum">[85]</span>
+Cuni? Even the All-Father in Whom the woods
+live cannot make happiness more than perfect, and
+for a little while these two were perfectly happy, for
+the Spring desire was satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>If there were a tragedy in the Woods that
+day, perhaps it was that of old Mutch, who came
+upon the pair too late, for it was the first time that
+she had failed to win a partner for the summer, and
+she was bitterly jealous. However, grief and joy,
+and even life itself, are very transitory among the
+Wild Folk, and before the early evening closed in
+Mutch was grazing peacefully in the Meadow.</p>
+
+<p>And there, when the celandines shut, Fluff-Button
+and his belov&egrave;d followed her to see the moon
+rise; and the wind sang among the swelling buds
+of the warm summer days to be.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/p085.jpg" width="400" height="290"  alt="p085.jpg" title="p085.jpg">
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<span class="pagenum">[86]</span>
+
+<h2><a name="bCHAPTER_III" id="bCHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<p class="h3">THE INVASION OF GARRY'S HILL</p>
+
+<p>Fluff-Button and Cuni re-opened the big burrow
+at the top of Garry's Hill. Garry's Hill is a big
+grassy mound just outside Knockdane, with one
+stunted hawthorn growing on the top. Long ago
+many rabbits had lived here, but a mysterious
+epidemic had swept them all away, and the grass
+grew thickly over the entrance to the holes. Fluff-Button
+lay out in the woods all day and worked
+at the burrow at night. Cuni was never very far
+away from him at this time, and often made her
+form close to his; but she never allowed him to
+touch her or follow her about.</p>
+
+<img class="split" src="images/left-rabbit.jpg" width="100" height="124"  alt="left-rabbit.jpg" title="left-rabbit.jpg">
+
+<p>By and by she dug out another tunnel further
+down the field, and took particular pains that her
+mate should not find out its existence. For more
+than a month she lived apart, and he only saw
+her occasionally; but one fine day she returned to
+the burrow with six fluffy atoms hopping after her.
+At first Fluff-Button was disposed to resent their
+intrusion on his privacy, but Cuni discreetly kept
+her family away from his own particular dormitory,
+and led them out to feed at a respectful distance.</p>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/right-rabbit.jpg" width="100" height="193"  alt="right-rabbit.jpg" title="right-rabbit.jpg">
+
+<p>The six youngsters throve, for Garry's Hill was
+so exposed on all sides that if ever hawk, cat, fox<span class="pagenum">[87]</span>
+or man came near, Mother Cuni's keen senses
+discovered him, and a smart 'thump' summoned
+her family below ground at once. Of course, as
+accidents will happen, not all the six grew up. A
+cunning old vixen from Knockdane came round one
+evening and hid on the brow of the hill. Cuni's
+eldest born grew impatient, and ventured out, in spite
+of his mother's warning 'thumps.' He was never
+seen again, and neither was his sister who fed far
+out in the field one evening and was marked down
+by a stoat.</p>
+
+<p>When the survivors of the family were grown
+up, Cuni opened out an old gallery, and lined
+it with grass bents and fur from her soft body.
+She grew very morose and shy at this time, and
+would let none of her other offspring venture near.
+A few days later a second litter appeared, but Cuni
+did not lead them out to graze with the others until
+July was well begun. During the long summer
+evenings the rabbits lay and basked in the sun,
+stretching themselves on the hot sand to warm
+their white waistcoats, or fed and frolicked with
+one another. A rabbit is the most humorous and
+cheerful creature in the world&mdash;those whose lives
+are hardest and most precarious usually are&mdash;and
+delights in nothing so much as in playing off a mild
+joke on his fellows. Only Fluff-Button fed apart, and<span class="pagenum">[88]</span>
+kept his own little plot of pasture to himself; for
+he permitted no liberties, and kept strict discipline
+among his sons and daughters.</p>
+
+<p>Now that the rabbit family was so increased,
+they enlarged their quarters considerably. Sometimes
+they used the tunnels of a bygone generation,
+but more often dug them out for themselves.
+This is a plan of the burrow, and, as will be
+seen, it is very complicated and irregular. Whenever
+one of the rabbits felt inclined he dug a new
+passage, but as he generally left it unfinished, there
+were many blind alleys which led nowhere in
+particular. All the parts which are shaded in
+the plan were seldom-used 'hide-ups' and 'escapes,'
+but the rabbits knew their geography very well,
+and in times of danger generally had at least one
+'bolt-hole' open.</p>
+
+<p>That August was very wet and cold. There was
+never very much grass on Garry's Hill, and now
+what there was was wet and sodden, and the wind
+drove through the lonely hawthorn bush on the
+summit with a roaring rush. Clouds of mist drifted
+over Knockdane, and the pigeons were blown about
+the rainy skies. The hill burrow was well drained
+and dry, but on the flat lands the holes were filled
+with water, and the rabbits lay out in the damp
+woods.<span class="pagenum">[89]</span></p>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[90]</span>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/p089.jpg" width="400" height="277"  alt="p089.jpg" title="p089.jpg">
+</div>
+
+<p>Garry's Hill stood in a field, at the bottom of
+which was a blackthorn fence among whose roots
+dwelt a colony of brown rats. A stream flowed
+swiftly at the foot of the hedge, and one gusty
+afternoon when one of the rabbits crept out to
+nibble a little sodden grass, it was rising fast.
+The rabbit did not notice it, however, for the Fur
+Folk have no time to waste over what does not
+directly concern them, and even when she saw
+a big grey rat, dripping wet, run up the bank,
+she did not take the alarm.</p>
+
+<p>All the early part of the night the rain came
+down steadily until the upper galleries of the
+warren were quite wet. The burrow was pitch
+dark, and the air hot and thick, when Cuni awoke.
+She was blocked in on all sides by warm furry
+bodies, nevertheless she detected an unusual noise
+at the burrow's mouth&mdash;a faint scratching, and
+then a squeak. Something was creeping in. Cuni
+kicked the ground warningly, and as the others
+awoke, she pushed into the main passage. Something
+small and wiry beneath her paws squealed and
+snapped. Cuni darted up the passage stamping
+wildly&mdash;it was a rat.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the rest of the rabbits were awake
+and rushing about in a panic. Every now and then
+they collided in the darkness, and fled under the<span class="pagenum">[91]</span>
+impression that they had run against an enemy.
+Rabbits are like sheep: let one lose his head and the
+rest will follow suit.</p>
+
+<div class="p91">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p91-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p91-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>Suddenly there was a sonorous 'thump,' and
+Fluff-Button, king of the burrow, came out of his
+dormitory, to be nearly carried off his legs by a pair
+of rabbits who jostled past him. All at once, in
+the narrowest part of the tunnel, he came upon a
+party of rats. They were all draggled and wet,
+and crowded into the burrow for shelter, for the
+brook had risen and drowned them out of their
+homes. Fluff-Button backed into a hide-up, and
+the rats crowded after him. A rabbit cannot fight
+his best in cramped quarters, but a grown buck has
+plenty of courage when pushed into a corner, and
+his sharp claws are weapons not to be despised.
+One rat nipped Fluff-Button's shoulder, and in an
+instant the latter buried his teeth in the aggressor's
+quarters. The rat yelled, for they cut like chisels,
+and his companions came on eagerly. Like a
+schooner among a fleet of herring boats, Fluff-Button
+ploughed through the band, jostling them
+right and left, and sprang into the wider chamber
+further on where a herd of frightened doe rabbits
+crouched. Here he had more space, and when he
+heard the invaders coming, he kicked out with his
+strong hind claws. The foremost rat rolled back<span class="pagenum">[92]</span>
+limply with blood upon his snout, and instantly the
+rest threw themselves upon him with shrill cries.
+Fluff-Button took advantage of the respite to fly.
+He scuttled through the tortuous windings of the
+burrow, and through a bolt-hole to the open air. It
+was still raining fitfully, but there was a pale
+streak in the east where the sun would presently rise.
+Rabbits popped in and out of all the holes, for they
+dared not rest below ground lest the rats should
+drive them into one of the many 'hide-ups' and
+then attack them. Fluff-Button scampered over
+the brow of the hill, and into a bolt-hole on the other
+side, where he lay panting.</p>
+
+<p>There was a young rabbit of Cuni's first family,
+who, although the season was so late, had a litter
+in a remote chamber, just beyond where Fluff-Button
+lay. She dared not thump, lest the noise
+should betray her presence, but lay very still with
+four youngsters nuzzling at her side. By and by
+Fluff-Button heard something sniffing its way
+towards him, for the tunnel carried sound like a
+telephone. The anxious little mother also heard
+it, and sat up. Fluff-Button waited until he
+judged that the rat was within range, and then
+flung up a shower of sand with his hind feet. The
+rat squeaked and sat up to dust his whiskers. He
+imagined that he had come up a blind passage, and<span class="pagenum">[93]</span>
+retraced his steps. Now there were two ways
+which he might have taken, but as luck would have
+it, he chose the wrong one, and blundered up the
+gallery towards Brownie's nursery. It was shaped
+like a bottle with a long winding neck, and in the
+narrowest part he met Brownie.</p>
+
+<p>As a rule a doe rabbit is the gentlest of wild
+things; but motherhood will nerve the most timid,
+and Brownie's whiskers twitched as she faced the
+foe who was stealing towards her in the darkness.
+The rat cried out, and was answered by three or
+four of his comrades, who crowded after him. They
+were hungry, and very fierce, for they had already
+tasted blood and knew that a meal awaited them
+if they could win it.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>In mortal terror Brownie struck out right and
+left with her teeth, and sundry squeaks told her that
+her snaps had taken effect. Two rats clung to her
+on either side, but hampered as she was, she kept
+the rest at bay, for while she struggled they could
+not press past her into the nest.</p>
+
+<p>Just now the rabbits were in desperate straits.
+Two of the weaklier youngsters had been killed,
+and many more were badly bitten. Gradually the
+rats were driving them out as wolves drive sheep.
+All alone in the distant nesting burrow, Brownie
+faced her assailants and held her body as a living<span class="pagenum">[94]</span>
+shield to protect her little ones; but she was failing
+fast. The airless darkness around her seemed full
+of noise, hot gasping breathing, and snapping
+teeth.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a strong pungent odour drifted down
+the passage&mdash;an odour which every rabbit knows
+and fears; and Brownie made a last despairing
+struggle, for her nose told her as well as her eyes
+could have done that a stoat was loping towards
+the scene of the fight. The rats rallied their forces
+in alarm, and the rabbits stampeded anew, for both
+knew that their most deadly enemy was hunting
+through the warren.</p>
+
+<p>But for once in a way the stoat brought salvation
+to the rabbits on Garry's Hill, for a rash rat snapped,
+and his teeth met in the newcomer's shoulder.
+Instantly four stiletto points pierced his brain&mdash;he
+tottered round in a circle, sobbed and died.
+The stoat, with his appetite whetted, passed on and
+drove into the press of rats. They clung round him
+like leeches, but the place was very narrow and they
+could not reach his flanks. In that face-to-face
+combat in the darkness the odds were with the stoat.
+A rat's courage is indomitable and his teeth are
+sharp; but between them and those of the stoat
+there is all the difference between a scythe and
+a bayonet. Both are good cutting instruments,<span class="pagenum">[95]</span>
+but the latter is fashioned expressly for war and
+the former is not.</p>
+
+<p>The stoat went into the fray joyously. He
+slew two and drove the others back. Then, for he
+never noticed Brownie trembling in her nursery, he
+glided off and made his way to the main dormitory,
+where he found another party of rats assembled.
+These fled before him into a 'hide-up,' whither
+he followed them, and although he sustained two
+or three wounds himself, he mortally wounded
+another. The tables were now turned with a
+vengeance. The rats were in a worse plight than
+their whilom victims; for wet, starving and bewildered,
+they were hunted through a strange
+warren by their most implacable enemy. The
+rabbits had one and all retreated to the remotest
+corners which they could find, but the stoat heeded
+them not, for he killed among the panic-stricken
+rats for the sheer lust of killing. Even if by chance
+he crossed a rabbit's trail and followed it up, he
+invariably stumbled across some terrified rat who
+sat and jibbered in the darkness.</p>
+
+<div class="p95">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p95-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p95-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>At last he was satiated and retired to Fluff-Button's
+dormitory to sleep. Two rabbits were dead
+besides Brownie's litter, who had paid the grim
+penalty which is always paid by nestlings whose
+nursery is discovered. Of the rats, two had been<span class="pagenum">[96]</span>
+wounded and slain by their fellows; the stoat
+had accounted for four; as many more had bolted
+from the burrow; and the survivors, some six in
+number, cowered in an old nursery as far as possible
+from their enemy.</p>
+
+<p>The stoat slept until the day was well advanced
+towards noon, and neither rat nor rabbit dared
+to stir lest he should wake and slay once more.
+At last he rose and glided from the burrow, and
+then&mdash;and not until then&mdash;did they venture to
+leave their hiding-places.</p>
+
+<p>So that was the end of the great invasion of
+Garry's Hill, but it was long before the rabbits
+settled down afterwards. As for the remnants of
+the rats, they retreated to the little-used end of
+the warren and established a system of tiny passages
+of their own, running among those of the rabbits.
+They lived on terms of armed neutrality with their
+unwilling hosts&mdash;never daring to attack a full-grown
+buck or doe, although not so scrupulous with
+regard to nestlings; and often on warm summer
+evenings, if you hide behind the brow of the hill
+and wait, you may see the rats and rabbits feeding
+and playing side by side.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/p096.jpg" width="400" height="170"  alt="p096.jpg" title="p096.jpg">
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[97]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="bCHAPTER_IV" id="bCHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<p class="h3">THE FEAR THAT WAS IN THE WAY</p>
+
+<p>Brownie was one of the first family of Fluff-Button
+and Cuni. It has already been related how she
+fought the rats in the Garry's Hill burrow, and
+enough has been said to show that she was a
+very devoted mother, as indeed most rabbits are.
+But she had been so terrified by that experience
+that she resolved to make her next nest right away
+from the warren; so she dug a hole into the hillside
+at about a hundred yards' distance.</p>
+
+<img class="split" src="images/left-rabbit.jpg" width="100" height="124"  alt="left-rabbit.jpg" title="left-rabbit.jpg">
+
+<p>In the darkness her four babies were only known
+to her as a squeaking, naked mass, helpless and
+wholly beloved. She was ignorant of their very
+number, they had no individuality, nevertheless she
+lavished all her care upon them, and lay with them
+all day, feeding and licking them. Only at nightfall
+she crept out to feed herself, with both ears on
+the alert. But very few enemies crossed Garry's
+Hill at night. Now and then an owl hooted in
+Knockdane; the nightjars purred among the pine
+trees at the bottom of the hill; and from the warren
+came the distant bustle of the rabbit community&mdash;the
+munching of many teeth, the splashing of
+many feet in the dew, and the stamping of scores
+of signals.<span class="pagenum">[98]</span></p>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/right-rabbit.jpg" width="100" height="193"  alt="right-rabbit.jpg" title="right-rabbit.jpg">
+
+<p>The fern croziers had fully uncoiled, and the
+lowest bells on the wild hyacinth carillons were
+fading, before the babies acquired their fur jackets.
+Under ordinary circumstances they would have
+remained below ground a few days longer, but an
+unfortunate accident hurried them out into the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>Theoretically June is the month of sunshine
+and flowers; actually&mdash;in Knockdane, at all events&mdash;there
+are flowers enough, but June is too often
+ushered in by pitiless soaking rain. All the new
+greenery of the woods is saturated, and the hemlocks
+and nettles, stimulated to ardent growth,
+begin to send up their shoots waist-high. This is
+what happened in the season of which I write, for
+it rained for two nights and a day, and all the
+flowers seemed drowned. There was trouble enough
+in the Garry's Hill burrows, but it was very serious
+indeed for Brownie. A nesting-hole is dug for
+temporary use only, and has not the drainage of a
+permanent burrow. The water soon began to filter
+in from the sides, and a very respectable trickle ran
+from the entrance. By the second morning the
+bedding was soaked, and the sucklings lay in a
+pool of water. For the present they were homeless,
+and Brownie saw that the only thing was to take
+them into the fields. Three brown tots, blinking<span class="pagenum">[99]</span>
+painfully in the daylight, crawled on to the grass;
+but when the fourth appeared, Brownie sat up, and
+her nose worked as fast as the 'quaking grass' round,
+for the last little rabbit was as white as the hawthorns
+in the hedgerows. There were legends
+in Knockdane that, in the days when the beeches
+round the Great White House were saplings, there
+had been a race of white rabbits in the woods; but
+for many many years none had been seen there.
+Perhaps some long-gone ancestor had transmitted
+his singular colouring to Brownie's nestling, or else
+some trifling detail in Nature's machinery had
+been out of gear, for she had not a brown hair upon
+her, and out on the open slope was as conspicuous
+as a crow on a snowdrift. However, the Fur Folk
+live and work only in the present. They are guided
+by mysterious laws&mdash;the accumulated wisdom of
+past generations&mdash;written in the blood of those who
+went before and neglected to obey the code&mdash;and
+Brownie knew that her babies must lie out on the
+hillside, for to take them to the warren was to court
+disaster. She hid the first one in a tussock six
+feet away in one direction, and the second a few
+paces from him, while the third was left in some clover.
+The fourth&mdash;the white one&mdash;had to put up with a
+meagre root of rushes. When each little rabbit lay
+stone-still, the mother went away herself, for she<span class="pagenum">[100]</span>
+knew that her presence would only add to their
+danger. When she looked back to judge of the
+success of her stratagem, the three brown babies
+were invisible in the grass, but the white one could
+be seen all over the field. Nevertheless, because
+of the rulings of the law of the Fur Folk, Brownie
+went her way, and left her litter to shift for themselves
+during the day.</p>
+
+<p>The rain had ceased at sunrise, and, although
+grey vapours curled before the clearing lift, the
+hillside was a very pleasant place. There were
+rosy clover clubs, and the yellow bird's foot trefoil
+beloved of blue butterflies, daisies, and the dainty
+milkweed, all growing so close together that the
+grass was almost crowded out. The fluting of the
+blackbirds in Knockdane only seemed the more
+mellow for the rain, and skylarks mounted up in
+rapturous jubilee.</p>
+
+<p>The sun had climbed quite high before the
+sparrow-hawk came swinging round the wood. He
+spied the tell-tale white ears a hundred yards away,
+and turned towards them. He slanted down at
+fifty miles an hour, glanced aside six feet from
+the rush-tuft, and switch-backed upwards again&mdash;rabbit
+verily, but doubtful&mdash;uncanny&mdash;<i>white</i>.
+Again he stooped and hovered. This stillness, this
+whiteness transcended his experience. It was too<span class="pagenum">[101]</span>
+blatantly conspicuous&mdash;there was surely something
+in it not apparent to the eye. Perhaps it was a
+trap. As the hawk paused, his grim shadow fluttered
+above the youngster in the clover, and the
+latter lost his nerve. He ran a few inches and
+crouched again. The hawk saw a quarry which
+was normal and probably safe. Besides, he was
+hungry. He dropped on to the grass, and pitching
+lightly, struck. There was a little cry; and then
+flying low, overweighted with his burden, he
+skimmed across the field.</p>
+
+<div class="p101">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p101-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p101-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>That was the first, but not the last time, that
+danger turned aside from the&mdash;white rabbit I was
+about to say, but let us rather give her the dignity
+of capitals, a dignity ever afterwards hers in Knockdane,
+and speak of her as the White Rabbit. For
+the rest of the day no living things but larks and
+bumble bees came near, although once or twice a
+bullock blundered by and set the rabbits' hearts
+thit-thudding. Towards evening the mother-rabbit
+came up the hill to the nesting burrow. The babies
+heard her coming well enough, but two&mdash;the White
+One and a brown&mdash;were too well drilled to budge.
+The third, however, ran to her unsummoned, and
+was instantly punished for his disobedience, for she
+kicked him head over heels, and then signalled to
+the others that their time of waiting was over.<span class="pagenum">[102]</span>
+Whether she noticed that one was missing I cannot
+say. The Fur Folk have no time to grieve. She
+gathered the three remaining ones together, and fed
+them and licked them all over tenderly with soft
+whisker kisses.</p>
+
+<p>They spent that night on the hill. When it
+rained the babies sheltered under their mother's soft
+coat and did not know how cold it was. Brownie
+could have told how sharp the night winds were,
+and how wet the ground, but the little bodies under
+her white vest were warm, and that was compensation
+enough for her.</p>
+
+<p>The next day they again lay out on the hill;
+but alas! the sparrow-hawk has a good memory,
+and where he has killed one day, he will come the
+next. Thus it happened that on the second evening
+only two answered the mother's signal&mdash;the White
+Rabbit and a brown brother.</p>
+
+<p>On the third day Brownie took them down the
+field. It was dangerous, for the hedge was full of
+enemies, but she dared not risk the hawk again.
+Even the peeps from the hill had not prepared the
+little ones for anything so immense as the world
+into which they came, blue sky overhead and grass&mdash;a
+perfect forest peopled with strange beasts&mdash;all
+around them. Brownie was ravenous, and the
+young ones, watching her tear off grass blades and<span class="pagenum">[103]</span>
+eat them up, ventured for the first time on imitation.
+She kept her family in the ditch all day,
+she herself lying hidden close at hand with eyes and
+ears always alert for danger. Nevertheless, for all
+her care, the little brown rabbit strayed too far
+from her side, and being young and ignorant, he
+never heard the sniff-sniff of the stoat hunting
+down a runway, until it was too late. Then
+Brownie, who knew the meaning of that pitiful
+minor cry, very quickly and silently shepherded
+her one remaining young one over the fence into
+the next field; and the scent was cold before Keen
+resumed his hunting.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>So only one of the litter remained, and for three
+days Brownie guarded her jealously. On the
+fourth morning very early they went out to feed.
+The dewfall had been very heavy, and soaked
+them from nose tip to tail, and the bats wheeled
+overhead. The coat of the little White Rabbit
+looked weird in the gloom as she sat up and tried
+to comb her whiskers as her mother did. Of the
+short hot nights of June&mdash;of their mystery, and their
+majesty, and the ways of their children, what do
+men know? Nothing, but they mar much. Only
+the white owl had seen Jack Skehan go his rounds
+at sunset, and he, who, happy bird, lived where
+pole traps were unknown, how could he know the<span class="pagenum">[104]</span>
+significance of what was left on the hedge bank?
+So it came to pass that at sunrise, when the larks
+were singing on the hill, and the whitethroats
+babbling in the brambles, Brownie, slithering
+through the hedge with her suckling behind her,
+slipped her head into a snare cunningly set against
+a burrow mouth, and somersaulted into the ditch,
+drawing the noose tight round her neck. At the
+first alarm the little one bolted and hid tremulously
+in a clump of buttercups, not daring to move for
+several minutes. Then, as all was still and the
+robins began to sing again, she ventured to peep out.
+Her mother stood raised on her hind legs as she had
+often seen her before when about to climb such a
+bank; but now Brownie leaned there statue-still,
+her hind paws just dragging on the ground. The
+White Rabbit did not understand it at all. She
+bit off a few grass blades and tried to chew them
+up, but they seemed hard and stringy to her unaccustomed
+teeth, and she ventured to nuzzle at
+her mother's soft coat. It was quite warm, but
+Brownie took no notice of the caress; and when the
+little one pushed against her, she swung ever so
+gently to and fro.</p>
+
+<p>The sun rose over the crest of Garry's Hill, and
+the dragon-flies&mdash;winged needles of red and blue&mdash;hawked
+backwards and forwards over the brambles.<span class="pagenum">[105]</span>
+The White Rabbit did not stray very far from the
+place; she waited for her mother to go on, but
+Brownie gave no signal, nor did she stir. The little
+one grew uneasy, and raising herself on her fluffy
+tail licked her mother's flank to show that she was
+hungry, but even this never-failing appeal received
+no answer. Nevertheless soon afterwards, when
+Jack Skehan went the round of his snares, he found
+a doe rabbit hanging in the hedge bottom with her
+neck broken; and nestling at her side, tiptoeing
+up to reach, a little white rabbit was helping herself
+to a warm drink. Even in death Brownie fulfilled
+the first office of motherhood.</p>
+
+<div class="p105">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p105-0">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p105-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p105-2">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p105-3">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p105-4">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p105-5">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p105-6">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p105-7">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p105-8">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p105-9">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>How the White Rabbit knew that man was
+dangerous I cannot say. Hitherto she had innocently
+trusted every bird and beast; but bolt she
+did, and only just in time, as a dirty brown hand
+snatched at her. She ran up the hedge as fast as
+her stumpy legs could carry her, stubbing her nose
+against hemlock stalks, and tripping over bramble
+trailers. It seemed to her that she had run many
+miles, but as a matter of fact it was only ten yards
+before she flopped down, utterly breathless, with
+her flanks heaving. For the first time she was
+afraid&mdash;terribly afraid. Every leaf concealed an
+enemy, every rustle seemed a footstep. Fear was
+abroad on the hedgeside. The shadow of the man's<span class="pagenum">[106]</span>
+presence lingered even when his footsteps had
+passed into the distance. A broody blackbird
+'chinked' anxiously, and a pigeon wheeled aside
+with a '<i>swoof</i>.' A few inches from where the little
+rabbit lay gaped a bolt-hole of the hedge burrow,
+and her instinct bade her creep within into the cool,
+comfortable darkness.</p>
+
+<p>This is how the White Rabbit entered upon her
+life in the woods, orphaned, with nothing to guide
+her but the ancestral code which every rabbit knows.
+However, she had already learned three things, and
+important ones too&mdash;that hawks are dangerous,
+stoats still more so, and men are to be dreaded
+most of all.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>Were I to relate all the vicissitudes which befell
+the White Rabbit during the following days, I
+should be accused of recounting miracles; for
+perhaps under the circumstances not one rabbit in
+ten would have survived. The ditch was full of
+enemies, for hedges are the Fur Folk's highways
+from field to field, and foxes, cats, and stoats
+patrolled it from hour to hour. The next evening
+the White Rabbit worked along to the demesne
+wall, under which a little drain ran, and crept into
+the wood. If there was vastness and mystery
+in the fields, how much more under the trees?<span class="pagenum">[107]</span>
+The sanicle spread a silvery pall above the dying
+bluebells; the thick scent of the hawthorn was
+borne to and fro on the night wind; and the woodcock,
+playing in the dusk, 'chissicked' as they
+wheeled overhead. That night, for the first time,
+the White Rabbit ate grass and relished it. She
+was very hungry, and once her little teeth learned
+the knack of nibbling criss-cross up a blade, she
+found that it was pleasanter than her previous
+attempts had led her to believe. In fact, she was
+so intent upon her newly learned accomplishment
+that she never heard the owl swoop down with a
+thrum of soft wings, and then slant up just as the
+hawk had done on the hill. But she heard the
+click as he alighted on a branch overhead, and
+seeing his eyes, catlike and luminous in the gloom,
+she hid under a bush.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>A day or two later, the White Rabbit had one
+of the narrowest escapes of her life. Perhaps she
+had got over her first fright and grown reckless; at
+any rate, she came out into the grass in broad daylight.
+The field was purple with ripening grasses,
+and the warm wind bore the scent of young birch
+leaves&mdash;the sweetest of all summer scents. It was
+good to be alive. The White Rabbit lay down on
+her side, and stretched herself luxuriously in the
+hot sun. Bees hummed comfortably in the vetches,<span class="pagenum">[108]</span>
+and the grasshoppers assiduously polished their
+shanks. Suddenly, in the sunshine-chequered hedge,
+she caught sight of a curious creature moving gently
+to and fro. She had never seen anything quite
+like it before. Its deliberate, rhythmical movements
+fascinated her, and she watched it dance behind a
+dock plant and out again, with an intentness which
+rejoiced the heart of a certain wary hunter who
+crouched behind the said dock. The White Rabbit
+hopped a step or two nearer, and stood up in order
+to see this wonderful thing better. At that moment
+the cat ceased to lash its tail and sprang. The
+rabbit caught a glimpse of unsheathed claws, bared
+gums, and dilated eyes, and dived into a forest of
+cockfoot grass. The cat, at fault, made short
+excited rushes hither and thither as he heard the
+rustle of the fugitive's steps, but the White Rabbit
+flung herself into a stunted blackthorn bush and
+lay gasping. By and by, when she had recovered
+sufficiently from her fright to sit up and polish the
+'cuckoo froth' from her whiskers, she peeped out;
+and lo and behold in a runway, with his paws
+tucked away cosily before him, the cat sat and
+waited.... The White Rabbit very silently withdrew,
+and escaped by the further side of the bush.
+That was the fourth lesson she learned: Beware
+of the cat&mdash;the patient hunter.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[109]</span></p>
+
+<div class="p109">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p109-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p109-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>It was not until she was three parts grown that
+the White Doe realised that she was not in all
+respects like other rabbits. By then she had learned
+many things. She knew that the badger and the
+hedgehog and the squirrel and the shrew are quite
+harmless, but that the fox and the stoat and the
+cat must be avoided. She knew that the meadow-grass
+tastes better than either the cockfoot or the
+couch; and that the surest way to come to grief is
+to bolt into a hole without first finding out whether
+it has a back door or no. By degrees, however,
+she began to find out something more important
+still, namely, that the rest of the Fur Folk turned
+aside from her path. Did she hop into the clearing
+where the other rabbits came of nights to feed, or
+visited the Dark Pool among the sallies, then the
+circle was immediately broken up, and vanishing
+feet fired a whole volley of signals from the bushes.
+If she fed in the daytime, the squirrels overhead
+chattered and speculated until the jays took up
+the matter, and half the woodside was in a fluster.
+This knowledge did not come in a day. The
+pignut flowers died, and the enchanter's nightshade
+had sent up its faint spires in dark places before the
+White Rabbit realised her powers. It was the fox
+who opened her eyes to the fact that a certain
+magic was hers in her perilous ways. One evening<span class="pagenum">[110]</span>
+after sunset she squatted upon a 'rabbit's table.'
+There is a rabbit 'table' in almost every glade.
+It is generally a moss-grown tree stump, or more
+seldom an ant-hill, upon which the rabbits love
+to sit for the sake of the expansive view (comparatively
+speaking) which the extra twelve inches
+affords them. It is also very often a trysting-place.
+The White Rabbit was washing herself. It
+was the penalty which she paid for her uniqueness,
+that she was obliged to spend no mean portion of
+the day combing her pink ears and cleansing her
+silky stockings. Hence she neither heard nor
+winded the fox's approach until he snapped a twig
+in the clearing itself. Then, looking up, she saw
+in the shadows what appeared to be a pair of red
+stars. The blood of the White Rabbit seemed
+turned to water; she was paralysed with fear; even
+her nose ceased its eternal tremolo. She could
+only stare back, bemused with terror. It must be
+said that the fox had not entered the glade with any
+fixed idea of hunting there, he was merely passing
+through it; hence the increased awfulness of the
+apparition of the ghost-rabbit on the moss cushion.
+It was nearly dark, but a shaft of light came down
+aslant between two tree-tops. In the gloom she
+appeared larger than her natural size&mdash;misty,
+luminous. The hair along the fox's spine bristled,<span class="pagenum">[111]</span>
+a growl rose in his throat. It was so quiet, so
+light; as if fascinated he began to tiptoe forward.
+Remember that there is hardly anything white
+known in the woods, except here and there a flower.
+There is neither white bird nor beast; even the
+white eggs of the pigeon are laid where none of
+the Fur Folk can see them, except it be Koutchee
+the squirrel. Men&mdash;wiseacres&mdash;who would judge
+Nature by their printed books, talk grandly of the
+benefit of Protective Resemblance, and the Survival
+of the Fittest. They have left out of count the germ
+planted in the being of the higher Fur Folk&mdash;a germ
+which is often carried from birth to death undreamed
+of, undeveloped&mdash;but which in man, another step up
+the ladder, becomes a power which is accountable
+for untold cruelty and strife&mdash;superstition. Had
+all rabbits been white since the first of the race,
+then indeed the fox's hunting would be easy enough;
+but when once in ten generations a white rabbit
+appears, its chances of life are many times greater
+than those of its fellows, for in the eyes of the hunters
+it is compassed round with magic, a thing set apart.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The fox crept to within eight feet of the mystery
+and cowered down, for there was little or no scent
+to enlighten him as to its nature. The White
+Rabbit's red eyes were wide with horror, but under
+the nightmare spell of the fox's proximity she could<span class="pagenum">[112]</span>
+not move. Fear clogged her limbs, and she watched
+him, fascinated. She was, of course, entirely unaware
+that it was she herself who thus checked him. She
+believed herself almost invisible, and feared to
+move lest she should betray her presence, thus
+obeying the arbitrary law of her race: Lie still and
+he may pass you by. So they gazed eye to eye
+while one might pant half a score of times, and then
+a heron, sweeping by with a shriek which ripped
+the silence of the night, broke the spell. With a
+snarl the fox leaped sideways into the bushes; and
+the rabbit, ears flattened, paws twitching, crouched
+where she was until the rush of his footsteps died
+away. After this adventure the White Rabbit
+gradually grew bolder. She lived in some ready-made
+burrows in the corner of the wood, and fed
+in the field below Garry's Hill. But if a prowling
+cat or fox came by, and the rest of the community
+dived underground, the White One merely sat at
+the hole's mouth and waited; and in two cases out
+of three the hunter, after a stealthy glance, passed
+on. The third case was generally a cat who,
+more accustomed to the mysterious ways of men,
+their dependents and belongings, was not afraid to
+stalk the White Doe of Garry's Hill.</p>
+
+<p>By this time it was August, and the birds went
+to moult in the deepest thickets of Knockdane.<span class="pagenum">[113]</span>
+Only an occasional robin sang a bar or two of his
+roundelay, or a chiff-chaff, who had forgotten the
+rhythm of his call, cried 'chaff-chaff' in the beech
+trees. Big spikes of purple loosestrife crowned the
+damper clearings, and missel thrushes went out to
+the fields in straggling bands. The mornings grew
+cooler and later, damp mists steamed up from the
+river, and the beeches began to turn orange and
+brown. One fine night the cuckoos disappeared,
+and the corn-crakes prepared to follow them, for
+the corn was ripe, and all through the hazy days
+the whirr of machinery was heard from the hills,
+like some gigantic grasshopper. The squirrels and
+oxeyes squabbled in the hazels, and the badgers
+went harvesting when the moon rose. To the Fur
+Folk the autumn was a faint echo of the spring.
+There was something in the mild, still weather, and
+equal hours of day and night, which stirred them
+to vague repetition of their doings early in the year.
+The rabbits wandered away from their burrows,
+and made desultory scrapings by the pathsides,
+and the birds, the throstle and pigeon, sang again
+half heartedly. The White Rabbit, with no idea
+why she did so, also dutifully scratched little holes
+in the moss, and followed faint trails which led
+nowhere in particular. However, the first frost put
+an end to all this; and after the frosts came the<span class="pagenum">[114]</span>
+November gales, which slashed the sleet across the
+woods. Once or twice the men came to shoot in
+Knockdane, but the White Rabbit was safe enough,
+for she never made a 'form,' but always lay underground.
+In fact, there was little enough covert in
+that part of Knockdane in the winter, and in
+January, when the foxes were ravenous, the woods
+were quite bare. However, the White Rabbit
+passed unscathed through that time of peril; even
+the traps, which doubly decimated her companions,
+spared her. Nature, who had put a mark upon
+her which set her apart from her fellows, had in
+compensation gifted her with keener wits and
+judgment. As everybody knows, a rabbit track
+runs hop-dot down the hedgerow like a rosary of
+beads, and Paddy Magragh set his snares cunningly
+in the beads, which are the little patches from
+which the rabbits hop over the tussocks; but the
+White Doe went safely to and fro, merely skipping
+aside if the wicked loop struck her nose. Perhaps,
+again, it was her colour which saved her here, for
+many a bunny blundered into the noose when his
+fellows chased him in sport or anger; but the brown
+rabbits ignored the White Doe, and she hopped
+leisurely between her hole and the meadow unharmed.
+Nevertheless, towards the end of the winter, she,
+with the rest of the rabbit kind, suffered grievously<span class="pagenum">[115]</span>
+from famine, for the weather had spoiled all the
+greenery in the woods. Here again it was the White
+Rabbit who first set the example of climbing into
+the boughs of a fallen thorn tree to gnaw a meagre
+sustenance from the bark of the ivy entwined in it.
+The idea became fashionable in her burrow; and,
+clambering clumsily among the branches three or
+four feet from the ground, the rabbits chiselled
+away at the ivy until its twigs were as white as
+bone.</p>
+
+<div class="p113">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p113-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p113-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>With February&mdash;the famine month&mdash;the love
+season began in earnest. All the other rabbits
+who lived in the outlying collection of burrows
+with the White Doe, forsook them and wandered
+down into the woods; while up on Garry's Hill the
+ground was dotted with the little tufts of grey wool,
+ripped from one rival by another. The White
+Rabbit paid no attention to these changes at first,
+but led her own contented spinster life. The Wild
+Folk concern themselves very little about the doings
+of their neighbours; and had every rabbit in
+Knockdane been suddenly wiped out of existence,
+the White One would not have altered her habits in
+a single particular.</p>
+
+<p>It was not until the woodcock began to mate
+that the White Rabbit found out that she was
+lonely. Then she left her burrow and went out<span class="pagenum">[116]</span>
+into the woods, which was a dangerous thing to do
+in daylight. The robin was reciting his marriage
+vows to his mate under a holly bush; and the
+pigeons, recklessly bold, flapped lazily from tree to
+tree. The White Rabbit scraped enthusiastically
+for a few minutes, for she felt impelled to unaccountable
+energy that day, but when she had dug a few
+inches she broke off, for she could not remember
+what to do with the hole when she had finished it.
+Near at hand a buck rabbit stamped, and presently
+another, larger than he, came out of the bushes and
+fought him. The White Doe hopped towards them,
+but being stranger rabbits they broke off their
+tournament, and fled at the sight of her whiteness.
+She saw many rabbits that day, and half of them
+ran away, and the other half were indifferent. The
+White Rabbit had never felt so lonely before&mdash;not
+even when her mother had been taken from her.
+Presently she came upon a luckless rabbit which
+had been killed by a stoat an hour before. The
+White Rabbit did not know this, and went up to
+sniff at him. Here at last was something which
+would not run from her; but when she smelt the
+fresh blood and saw the wound behind his ear, she
+turned and galloped away. There was fear everywhere.
+She was feared by her own kind; and
+she again feared the blood-hunters. A wren caught<span class="pagenum">[117]</span>
+sight of her and began to scold&mdash;it, too, was afraid.
+The White Rabbit was very sorrowful.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/p116.jpg" width="400" height="200"  alt="p116.jpg" title="p116.jpg">
+</div>
+
+<p>The Love Longing was not always so strong.
+Sometimes for weeks at a time she lived alone as
+happily as heretofore. Then it would break out
+again, and send her into the woods; but she never
+found a mate, although young rabbits played outside
+the burrows, and the birds were all nesting.
+So March turned to April, and April to May, and
+the lowest bracken fronds opened like green wings
+before the crimped tops were uncurled. Then
+again one day the Love Longing came upon the
+White Rabbit, and she went to the Dark Pool where
+the Fur Folk go to drink. There are willow saplings
+all round, and the chaffinches were collecting the
+down for nest-lining, for the seeds were ripening.
+On the further side the White Doe passed a rabbit's
+'registry' tree. Most woods have their own
+registry where the buck rabbits repair in spring,
+and each tries to scrape away the bark and set the
+imprint of his teeth a little higher than his fellows.
+Most of the rabbit duels take place near these trees.
+Sometimes it is a young sycamore, or a laurel, or a
+beech, which is chosen out from among the rest;
+but in this part of Knockdane it was a willow
+sapling, peeled and scored for two feet above the
+ground, and with little paths, beaten hard by<span class="pagenum">[118]</span>
+rabbity feet, converging to it from every direction.
+As the White Doe passed by, she saw a brown buck
+rabbit, on his hind legs, leisurely rubbing his whiskers
+against the trunk; and hopping up quietly behind
+him she touched him with her white nose. He
+darted away a few paces, and sat rigid. The White
+Doe approached him beseechingly and caressed him
+with a whisker kiss; but he only stared horror-stricken
+at her wonderful pink eyes, beat his fore
+paws once or twice in surprise and dismay, and
+scudded out of sight.</p>
+
+<div class="p118">
+ <div class="split" id="p118-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="split" id="p118-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>All that day the Love Longing would not be
+satisfied, and when the White Rabbit fed outside
+her burrow after dark, the restlessness in her grew
+so strong that she crept from the shadow of the
+trees to Garry's Hill. She had scarcely ever
+visited her native warren, and on the rare occasions
+on which she wandered thither, the whole burrow
+had been thrown into a panic. It was dark on the
+hill, for the moon was behind the clouds. The
+rabbit people were all munching busily, and the
+White Rabbit, happy in a sense of companionship,
+crouched near them. Now and then one bunny, in
+the sheer joy of living, skipped three feet into the
+air, and the older bucks chivied the younger ones
+in and out of the earthworks which many generations
+of excavators had thrown up. Two rabbits<span class="pagenum">[119]</span>
+were playing 'tig' on the slope, dodging one another
+backwards and forwards. The White Doe watched
+their twinkling white scuts for a minute, and then,
+just as the moon broke from behind the clouds, with
+a hop, skip, and jump she launched herself playfully
+between the couple. They stood still for one
+paralysed instant, and then, stamping frantically,
+the whole community stampeded in every direction.
+The White Rabbit did not realise that she was
+responsible for this flight, but, believing it to mean
+cat or stoat, she bolted with the rest. She plunged
+down a burrow and scurried along never-ending
+corridors and side-ways. She could hear footsteps
+which fled before her, and all round the passages
+rang with muffled danger signals. At last she
+entered a hide-up, and hearing shuffling feet,
+explored it to its end. In the dark she collided
+with something which was furry and soft, and felt
+twitching whiskers brush her face. Another rabbit
+had taken refuge there; and surely it was&mdash;yes, it
+was&mdash;the noses of the Fur Folk are as trustworthy
+as our eyes&mdash;the same who had repulsed her in
+the wood that morning. But obviously he did
+not recognise her in the darkness, for he cowered
+to her at the end of the passage. There was comfort
+in companionship, and they huddled together,
+fearful lest something stealthy and terrible should<span class="pagenum">[120]</span>
+sniff its way towards them. The White Rabbit
+thought of stoats, but the other dreaded nameless
+things&mdash;magic things, white things&mdash;which leaped
+out of the gloom. Every now and then the White
+Rabbit turned her head and nestled against the
+soft fur of the other's shoulder. Here was rabbit&mdash;normal
+rabbit, brown rabbit&mdash;and yet he did
+not shrink from her, for in her turn she felt a
+tremulous nose sniff at her ears....</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>An hour afterwards the business of the Garry's
+Hill warren went on as usual. The White Doe was
+still below ground, but after midnight she came
+out with the Brown Buck behind her. The rest
+of the warren stamped, but little recked she. If
+the Brown Buck was staggered at the sight of her in
+the moonlight, he did not show it. White or brown,
+did he not know the scent of her who had come
+to him in the burrow, and who perhaps had stood
+between him and the misty terror that had leaped
+upon him in the dark. This was rabbit&mdash;strange,
+it is true&mdash;but still rabbit and wholly lovable.
+He put his head under her chin that she might
+scratch his ears, and this is the greatest token of
+esteem among the rabbit kind. Thus the spell was
+broken, and the fear which was round the White Doe
+was gone, for she had become as other rabbits. She<span class="pagenum">[121]</span>
+had entered into her inheritance, the inheritance of
+motherhood&mdash;the highest happiness known in the
+woods.</p>
+
+<p>They nestled side by side under the old whitethorn
+which, for once in a way, forgot to moan as
+the wind went down. The moon set, and the fur
+of the White Doe gleamed in the starlight. But now
+the rabbits around only munched unconcernedly.
+There was no more mystery about her; for, in the
+words of the greatest love song ever penned, and
+as true of the beasts as of the men for whom it
+was written, she was her belov&egrave;d's, and his desire
+was towards her.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/p121.jpg" width="400" height="320"  alt="p121.jpg" title="p121.jpg" >
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[122]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="bCHAPTER_V" id="bCHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<p class="h3">UNDER THE MOON</p>
+
+<p>A little band of forewandered plover flapped
+southwards drearily. To the east the mountains
+were still encumbered with the great snowclouds
+which had driven over Knockdane an hour before,
+and converted Garry's Hill into a white sugar loaf.
+Now it was evening, and as the red sun sank, he
+flushed the fields with a dream-pink, while the
+moon struggled over the stormy hills.</p>
+
+<img class="split" src="images/left-rabbit.jpg" width="100" height="124"  alt="left-rabbit.jpg" title="left-rabbit.jpg">
+
+<p>Cuni hopped out into the cold air and shook
+each paw delicately, for the snow clung to them.
+Her eyes looked bigger and her ears longer than
+when we saw her last, for the cruel February
+weather, which spared neither the Fur nor the
+Feather Folk, had pressed the rabbits sorely. For
+weeks frost and thaw had alternated night by night,
+and slowly killed every green leaf and blade of
+grass. Sometimes cold rain fell and soaked the
+woods, at others snow came and covered them.
+Within five hundred yards of the warren there
+was not a tuft of grass large enough to make a
+'form'; and the rabbits lay below ground in their
+damp burrows, and tried to deaden the hunger pain
+with sleep.</p>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/right-rabbit.jpg" width="100" height="193"  alt="right-rabbit.jpg" title="right-rabbit.jpg">
+
+<p>Although it was scarcely an hour since the snowstorm<span class="pagenum">[123]</span>
+had blown by, Fluff-Button had already
+left Garry's Hill for the woods; and a neat trail&mdash;two
+little tentative punches of the forefeet over-passed
+by the bolder impression of the hind&mdash;indicated
+which path he had taken. Cuni followed
+him across the field. The snow was not more than
+two inches deep and the longest grass blades peered
+through it.</p>
+
+<p>Knockdane Woods are surrounded by a mason-built
+stone wall six feet high; but in one spot the
+ivy, insinuating itself between the stones, has
+loosened them, and the smaller Fur Folk&mdash;the
+rabbits, rats, and stoats&mdash;have scratched a tunnel
+leading into the woods. Through this passage
+Cuni hopped, and passed from the bleakness of the
+white fields into an enchanted palace. Every twig
+and bough bore its burden of whiteness. The
+fir trees were converted into huge Christmas trees,
+and the beeches' branches were etched against a sky
+suffused with the illusive lilac reflections of the
+snow. There was an uncanny white glamour over
+the woods, and except for the distant roar of the
+unfrozen river rushing between its banks, a vast
+silence had fallen upon Knockdane.</p>
+
+<p>Not far from the wall, in a clearing, there is a pool.
+It is black and stagnant, with banks overgrown
+with yellow pimpernel, water flags, and rushes;<span class="pagenum">[124]</span>
+nevertheless many of the Fur Folk depend upon it
+for their water supply. To-night it was darned
+across with ice needles, and the silver 'cat-ice'
+round the edge crackled under Cuni's paws. As
+she expected, Fluff-Button was seated on the
+other bank taking a tonic. In winter when the
+grass is sodden and tasteless, rabbits are seized with
+a burning desire for strong astringent food, and
+they often wander far from their burrows to seek
+rushes, or the dry bark of saplings. To-night
+Fluff-Button gnawed the knotted roots of the wild
+iris, and as their bitterness burnt his mouth and
+made him sneeze, his nose quivered with pleasure.
+On any other night Cuni would have kept at a
+respectful distance from her lord; but to-night, in
+spite of the frost and snow, the Love Longing was
+beginning to awaken among the rabbit kind, and
+instinctively she felt that he would not repulse her.
+She approached him diffidently, and, instead of
+chasing her away, he merely glanced up and coughed.
+She squatted at his side and chiselled away at the
+iris roots, until the moon grew bright enough to light
+snow candles on every twig and bough.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 421px;">
+<a name="p2" id="p2"></a>
+<img src="images/p124.jpg" width="421" height="600" alt="FLUFF-BUTTON WAS SEATED ON THE OTHER BANK
+TAKING A TONIC" title="">
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">FLUFF-BUTTON WAS SEATED ON THE OTHER BANK
+TAKING A TONIC</p>
+
+<p>So busy were they that they never heard the
+footsteps of Garry Skehan, when, half an hour later,
+he crossed the snowy hill to Knockdane, nor
+noticed how they paused at the spot where the
+<span class="pagenum">[125]</span>double trail entered the wood. The woodcraft
+of Garry Skehan was of a rough and ready sort;
+for him wild creatures were divided into two
+broad classes&mdash;those which could be trapped and
+those which could not&mdash;but even he could tell that
+this was a rabbit run, and he chuckled over it.
+By and by he tramped away over the crisp snow, so
+softly that not even the drowsy pigeons overhead
+heard him.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the Fur Folk passed outside the wall
+that night, and each one stopped to look at the
+place where Garry Skehan had knelt and scored the
+surface with his clumsy boots. First of all a rat
+came along, trailing his naked tail callously on the
+snow behind him. He gave one glance at the spot,
+and then hurriedly crossed the wall lower down.
+By and by a stoat passed. It is not in stoat nature
+to resist a hole wherever it may lead, and this one
+gingerly thrust in his nose; but at that moment
+he caught sight of something under his feet and
+drew back quietly. The mice came by and danced
+fairy quadrilles over the snow, but they also left the
+hole in the wall alone.</p>
+
+<p>As the moon rose higher the frost began to bite,
+and the snowflakes, which had hitherto dropped
+rhythmically from the branches, were welded firmly
+together; while every leaf upon the ground was so<span class="pagenum">[126]</span>
+crisped with rime that it crackled under the touch.
+Fluff-Button and Cuni, having made a scanty meal of
+such bramble leaves and ferns as remained green,
+turned homewards. Cuni went first, for her mate
+dallied behind to scratch his whiskers against a tree
+trunk. She came to the hole in the wall and hopped
+inside, for among the stones and mortar was hollowed
+a little chamber. There was a thin wind blowing,
+which had drifted the snow against the opposite
+opening and blocked it up, but the drift was not
+thick, and crumbled away when Cuni thrust her
+nose against it. The field was a white blank,
+marked with inky shadows below the trees, and
+not a living thing was in sight.</p>
+
+<p>With one comprehensive hop Cuni alighted in
+the drift, and at the same instant something seized
+her hind leg. 'When in doubt, skip!' is the rabbit
+maxim, which she obeyed instantly, but she was
+rudely jerked back into the snow, and the grip on
+her leg tightened. She whisked round to see her
+foe, and behold there was nothing there. Cuni was
+terrified. She began to struggle desperately, but
+although the enemy's clutch tightened, there was
+nothing to be seen but a long strand of copper wire
+on the snow. Just then there was a rattle of stones,
+and Fluff-Button hopped through the wall. He
+noticed nothing amiss, and seeing that the snow<span class="pagenum">[127]</span>
+was scraped away all round he began to munch
+the frozen grass blades. In some measure his
+presence reassured Cuni. She ceased to struggle,
+and in the perfect bliss of her mate's proximity
+almost forgot the mysterious enemy that held her.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the face of the night was changed.
+A snowstorm came up and drove tiny stinging
+flakes over the woods. They sifted into the rabbits'
+coats until Fluff-Button hopped inside the wall,
+shaking his ears. Cuni tried to follow, and although
+that unknown <i>something</i> clutched her again, yet
+it permitted her to creep just inside the hole. Her
+body prevented the entrance of the driving snow,
+and Fluff-Button came and snuggled against her
+warm vest, while his twitching whiskers left soft
+'butterfly kisses' on her nose. In the mother-instinct,
+which is as easily awakened in the woods
+as among men, Cuni forgot that Fluff-Button was
+the King-Buck whose will was law in the warren, and
+only remembered that he was cold and came to her
+for warmth. She disregarded the snow which
+chilled her from without, and licked him with
+her warm tongue as tenderly as if he had been
+a sleepy suckling in the nesting burrow.</p>
+
+<div class="p127">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p127-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p127-2">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p127-3">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p127-4">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>The snowstorm passed and the rabbits
+came out again. The moon
+sailed up a sky as black and<span class="pagenum">[128]</span>
+mysterious as a forest pool; and drowned the stars,
+until only one great white one survived, and blinked
+down like a wicked eye. Fluff-Button hopped away
+evidently expecting his mate to follow him, and was
+much perplexed to find that she was unable to do
+so. He sniffed her all over carefully, beseeching
+her to accompany him. Cuni tried her best, but in
+vain, and lay down panting. Fluff-Button became
+seriously annoyed. He was not used to disobedience,
+and it must be told that he kicked his mate hard
+with his strong hind leg. Finding that this did no
+good, he became alarmed. Wild creatures hate
+and fear the unknown, and Cuni's predicament
+was a most uncanny thing to rabbit ideas. Fluff-Button
+hopped away and began to feed doubtfully
+on an old turnip rind some thirty yards off, and
+took no notice of his mate's signals and struggles.</p>
+
+<p>At last Cuni lay still and watched him. Nature
+is kind to her wild children, and after the first biting
+coldness of the snow sends a blessed lethargy which
+soothes away the pain. Cuni was fast drifting into
+this dreamy state when her senses suddenly returned
+to her and she sat up alertly. Silhouetted against
+the white field stole a lithe form&mdash;pads which made
+no noise, eyes gleaming faintly red, ears cocked
+forward towards the prey ahead of him in the
+snow, while the moonlight laid a long grotesque<span class="pagenum">[129]</span>
+shadow behind. The fox was thin and weak with
+famine, and his whole attention was riveted upon
+Fluff-Button, who sat with his back turned. He
+began to stalk his victim as noiselessly as a cat,
+taking advantage of every ant-hill or snowdrift to
+screen himself.</p>
+
+<p>There are two laws which have been given to
+the rabbit kind in the hour of danger. One is,
+'Squat and be still'; and the other is, 'Scoot, if
+you will, but let your fellows know it.' A few
+rabbits obey the first all their lives; but the majority&mdash;Cuni
+among the number&mdash;'scoot' on an alarm,
+but as they run they stamp upon the ground that
+their friends may hear and do likewise. However,
+Cuni was wounded, and her wise instinct bade her
+lie still, and then the fox would pass her by. With
+frightened fascinated eyes she watched the dark
+form slide over the snow, clapping flat if the unconscious
+Fluff-Button chanced to move.</p>
+
+<p>'Lie still,' whispered Instinct, numbing her
+limbs with fear, 'he will never see you.' But the
+Angel who works for the good of the race, and who
+sacrifices his units that his tens may be saved,
+cried: 'Stamp aloud and warn him, no matter
+what it may cost.' The two impulses struggled
+together in Cuni's heart, and the fox cramped his
+limbs together for the final rush.<span class="pagenum">[130]</span></p>
+
+<p>'Thump!' It was a very feeble little sound,
+muffled by the soft snow. 'Again!' cried the
+stronger Angel, and summoning up all her strength,
+Cuni stamped again. This time Fluff-Button heard.
+Without as much as a glance behind, he bolted for
+the wall, leaped over his mate, dashed into the
+tunnel, and the scurry of his steps died away.</p>
+
+<p>The fox checked abruptly; he knew that in the
+woods he had no chance against a cunning buck
+rabbit, and if Cuni had lain still perhaps all might
+have been well. Unluckily panic seized her, and,
+stamping again and again, she struggled for her
+freedom. The fox saw her and began to stalk
+anew, for there seemed something uncanny about this
+rabbit, and he dared not risk a rush too soon. Cuni
+forgot her pain, she forgot her fear and even that
+desire to live which is so firmly implanted in each one
+of the Fur Folk, in her overmastering rage at the
+thing which held her. With tooth and claw she
+attacked the peg round which the wire was twisted,
+but the frost had bound it firmly to the snow. Ah!
+a last spasmodic jerk wrenched it up, and trailing
+a broken leg, Cuni crept into the wall&mdash;free. Alas!
+just the other side she was brought up with a jerk.
+The peg was wedged between two stones, and she
+was as much a prisoner as ever, although just
+beyond the fox's reach. She heard his stealthy pads<span class="pagenum">[131]</span>
+scrunch on the snow the other side of the wall, and
+then he found the hole. He lay down on his side
+and thrust his head into the opening; and when
+he snorted, Cuni felt his hot breath on her whiskers.
+He began to whimper eagerly, and scrape at the
+loose stones and mortar. He worked his shoulders
+further and further in, and the little chamber was
+filled with dust. Presently he drew back&mdash;his
+cunning wits had told him of a better way. Just
+here the wall was too high to leap, but further down
+it was lower, and there he could climb over. Cuni
+heard his footsteps tiptoe away, and then her
+Guardian Angel whispered that her teeth were
+sharp and pointed out a way to freedom&mdash;but not
+the cost. She listened to the counsel, for the desire
+to live burnt fiercely within her and her leg was
+twisted and useless now, a mere encumbrance.
+There was a short, sharp struggle, and the snare and
+its captive were parted indeed. Stiff and numbed,
+she crept away among the trees.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Twenty yards further on there was a clearing
+where the snow lay soft and deep. Here Fluff-Button's
+trail could be seen plainly, and the wide
+tracks showed that he had crossed it at full gallop.
+Cuni set out to follow it, plodding along in the
+muffling snow, and stumbling into drifts at every
+step. The woods were dead&mdash;neither Fur nor<span class="pagenum">[132]</span>
+Feather Folk stirred&mdash;and Fluff-Button's solitary
+trail alone broke the blankness before her; but
+whereas his consisted of four regular punctures,
+that which she left beside it had three only, and,
+in place of the fourth, a red stain. She dared not
+pause, for the twilight was full of a horror which
+was all the greater that it was nameless and but
+dimly realised&mdash;the fear of the hunted when strength
+fails. The shadows seemed full of shining eyes
+and crouching forms which would spring if she lay
+down, for she did not know that the fox had already
+given up the quest, and left her alone.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/p131.jpg" width="400" height="194"  alt="p131.jpg" title="p131.jpg">
+</div>
+
+<p>The snow was soft and deadly cold. It clogged
+her limbs like so much clay, and the very air was so
+chilled that she seemed to draw her breath in
+nothingness.</p>
+
+<p>Still Fluff-Button's trail ran forward towards the
+Pine Tree burrows, which are warm and deep, and
+down which no fox can pass; and Cuni stumbled on
+blindly, for it is the instinct of the Fur Folk when
+maimed or sick to death to seek some hiding-place
+where not even the stars can spy upon them.</p>
+
+<p>Presently she fell into a deeper drift, and
+because she was too tired to struggle out, she lay
+still. It was good to rest awhile before setting out
+once more, and feel the pain and fear slip away
+before the blessed peace which stole over her. The<span class="pagenum">[133]</span>
+snow now seemed so warm and dark that she
+believed herself in the Pine Tree burrows, and
+nestled down as contentedly as if she leaned against
+Fluff-Button's soft coat. Her nose ceased to quiver
+as her breath came more and more faintly, and
+her big brown eye closed; while her spirit drifted
+further and further away, until it silently crossed the
+borderland into the country from which there is no
+return.</p>
+
+<p>A cloud blotted out the moon and wrapped the
+woods from end to end in the vast silence of snow.
+Great flakes as big as pigeon's feathers floated down
+into the clearing. The double trail was covered up,
+and the drifts piled higher and higher, until not even
+the tip of a dark ear peeped out to show where little
+Cuni lay.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/p133.jpg" width="400" height="495"  alt="p133.jpg" title="p133.jpg">
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[134]</span></p>
+
+<h2>STORIES FROM THE LIFE OF GRIMALKIN THE CAT</h2>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[136]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="cCHAPTER_I" id="cCHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<p class="h3">THE FIRST HUNTING</p>
+
+<div class="p137">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p137-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p137-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>When it was discovered that the stable-cat had
+a litter of kittens in the hayloft, sentence of death
+was pronounced immediately, and before noon three
+little grey corpses floated in the horse pond. The
+fourth kitten, <i>the</i> kitten, with whom this history
+deals, was actually in the water, when the cook
+came by and begged for his life in order that he
+might later rid the kitchen of mice, in spite of the
+gardener's assertion that 'Thim wild cats had a
+divil in thim as big as an ass, an' would niver quit
+ramblin'.' However, in his early days, Grimalkin
+showed no signs of any such demoniacal possession.
+He was a strangely sedate kitten. Possibly his
+narrow escape had affected his spirits, for he spent
+his days in eating such scraps as came in his way,
+in sleeping, and in evading the flying feet of the<span class="pagenum">[138]</span>
+cook and her satellites. Hence, for many days his
+horizon was bounded by the four walls of the kitchen
+and the square of backyard, in the corner of which
+was the ashpit&mdash;to feline ideas the Elysian Fields.
+The yard was enclosed by a high wall, and wooden
+doors shut it off from the outside world, so that
+at the time of which I write, Grimalkin had had
+but most fleeting glimpses of what lay beyond.</p>
+
+<img class="split" src="images/left-cat.jpg" width="100" height="118"  alt="left-cat.jpg" title="left-cat.jpg">
+
+<p>In one place the wall was overhung by a laurel
+bush, and here the sparrows used to squabble
+and chatter all day long, except when now and then
+a sinuous black form stole along the coping and
+dropped into the yard. This was the farmyard
+mouser, Sir Charles, a worthy who, although he
+possessed a name befitting a Crusader, was nevertheless
+a prowler, a poacher, and a buccaneer
+born and bred. One half of his time he spent in
+filching stray morsels from the kitchen and in
+dozing in the sun, while the rest of his days were
+passed&mdash;Grimalkin did not know where. But Paddy
+Magragh, the earthstopper of Knockdane, could
+have told you how often he saw the glossy black
+form sneaking along the hedgerows, or 'lying up'
+beside a rabbit burrow.</p>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/right-cat.jpg" width="100" height="108"  alt="right-cat.jpg" title="right-cat.jpg">
+
+<p>About the time that Grimalkin's eyes intensified
+from their original pale kitten blue to the yellow
+of maturer cathood, it happened that Sir Charles<span class="pagenum">[139]</span>
+returned from a three weeks' sojourn in the woods.
+His coat was sleek and glossy, and comfortable
+and contented was his face, as of one who had lived
+well for some time. The early autumn evening
+was drawing in after a still, misty day. Sir Charles
+squatted by the ashpit wall; and Grimalkin from
+the scullery steps noted with admiration how he drew
+his supple paw behind his ears after applying it to
+his tongue, and how he scientifically smoothed his
+sooty waistcoat. Suddenly he ceased his ablutions
+and gazed fixedly at the foot of the wall, lashing his
+tail lightly. Grimalkin, following the direction of
+his eyes, saw a tiny grey dot moving among the
+cobblestones. The black cat made a dart&mdash;springing
+out and back in two nimble bounds&mdash;then cantered
+across the yard with it in his mouth. He dropped
+it on the stones and watched it scurry for covert,
+but before it could reach it he headed it off and
+struck it with his paw. Henceforth it ran round in
+little futile circles as though bewildered, and every
+time it scuttled out of striking distance he carried
+it back to the middle of the yard. Suddenly he
+caught sight of Grimalkin, crouched hard by with
+his eyes as round as a pigeon's as he watched this
+most fascinating game. The veteran breathed a
+low growl over his shoulder which made the kitten
+shrink hastily behind the doorpost; but the next<span class="pagenum">[140]</span>
+minute he was peeping out again, staring with all his
+eyes, and no wonder, for, for the first time in his life,
+Grimalkin was witnessing the death-game which
+the cat kind play over their 'kill.' At last the
+little grey beast would run away no more, but lay
+still, gasping; and even when its captor pushed it
+with his paw it did not try to escape. The black
+cat stood up and yawned&mdash;the sport was over.
+Had it been a rat or a mouse he would have killed
+it outright and then feasted&mdash;but a shrew! Sir
+Charles was an old hunter, but since the long-gone
+day when he struck down his first rabbit, he had
+never tasted a shrew. He strolled away and left
+it where it lay. No sooner was his back turned
+than Grimalkin slipped across the yard and approached
+circumspectly. For him so far the animal
+kingdom had consisted of three divisions only:
+cats, men, and cockroaches. Evidently this was a
+fourth species, for, although not very much larger
+than a cockroach, instead of being rust coloured it
+was grey, and its coat was furry like his own.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="p140">
+ <div class="split" id="p140-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="split" id="p140-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>He touched it stealthily with his paw, but it did
+not move. Grimalkin was disappointed. He had
+liked to see it run about and struggle, and now it
+was so still; nevertheless there was something
+mysteriously alluring about it, and all unconsciously
+he began to leap and gambol round it even as the<span class="pagenum">[141]</span>
+other cat had done. He gathered it up in his paws
+and flung it over his head, leaping after it and
+shaking it, but its nose only twitched feebly and it
+fumbled with its paws. By now it was nearly
+dark, and Cook, who had an idea that a cat of any
+age was necessarily possessed of a charm to scare
+away mice, came out to look for him. For the first
+time in his life Grimalkin turned and spat at her, lest
+she should intend to snatch his treasure from him.
+Then he darted with it into the kitchen, and took
+refuge under the dresser.</p>
+
+<p>'Shure, he has a mouse cot at last,' said Cook,
+well pleased. She turned down the light, raked out
+the fire and left the room, locking the door behind
+her. Then Grimalkin crept on to the hearth,
+carrying his mouse with him. As a rule he drowsed
+happily all evening, for then there was peace in the
+kitchen, and no fear of heavy felt-shod feet descending
+upon his tail. To-night, however, he did not sleep,
+but sat and watched the glow of the embers slowly
+fade beneath a coat of white ash. Presently a
+cinder dropped with a crash, and that was a sign
+for the cockroaches to come out. They ran to and
+fro in the shadows, and the red light turned their
+wing-cases to copper. Grimalkin often caught and
+ate beetles, but to-night he did not look at them,
+but wandered restlessly about the room. After one<span class="pagenum">[142]</span>
+circuit of the walls he came back to the hearth again.
+The mouse lay where he had left it, and a bright
+red bead had risen among its fur. Grimalkin
+touched it stealthily with his tongue. It left a
+warm saline taste in his mouth&mdash;a taste he had never
+known before&mdash;the taste of fresh blood. He drew
+back licking his chops. All at once he felt afraid
+of this small still thing; but the taste of the blood
+mounted to his head like strong wine. The beetles
+still ran to and fro upon the hearth, but he did
+not look at them. He felt a vague indescribable
+yearning for something. He was not cold nor
+hungry, nor thirsty nor in pain, and yet he was
+not comfortable. Grimalkin did not know that
+it was the taste of the blood which had awakened
+this strange indefinable desire in him; nevertheless
+it was so, and an instinct was roused which would
+make it impossible for him to spend another night
+between four walls.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="p142">
+ <div class="split" id="p142-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="split" id="p142-2">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="split" id="p142-3">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="split" id="p142-4">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>The shutter of the window was carelessly fastened,
+and a sudden draught of air blew it in.
+The lower half of the casement was open,
+and the night wind bore in the rustle of
+the trees, and the sough of the breeze in
+the laurel bush by the wall&mdash;the laurel
+bush which formed a bridge from the
+yard to the woods, across which so<span class="pagenum">[143]</span>
+many generations of cats had gone forth to their
+hunting.</p>
+
+<p>Overhead the skies were cloudy, with here and
+there a befogged star. The air swayed by the south
+wind was hot and heavy. Great moths and wheeling
+bats flitted by. From the ash tree the leaves fell
+now and then with a patter like a footstep. The
+woods came up almost to the doors of the house, and
+as Grimalkin listened, the piteous scream of a
+rabbit close at hand made his whiskers stiffen and
+his tail move. The roar of the river over the weir
+rose and fell, now low now loud, as the night wind
+carried it by. Grimalkin uttered an almost inaudible
+cry. The Night Longing, that mysterious power
+which draws all animals, wild and tame, gripped
+him. You may hear a dog howling the night-long
+by his kennel&mdash;the Night Longing which he cannot
+obey hangs heavy over his mind. When evening
+comes the purring tabby dozing by the fire rises and
+steals into the cold and darkness without. It is
+always the same. Man has taken them and tamed
+them, worked them and cherished them, but once
+in a while the woods call&mdash;the woods where their
+fathers were born and hunted and died&mdash;and they
+go. It is also certain that those among men who
+spend much time alone under the free sky, feel the
+Night Longing also, and obey it.<span class="pagenum">[144]</span></p>
+
+<p>The sweet clean smells of the night called to
+Grimalkin to come. He did not know what this
+impelling force might mean. He could not know
+that for centuries this had been the hour for his
+ancestors to rise and go forth to the night's hunting.
+He only knew that, come what might, he must leap
+out into the darkness, over the garden wall and into
+the woods beyond. They filled the night with that
+vast silence which is full of movement. They
+were his inheritance. He came from the hedgerows
+and thickets, and thither he would return. Behind
+him lay the dark kitchen where the embers threw a
+glow over the dead mouse&mdash;the spoils of his first
+hunting; and in front of him were the woods and
+the night. Grimalkin poised himself upon the
+window-sill for a moment, then the Night Longing
+called again, and he leaped.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/p144.jpg" width="400" height="294"  alt="p144.jpg" title="p144.jpg">
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[145]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="cCHAPTER_II" id="cCHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<p class="h3">THE STEALTHY DEATH</p>
+
+<p>In September daylight and darkness are equally
+divided. The days are still and mellow, with a
+blue haze which clings to the shadows of the woods;
+and at night the big moon rolls over the eastern
+mountains, and turns the fog in the valleys into a
+silver sheet.</p>
+
+<img class="split" src="images/left-cat.jpg" width="100" height="118"  alt="left-cat.jpg" title="left-cat.jpg">
+
+<p>All through the warm nights the Fur Folk come
+and go through Knockdane Woods, for the men
+sleep in the Great White House and no one disturbs
+them. Strange things happen at night under the
+trees of which humans have no idea; and one of the
+strangest of all in Knockdane is the tale of how
+Grimalkin the cat tried a fall with the Stealthy
+Death and escaped alive.</p>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/right-cat.jpg" width="100" height="108"  alt="right-cat.jpg" title="right-cat.jpg">
+
+<p>For many months Grimalkin had lived a dual
+life, spending part of the day at the Great White
+House, but wandering back to the woods at night.
+But as time went on, and his strength and cunning
+increased, his visits to men became fewer and shorter,
+and his absences stretched into days and weeks.
+No cat will stay by the hearth in early summer
+when the young rabbits are out, especially when
+the blood of semi-wild ancestors runs in his veins.
+The keepers grew to recognise Grimalkin and to<span class="pagenum">[146]</span>
+hate him; and, indeed, he was recognisable enough&mdash;a
+huge grey tabby, strong enough to pull down a
+grown rabbit, and cunning enough to know a keeper
+with a gun from a prowling poacher like himself.</p>
+
+<p>There are some nights on which, although they
+may seem eminently favourable to a mere human
+hunter, the Fur Folk do not stir abroad. On the
+other hand, there are others on which they come
+forth in their scores&mdash;the hunters and the hunted&mdash;and
+such nights are known in the woods as hunters'
+nights. It was such a night in Knockdane. The
+air was warm, but a little breeze was stirring, and
+one by one the leaves floated down on their fallen
+fellows with a rustle like a faint footstep. Big white
+moths whirred round the ivy blossoms and bats
+wheeled through the clearings. The moon rose
+early, and by the time the afterglow had faded
+she was high in the sky, casting long shadows across
+the Hollow Field.</p>
+
+<p>Grimalkin trotted quickly through the wood
+with the easy swing and depressed tail of a cat
+who knows where he is going. Every now and then
+he paused with uplifted paw as some twig fell with
+a crackle to the ground, or a patter of leaves told of
+game afoot, and the green light flickered in his eyes.
+The fence which separates the Hollow Field from
+the wood had run to waste for many years, before<span class="pagenum">[147]</span>
+the blackthorns, each as thick as a man's arm,
+had been trimmed; and their roots had been
+undermined in every direction by rabbits. Inside
+the field the fence's foot was overgrown with
+tussocks of long grass, honeycombed by runways.
+It was easy to crouch in one of these until a young
+rabbit hopped within distance, and then a few soft
+steps&mdash;a pounce&mdash;and the kill. Grimalkin slid
+into the grass, which closed over his striped back
+and hid him.</p>
+
+<p>The moon was bright as day. Further down the
+fence half a dozen rabbits were feeding; but the
+other side of the field, beyond which lay a beech
+wood, was deep in shadow. Shrill threads of sound
+from a neighbouring grass tuft meant that the field
+mice were squabbling among the fallen beech nuts;
+but Grimalkin only cocked one ear and tucked his
+paws away neatly against his chest. It was a
+hunter's night and he awaited nobler quarry.</p>
+
+<p>A long hour passed. Then one of the rabbits sat
+up and kicked the ground uneasily, while the rest
+listened. A rabbit was cantering across the field
+towards them. She picked her way among the
+thistles, and stopped every now and then quivering.
+She did not seem in a hurry, and yet was apparently
+quite unaware of their presence. The other rabbits
+thumped suspiciously and scattered&mdash;there was<span class="pagenum">[148]</span>
+something uncanny about the way this rabbit ran.
+She came straight towards Grimalkin; her eyes
+were wide and staring as she glanced behind her,
+and her limbs moved stiffly. Grimalkin drew
+himself together. As she lilted within a yard of
+him, he sprang and struck. The rabbit sobbed,
+and rolled over panting. Beautiful, lithe, cruel,
+Grimalkin leaped upon her and dealt the death blow,
+ere commencing the death-game which the cat kind
+always play over the stricken quarry. He stood
+listening for a moment, and a rustle in the grass
+made him pause. His ear caught the faint unmistakable
+sound of a hunter who hunts his quarry
+by scent, and who smells fresh blood near at hand.
+Down towards the rabbit stole a stealthy dark
+shape, sniffing as it came upon the line. Keen, the
+stoat, seldom misses his kill, and woe betide the
+beast who crosses his trail; he hunts for the joy of
+killing, and in the woods they call him in whispers,
+'the Stealthy Death.' The stoat paused and saw
+the dead rabbit, and the cat standing over it with
+a wicked gleam in his small eyes. He squeaked
+once, and then&mdash;like a bent watch-spring loosed&mdash;flung
+himself upon his enemy. Had his fangs
+sunk where he intended&mdash;into the great arteries of
+the neck&mdash;Grimalkin would speedily
+have lain beside the rabbit; but<span class="pagenum">[149]</span>
+he partially missed his hold, and fastening into
+the shoulder instead, clung there like a leech.
+Grimalkin felt the hot blood trickle down, and,
+wild with fear and wrath, he smote and bit desperately
+at the clinging death which hung upon
+his neck. He had never encountered an enemy
+who fought after this fashion. His claws ripped
+the stoat's flank. With a squeak, Keen shifted his
+hold from the shoulder to the throat, half throttling
+Grimalkin. The combat raged to and fro, the cat
+striking, spitting, writhing, and the stoat battered,
+torn, flung this way and that, but all the while
+burying his fangs deeper in his victim's flesh. The
+death which Keen deals is slow but very sure.
+The dog worries, and the cat tears his prey, but
+the stoat silently sucks the life-blood, until the
+quarry, struggle as he may, succumbs at last, with
+only four tiny wounds in the throat to show how his
+strength was drained away.</p>
+
+<div class="p148">
+ <div class="split" id="p148-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="split" id="p148-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>A battle on these terms could not last. Already
+the great cat was tiring&mdash;weakened by loss of blood
+and the weight on his neck. He rolled over exhausted,
+and although his claws tore feebly at his
+enemy, his eyes were half closed and his tongue
+lolled out. Keen knew that his time had come.
+He loosened his hold for an instant, instinctively
+seeking a fresh grip upon the great blood-vessels<span class="pagenum">[150]</span>
+behind the ear. But that instant proved his
+undoing. Grimalkin, roused from his stupor by
+the prick of a new wound, rose with a sudden convulsive
+effort. His enemy was off his guard, and
+left his side exposed. Instantly Grimalkin buried
+his teeth in it. He held on grimly, crushing the
+life out of the slender writhing form until it ceased
+to quiver and throb, and hung limp. Then he flung
+it aside, and Keen, his white chest stained scarlet,
+lay stretched on the grass beside the dead rabbit.</p>
+
+<p>Grimalkin did not stay to look at this, his
+record kill. It was no time to triumph. His life-blood
+had been drained freely, he felt weary and
+strangely weak. He crawled to the hedgerow,
+and sought an old lair of his, a deserted rabbit
+burrow. Dead leaves had drifted in, and it was
+dry and safe. Here Grimalkin lay and nursed his
+wounds, until the sunshine striking on the hedge side,
+and the singing of the flies over the grey and brown
+spots in the grass, brought home to him the fact that
+he was hungry, and must go out and hunt in the
+woods again.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/p150.jpg" width="400" height="299"  alt="p150.jpg" title="p150.jpg">
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[151]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="cCHAPTER_III" id="cCHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<p class="h3">'THE COLLARED BUCK'</p>
+
+<p>On the northern slope of Knockdane there is a little
+glen whose sides are hung with ivy and aromatic
+ale-hoof, and which is so deep that even on the
+longest day of the year the sun can never climb high
+enough to shine upon its southern wall. The glen
+is strewn with limestone rocks, and at its head
+stands a twisted crab-apple tree. Beneath the roots
+of the latter there is a dry roomy chamber into
+which dead leaves have either drifted or been
+carried; for the Crab Tree burrow has been beloved
+of the Fur Folk ever since the tree itself began to
+bear a yearly load of wizened fruit. Some have
+used it as a den, some as a nursery, and many more
+as a sanctuary. Grimalkin adapted it to the first
+of these uses, and took up his abode there at the end
+of November.</p>
+
+<img class="split" src="images/left-cat.jpg" width="100" height="118"  alt="left-cat.jpg" title="left-cat.jpg">
+
+<p>Frost and snow seldom come to Knockdane
+before January. During the close of the year
+the weather is damp and mild; rain drips relentlessly
+upon the sodden ground; and the scarlet and
+orange agarics in the moss are the only things which
+flourish. One morning in mid-December Grimalkin
+went hunting among the bramble thickets of upper
+Knockdane. The whole place was traversed by an<span class="pagenum">[152]</span>
+elaborate system of runways, the geography of
+which was accurately known to the rabbit people
+alone. A warm mist lay over the woods, distilling
+into great drops on every grass blade and twig
+ere dripping to the saturated ground. Indeed, it
+was hard to tell which was the most water-logged&mdash;the
+earth or the air. Like all his race, Grimalkin
+hated the wet, and he shook his head impatiently
+as the water trickled inside his ears. The air was
+so damp and heavy among the briars that there
+was little or no scent, so that when a rabbity waft
+came to his nostrils he knew that the trail must be
+fresh. He turned down a side alley, and suddenly
+came face to face with the most amazing rabbit
+which he had ever beheld. It was large and grey,
+but the strangest thing about it was a broad white
+stripe which passed completely round its neck and
+ended in a pointed gorget. The rabbit was squatting
+with its ears flattened and its eyes half closed, and
+in this attitude the strange collar stood out round
+its neck in so uncanny a fashion that Grimalkin
+paused doubtfully. Suddenly fear leaped into its
+eyes&mdash;its ears sprang up vertically, and just as
+Grimalkin cramped himself together for a rush, the
+strange rabbit wheeled round and burst out of the
+'form.' Grimalkin pulled himself up abruptly, for
+he was too experienced a hunter to give chase;<span class="pagenum">[153]</span>
+but even in that brief space he had time to remark
+that its tail was not carried in the usual jaunty
+rabbit manner, but was depressed like that of a
+hare.</p>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/right-cat.jpg" width="100" height="108"  alt="right-cat.jpg" title="right-cat.jpg">
+
+<p>That was the first time that Grimalkin met the
+Collared Buck rabbit of upper Knockdane. The
+Collared Buck, like the lost Incas, was the last
+of his race. Years before, a whole colony of white-necked
+rabbits had lived in the hedgerows outside
+the wood, but their ornament had proved a fatal
+guide to foxes and stoats, and this winter the sole
+survivor lived in Knockdane, a hermit and a
+solitary. He had his headquarters in a burrow
+in the elder thicket above Grimalkin's glen; but
+as in that wet season, like many other of the holes
+in Knockdane, it was often full of water, he was
+obliged to 'lie up' in the woods, whether he liked
+or not. Very early in the morning, after moonset,
+he went out to feed in the sheep field by a well-worn
+track; but, as soon as the 'false dawn' appeared,
+he returned to the wood, and made a 'form' in
+some patch of fern or bramble, where he passed the
+day. Grimalkin the cat never wasted his time over
+rabbits unless there was reasonable chance of success,
+and although he often crossed the Collared Buck's
+hot trail he never turned aside to follow it. Sometimes
+indeed he caught a glimpse of the Buck himself<span class="pagenum">[154]</span>
+lilting across a clearing in the starlight, or feeding
+with a wary eye fixed on covert; but this rabbit's
+remarkable appearance was only equalled by his
+cunning, as indeed Grimalkin soon saw for himself.</p>
+
+<p>One crisp January day Grimalkin was taking
+a sun-bath in the fork of a large beech tree, when
+a sudden 'bang-bang' apprised him that men were
+in the wood, and that they were there with intent
+to slay. Grimalkin regarded men with more
+hatred and less fear than did the Fur Folk themselves,
+for his early days by the fireside had made an
+indelible impression upon him; but he was aware
+of the limitations of human discernment, and knew
+that if he remained where he was he would be
+reasonably safe. The reports of the guns came
+nearer, and presently a pair of jays flew overhead,
+squawking to all the birds within earshot that
+it was time to move on. In front of the beech tree
+the trees grew more sparsely, and the ground was
+encumbered with a low growth of fern and bramble.
+By and by the shooting party came out of the
+covert and advanced slowly up the glade. Grimalkin,
+blinking down from his coign of vantage, saw rabbit
+after rabbit bolt from its 'form' only to turn a
+somersault and collapse into a palpitating heap.
+Just below the beech tree there was a thick patch
+of briars, broken up by numerous passages and<span class="pagenum">[155]</span>
+clearings. Grimalkin, unlike the men below, had
+a bird's-eye view of the place, and just before the
+line of beaters came abreast of it a rabbit hopped
+out of a runway. His white necklet proclaimed
+that he was the Collared Buck. He sat up upon
+his curious hare-like tail, and peered through the
+bushes. Just then another shot was fired, and a
+luckless rabbit close by crawled screaming through
+the fern. The Collared Buck made up his mind&mdash;he
+rolled over limply upon his back and lay still.
+The beaters came up and began to whack the
+bushes, but he never twitched a whisker, and he
+might have escaped notice altogether had not one
+man caught sight of his white gorget gleaming in
+the grass, and walked over to pick up, as he considered,
+the dead rabbit. The Collared one lay like
+a stone until a hand was put out to seize him, then
+he suddenly leaped sideways and ran for his life.
+Bang! bang! bang! he bolted down the whole
+line of guns, and each fired as he passed; but
+although the shot clipped twigs from the bushes all
+round him, he ran on unscathed. Just out of shot
+he paused, and then quietly and deliberately crept
+down an adjacent burrow, leaving the sportsmen
+the poorer of self-respect and
+cartridges.</p>
+
+<div class="p155">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p155-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p155-2">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p155-3">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>After this the weather<span class="pagenum">[156]</span>
+became fine and warm, and the rabbits used
+to come out of their burrows to take sun-baths.
+Three times Grimalkin saw the Collared Buck
+basking outside his hole above the glen, with
+his legs sprawled on the dry leaves, and his eyes
+blinking blissfully in the heat. Three times did
+Grimalkin then attempt to stalk his prey, and
+three times did the Buck take alarm, and hop
+underground with insulting leisure. The desire to
+circumvent the Collared Buck became an obsession
+with Grimalkin. He spent hours at a stretch
+watching the burrow mouth; all in vain. He often
+caught a glimpse of the white collar, or saw the
+drooping scut flit into the bushes, but he never
+gave chase on these occasions, for he knew well that
+in a race he was no match for a rabbit, and that his
+skill in hunting depended less upon his legs than
+upon his patience. So the Collared Buck fed
+nightly in the fields, and arrogantly chiselled his
+mark upon the old willow tree which is the trysting
+place of the buck rabbits in spring, and upon which
+each sets the imprint of his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>Earlier in the autumn Grimalkin had lived principally
+upon the squirrels who squabbled among
+the beech-mast, but as the season advanced, Koutchee,
+who, though a noisy meddlesome fellow, is
+no fool, grew wary, and the suspicion of a barred<span class="pagenum">[157]</span>
+tabby tail twitching in covert was sufficient to
+send him scuttling up a tree. Henceforth Grimalkin
+lived chiefly upon thrushes. The ripening of the
+haws brought in hordes of missel-thrushes, redwings,
+and blackbirds, who tore at the crimson berries and
+littered them over the countryside with the wasteful
+profusion of the Feather Folk who take no thought
+for the morrow, and then came, full cropped and
+drowsy, to roost in Knockdane. At dark Grimalkin
+used to creep beneath the bushes which were
+weighted down with the sleepy birds, and took his
+toll. The redwings were his favourite game, for it
+was possible to strike one down silently; whereas
+no sooner did he miss a spring at throstle or blackbird
+than the whole wood knew of the occurrence.
+Creeping in the darkness among the locked laurel
+stems, Grimalkin often knew that he was not the
+only hunter abroad. Sometimes as a cloud came
+over the moon, a blackbird 'spinked' agonizedly,
+and then all at once the whole hillside seemed to
+spring into rushing whirring life as every bird
+within earshot dashed out. There would be dire
+confusion for a few minutes until the flock settled
+in another thicket, and then the patter of pads
+tiptoeing away told that the fox was also hunting
+that way that night.</p>
+
+<p>One evening Grimalkin was prowling on such<span class="pagenum">[158]</span>
+an excursion along the edge of the wood. Just in
+front of him a deep drain, cut straight through
+the hedgebank, opened into the field. This cutting
+was a favourite path of all the Fur Folk, and its
+muddy bottom was trampled by many feet, from
+the splay pugs of the badger to the fairy spoors of
+the rats. It was for the latter that Grimalkin
+waited, under a fern stub. Famine had gripped
+the rats with the rest of the Wood People, and
+drove them out to feed on the rotting beech-mast
+far from their holes. The blackbirds were arguing
+together loudly as they settled down in the laurels
+for the night; nevertheless through all the din
+Grimalkin detected a distant scurry and patter of
+feet. His practised ear soon recognised that the
+oncoming steps belonged to a running rabbit, and
+just behind he caught the galloping rustle of some
+pursuer. Grimalkin the cat feared neither fox
+nor dog, and he knew that the smaller folk all
+feared him and turned aside from his path; so that,
+with a glance to locate a convenient tree in case
+of emergency, he remained where he was. The
+bushes suddenly parted and out sprang the Collared
+Buck. His ears were laid down and his eyes
+showed the whites as he glanced behind him. He
+came straight as an arrow for the drain; not
+until he was almost upon it did he catch sight of<span class="pagenum">[159]</span>
+Grimalkin, and at that moment Redpad the fox
+came leaping upon his trail. The Collared Buck
+saw that he was in a trap. He was yet three yards
+from the bank when he jumped, but the force of his
+rush was with him and carried him into the drain.
+At the same instant the cat's claws tore his flank, but
+the smart merely spurred him to further efforts.
+He changed feet nimbly, and shot through the hedge
+far out into the field beyond. Grimalkin alighted
+on the ditch bottom in a smother of dead leaves,
+not three feet from the fox's nose. He put his
+back against the bank, and his eyes looked ugly as
+he breathed a menace. The fox stopped dead, and
+they glared eye to eye while one might pant a
+score of times. Then the fox dropped his eyes
+uneasily. He dared not face the great cat's scimitar
+claws in the narrow path, and he slid cautiously back
+in his tracks out of striking distance before leaping
+into the bushes.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Grimalkin caught a rat and a bird that night,
+and at dawn went back to his lair. He licked his
+muddy coat dry, and being full fed and comfortable
+for the first time for many days, he sang a low song
+to himself, which made the little mice, among the
+ivy at the cave's mouth, cower and hide.
+But by and by the purring ceased, and
+Grimalkin, thoughtfully watching the dim<span class="pagenum">[160]</span>
+light on the floor, growled softly at the recollection
+of the baulked spring in the hedge bottom; and in
+his dreams that night&mdash;for the Fur Folk often
+dream&mdash;his claws worked softly as though he had
+struck them into the kill.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>After that Grimalkin watched the hedge bottom
+for two nights, but the Collared Buck was wary, and
+went out to feed by another way. On the third
+evening he came again, but a breath of wind
+warned him in time of his enemy's presence. This
+happened once or twice, and then Grimalkin grew
+tired of a fruitless vigil in the damp ditch and laid
+other plans.</p>
+
+<p>One January night Grimalkin came out of his
+cave, and stealing across the glen, climbed the
+opposite wall. It was dark under the trees, but a
+white blur in the shadows guided him to the mouth
+of the burrow in the elders. Very very cautiously
+he sniffed at the place. All was well. The Buck
+had not yet gone out. Grimalkin squatted down
+within striking distance, tucked his paws away
+cosily in front of him, and waited.</p>
+
+<div class="p159">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p159-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p159-2">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p159-3">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>An hour passed&mdash;there was a stir in the burrow,
+and the Collared Buck crept out, his white throat
+a beacon in the starlight. So swiftly that it seemed
+as but one movement, Grimalkin took half a dozen<span class="pagenum">[161]</span>
+quick steps and leaped, but even as he did so the
+big rabbit stamped a sudden alarm. They rolled
+over together, Grimalkin bearing down his prey
+as a tiger will a deer, but the latter was frenzied
+with fear, and in his agony launched a desperate kick
+which caught Grimalkin upon the point of the nose.
+As he staggered back he felt the rabbit slip from
+between his claws. The Collared Buck bounded
+away among the elders, stamping an alarm at every
+stride, until his dancing white collar disappeared
+among the bushes. Grimalkin sat up and wiped
+the blood from his face. He realised that another
+point had been scored against him.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" style="width:20%">
+
+<p>An hour later as Grimalkin was passing the well-worn
+track to the Sheep Field, dawn was breaking,
+and a fine rain began to fall. He followed a path
+among the furze bushes, and on turning a corner
+caught sight of a rabbit in the grass. He stalked it
+scientifically, and from nearer covert looked at it
+again. There was no doubt but that it was the
+Collared Buck. He was lying prone upon his chest
+as though for a sun-bath, and apparently had
+noticed nothing amiss. But why should he bask
+when rain was falling? Grimalkin was uneasy.
+The Fur Folk fear what is unusual; nevertheless
+because he was hungry, and his enemy so close, he<span class="pagenum">[162]</span>
+sprang. His claws sank deep into the white collar,
+but the Collared Buck neither moved nor gasped.
+His body was warm and limp, and round his neck,
+although Grimalkin never noticed it, was twisted
+a wicked strand of brass wire. It never occurred to
+Grimalkin to question how his long-sought quarry
+had died. He drew himself up and his tail swayed
+with triumph. The Collared Buck lay beneath
+his claws and old scores were repaid. He began to
+play the death-game which the cat kind always
+play over the kill. First of all he touched the
+rabbit with his paw, daring it to rise up and run
+from him; then, as though to make surety doubly
+sure, he leaped upon it and struck again. While
+there is life in bird or beast they will struggle from
+the death-play blindly, but the Collared Buck
+lay placidly still with the rain draggling his fur
+and his eyes staring. Even his sensitive nose never
+quivered; for, although Grimalkin did not know it,
+the wire round his neck had long ago choked the
+breath in his throat. Next Grimalkin rolled upon
+the ground, and drawing the limp form towards
+him, licked its fur and caressed it, while he sang a
+song praising its strength and cunning, and vaunting
+his own superior skill as a hunter. The wrens in
+the furze scolded and flew away, for few of the lesser
+folk are bold enough to stand by while Grimalkin<span class="pagenum">[163]</span>
+plays after the kill. He gambolled to and fro like
+a kitten for the joy of feeling the strong muscles
+swell in his limbs; and growling, he dared any of
+the Wood People to snatch his prey from him.
+So absorbed was he in his game that he never heard
+a step on the close turf, and only when a blackbird
+chuckled an alarm did he look up to see Paddy
+Magragh standing watching him, with a bundle of
+rabbit snares in his hand. Then all make-believe
+was at an end. Should he, Grimalkin, Cat-King of
+Knockdane, give up his kill? He growled menacingly,
+and dragged at the body, until the peg round
+which the wire was twisted, already loosened by
+the rabbit's death-struggles, was pulled out of the
+ground.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>'Drop it, ye thafe,' shouted Paddy Magragh,
+flinging his stick at the cat. It missed its mark, and
+Grimalkin merely glared as he dragged his kill
+towards the bushes a few yards away. Magragh
+had lost his cudgel, but he strode up to kick his
+antagonist aside with his heavy boots. However,
+Grimalkin turned upon him with such a ferocious
+snarl that he drew back, for no leather would have
+been proof against those teeth. By the time
+he had fetched his stick, Grimalkin, tripping over
+his burden, had almost gained the bushes. He
+gave chase instantly, but Grimalkin had never yet<span class="pagenum">[164]</span>
+abandoned his prey, and only trotted the faster.
+They reached the bushes simultaneously. The
+earthstopper struck out brutally with his stick
+and knocked aside Grimalkin, who rolled over and
+over half stunned; but then Magragh lost his
+advantage, for he rashly stooped and laid hold of
+the rabbit. In an instant, with a strangled yell,
+Grimalkin's teeth met in his wrist. He sprang
+back with an oath as the blood trickled down.</p>
+
+<p>'Begob! there's something not right wid that
+cat,' he muttered fearfully, stepping aside. 'And
+the rabbit is a quare one. 'Tis a drop o' holy wather,
+not a stick, ye'd want for the likes o' him, I'm
+thinking.'</p>
+
+<div class="p164">
+ <div class="split" id="p164-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="split" id="p164-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>So without further interference Grimalkin returned
+to the limp body of the Collared Buck and
+dragged it laboriously into the bushes. Once
+protected by the kindly furze thorns he crouched
+down panting, lest another attack should be
+meditated, but it did not come; and presently he
+heard the earthstopper's heavy tread on the turf
+as he walked away.</p>
+
+<p>Then indeed Grimalkin's triumph was complete.
+He had even outwitted man himself, and robbed
+him of his kill. He turned to the rabbit once more,
+and played out the death-game to an end before
+returning to his lair.</p>
+
+<p class="spacer">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 425px;">
+<a name="p3" id="p3"></a>
+<img src="images/p165.jpg" width="425" height="600" alt="GRIMALKIN" title="">
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">GRIMALKIN</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[165]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="cCHAPTER_IV" id="cCHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<p class="h3">ZOE</p>
+
+<p>The day on which the first swallow came was
+marked with white in Grimalkin's calendar. He
+was looking for chaffinches' nests in the big whitethorn
+hedge at the back of Ballymore Rectory, when
+he suddenly spied a rat. The rat was sitting up
+eating a snail, and every now and then it cast a
+beady glance around; but Grimalkin slid through
+the grass like a snake, and it did not see him. He
+had cramped his limbs together for a spring when
+all at once something fell like a miniature thunderbolt
+from a neighbouring crab-tree, and alighted just
+six inches behind the rat, who dropped his supper
+and vanished in a twinkling.</p>
+
+<img class="split" src="images/left-cat.jpg" width="100" height="118"  alt="left-cat.jpg" title="left-cat.jpg">
+
+<p>Grimalkin was astonished. It was a cat&mdash;but
+what a cat! She was small, but such was the
+length of her fur that she appeared much larger than
+she really was. She had a foam-white vest and
+socks, but the rest of her coat was deep mouse colour,
+and a wide ruffle stood out on either side of her face.
+Had it been a tom-cat who had leaped at his game,
+Grimalkin's paw would speedily have buffeted his
+ears. As it was, he crept forward humbly and tried
+to attract her attention. Zoe's back gradually
+rose to a semicircle, and when he touched her she<span class="pagenum">[166]</span>
+struck him smartly across the face. Certainly love
+can work miracles, or else Grimalkin, King-Cat of
+Knockdane, would never have suffered such a blow
+quietly; but as it was he only passed his tongue
+deprecatingly over his whiskers. Zoe eyed him
+to see whether he took his punishment with due
+humility, and then sat down to wipe her ears with
+her fluffy white paw. Presently Grimalkin rolled
+over on to his back, rubbing his tabby ears. A
+deep rumbling purr vibrated his throat: 'Prr-r-eaow!'
+cried Grimalkin, with that subtle inflection
+which cats understand to mean: 'You are altogether
+desirable.' Zoe crept forward, and Grimalkin,
+rearing up his tabby length, rubbed his whiskers
+vigorously against her cheek. She too began to purr,
+but very softly and evenly; and by and by when she
+trotted away, she glanced back to intimate to him
+that he might follow if he wished.</p>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/right-cat.jpg" width="100" height="108"  alt="right-cat.jpg" title="right-cat.jpg">
+
+<p>After that they often met. Zoe was the cherished
+pet of the Rectory, and was consequently
+shut up every night; nevertheless she often eluded
+her mistress and stole down the whitethorn hedge
+where Grimalkin caught cockchafers&mdash;a trick learned
+from the blackbeetles of his kitchen days. At
+first she was reluctant to remain out for long
+together. After a little excursion she would pause
+and turn back. Instantly Grimalkin would be at<span class="pagenum">[167]</span>
+her side imploring her with all feline caresses to
+accompany him. He could not understand the
+ties of custom which bound her to her human
+friends. He had broken them long ago when a
+kitten, and was now as truly wild as any of the Fur
+Folk in Knockdane. But Zoe and her parents
+before her had lived by the fireside and eaten
+men's food, and it was more difficult for them to
+hear the call of the woods.</p>
+
+<p>Once for three days she stayed at home; but on
+the third evening she looked down the field, and
+saw Grimalkin waiting. A little cry rose in her
+throat; she dropped out of the window and ran
+to him.</p>
+
+<p>They hunted together until the long sunbeams
+were cut off by the hill, and the dew began to fall.
+A score of blackbirds piped in Knockdane, and a
+corncrake rasped in the meadow. The darkness
+fell, and the night peoples&mdash;the badgers, bats, and
+owls&mdash;came out. When the night was half gone,
+Zoe's instinct to return to her human friends
+awoke, but she was tired, and Grimalkin's presence
+was very dear to her. She felt drawn two ways.
+Instinct bade her remain in the woods; custom,
+parent of instinct, commanded her to return home.
+The shadows under the oak trees were full of the
+mysterious sights and sounds of the night. A<span class="pagenum">[168]</span>
+skylark on the hill believed that he saw the false
+dawn, and rose singing to meet it; and a cuckoo in
+the valley awoke and fluted drowsily. Out in the
+woods the ways of men seem very small and far
+away. Grimalkin looked round. 'Prr-r-eaow!'
+he cried, which being interpreted is: 'O my love,
+the desirable one'; and the cuckoo's voice mingled
+with the murmur of the river. Zoe's doubts fled.
+She forgot her former life, and all the kindness which
+she had always received from man. Grimalkin was
+calling and her heart went out to him&mdash;Knockdane
+was calling and she obeyed it. She followed her
+mate to his lair.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>At the beginning of July Zoe left Grimalkin
+altogether. Now and then he caught a glimpse of
+her, but she always fled from him as though he
+had been some dangerous thing, and for many
+nights he hunted alone.</p>
+
+<p>Years before, a south-westerly gale had driven
+in from the Atlantic, and ploughed a deep furrow
+through the fir grove at the top of Knockdane,
+piling the snapped trunks on one another. Nobody
+moved them, and they lay there in rotting heaps;
+but their fall let in the sunshine and rain to the
+earth, and the next summer a multitude of plants
+grew up where previously had been nothing but<span class="pagenum">[169]</span>
+gloomy firs. Briars ran riot over the decaying
+branches, grass grew rank and long, and alders
+pushed a way to the air and light. These were
+woven into a jungle so dense that only the rabbits
+thoroughly knew their way about in it; but the
+foxes and cats followed their runways and often
+hunted them on their own ground.</p>
+
+<p>Early one morning Grimalkin went to the
+'Jungle.' No dew had fallen for many days, and
+the sun rose up a cloudless sky. Grimalkin glided
+down a rabbit track, and so into a little clearing
+surrounded by walls of thorn and wild rose. Here
+lay a tree trunk which had been uprooted by the
+storm. Under its roots was a little cavern half
+hidden by ivy and broken branches. Grimalkin
+jumped upon the trunk, and squatted down to
+watch for rabbits and enjoy the morning sunshine.
+Presently a bough snapped behind him, and he
+turned his head very slightly. His muscles were
+tense to spring, when a soft voice of infinite motherliness
+thrilled him. 'Purr-r-utchuck!' it said,
+which in cat language means: 'Thy mother loves
+thee, little love!' Trotting towards the tree came
+Zoe. She was thin and her coat looked rough,
+but her eyes had a tender glow. Grimalkin watched
+her glide into the lair under the ivy, and then he
+leaped after her. Carefully concealed from curious<span class="pagenum">[170]</span>
+eyes was a little chamber lined with grass bents.
+On the ground squeaked and squirmed a heap of
+grey and white fur, and encircling it proudly with
+her body lay Zoe. She purred softly to her brood,
+and licked the tiny round heads thrust forward so
+eagerly for a meal. She never noticed Grimalkin
+until his shadow darkened the doorway, and then
+she sprang up&mdash;a very fierce mother&mdash;with back
+arched. In the woods motherhood for a time
+swamps all other feelings; and Zoe now looked upon
+her former lover as she would have done upon any
+other creature who threatened her kittens.</p>
+
+<div class="p169">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p169-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p169-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>However, Grimalkin had no evil intentions.
+He thrust his head into the nursery and touched
+Zoe's whiskers; and, although her claws were
+drawn back to strike, she suffered the caress. One
+of the kittens, mewing plaintively, crawled to
+Grimalkin, and thrust its minute pink nose into
+his side. Grimalkin stood frozen with horror for
+a moment, glaring at his son, then with a hiss of
+indignation he leaped into the bushes and fled.
+Henceforth he avoided the old fir tree, although
+he often met Zoe elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>That summer was long remembered in the
+countryside as 'The year of the great drought.'
+No dew or rain fell, and the whole land leaped and
+quivered in the heat all day long. The pools and<span class="pagenum">[171]</span>
+brooks dwindled, leaving cracked patches of mud
+to show where they had been. Brooding birds upon
+the nest gaped with thirst, but dared not leave
+their eggs to seek the distant river. For the
+Fur Folk in Knockdane there was only one little
+trickle of tepid water left; and all day long it was
+crowded with thirsty birds who struggled with
+one another for room to drink and bathe. It was
+hard work for Zoe in these days, for she had to hunt
+for five besides herself. She grew very thin; but
+as the kittens throve she did not spare herself, for
+that is the way of mothers, human and furred.</p>
+
+<p>One blazing noon she left her family for a little
+while, and was sitting with Grimalkin in a hawthorn
+some little way from the 'Jungle.' Their attention
+was attracted by the thud of footsteps, and they
+saw Paddy Magragh the earthstopper. He had
+paused to draw his pipe from his pocket and light
+it. The cats watched intently lest he should
+discover them, but he threw away the match and
+passed on.</p>
+
+<p>By and by Grimalkin looked down the path
+and saw what looked like a row of orange crocus
+flowers, which grew up in a moment and died down,
+leaving the ground black behind them. The cats
+came down from the tree, and at the first whiff of
+the burnt grass Zoe's back rose. She knew that<span class="pagenum">[172]</span>
+smell better than did Grimalkin, for she was more
+accustomed to the ways of men, and had sat by the
+fireside; but there the flames had been caged behind
+iron bars&mdash;here in the free woods they had it all
+their own way. Grimalkin growled, and then,
+stealthily, as though he had sighted a rabbit snare,
+he slipped into the bushes and glided away. Zoe
+stood there longer, for although she hated and feared
+the fire, yet it was less strange to her than to her
+mate.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="p173">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p173-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p173-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>The flames crept along until they came to a large
+tuft of grass, as dry as tinder. There was a sudden
+flare and the grass was gone; but the topmost
+tongue licked a bramble bush, and in an instant it
+was in a blaze. At night a fire puts on a certain
+majesty with which to cloak its terrors; but by
+day it has nothing to redeem its native fierceness.
+The brushwood was parched with the drought and
+the flames roared up the dry stems.</p>
+
+<p>Did some kind angel stoop and whisper a word
+of warning to Zoe? She suddenly turned and
+ran to the 'Jungle,' which was not very far
+away. The kittens were hungry and begged a
+meal, but she disregarded them, and, picking
+up the youngest, set off at a steady pace across
+Knockdane. The woods were quite silent but for
+the song of the birds. Close to the nursery an old<span class="pagenum">[173]</span>
+blackbird was feeding a brood of fledglings, and a
+hedgehog nosed along the path. Above the tree
+tops a faint smoke rose, quivering in the sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>Zoe trotted away with her head up, carrying the
+kitten very carefully lest her teeth should lacerate
+its tender skin. She crossed Knockdane and sought
+the open country, for she mistrusted every tree and
+thicket since she knew what she had left in the
+woods behind. She found an empty rabbit hole,
+laid the kitten inside, and cantered back to Knockdane;
+but it was more than half a mile away, and
+by the time she reached it, little white ashes were
+floating over the 'Jungle' like snowflakes, and the
+fire was singing merrily to itself. Nevertheless a
+wide path separated it from where the kittens lay,
+and so far the danger did not seem so very pressing.</p>
+
+<p>Zoe picked up a second youngster and carried
+it off. As she set her face towards Knockdane for
+the second time she saw that a thick smoke was
+rolling up and reddening the sun. The country
+lay still in the heat haze. As yet no one seemed to
+have noticed anything unusual on the hill, for
+the valley was sparsely populated, and most people
+were enjoying a siesta. When Zoe reached the
+'Jungle' she saw a frightened rabbit scudding away.
+The fire was raging in the saplings near and licking
+away the brushwood with a fierce hiss. A charred<span class="pagenum">[174]</span>
+space, littered with red embers, lay in a circle of fire
+which was encroaching ever further and further
+into the wood. The laurels crackled as the heat
+changed them to molten gold and ruby before
+dropping them into the flames. There was no
+time to be lost. Already blazing fragments were
+dropping from the tree into the dead grass at the
+edge of the 'Jungle,' and the brushwood burned like
+tinder when kindled.</p>
+
+<p>Zoe took up her third kitten, and this time she
+ran faster than before. The old blackbird was
+croaking to her brood, beseeching them to use
+their wings to escape, but they only gaped foolishly
+for more worms. The hedgehog was waddling
+through the grass as fast as his short legs would
+permit. Zoe easily overtook and passed him, but
+the kittens were heavy and the day very hot. The
+sun came through the leaves, and cast chequered
+patterns on the path. The woods were very still,
+but for the rush and crackle of the fire.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>For the third time Zoe toiled back up the hill.
+The air seemed hotter and heavier than ever, and
+smoke hung among the trees. Suddenly she came
+upon the vanguard of the fire. It had leaped the
+path and was creeping into the 'Jungle' with a
+roar. Alder, fir branch, and briar in turn flared up
+and fell before it, and the yellow flames streamed<span class="pagenum">[175]</span>
+skywards, dissolving into sparks and smoke. Behind
+lay utter desolation. The charred tree-trunks
+stood up among the surrounding blackness, and
+the leaves which the fire could not reach hung
+blistered from their twigs. The fire was not two
+hundred yards away from the fir tree. It was to be
+a race&mdash;Zoe against the flames; but the former had
+a mile to travel, and a kitten to carry into the bargain.</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes smarted from the smoke and she was
+dizzy with fatigue, but she gallantly took up her
+fourth baby, and ran for its life. She caught a
+glimpse of some men hastening up the hill, but did
+not heed them. She laid her kitten with the rest
+of the litter, and made the best of her way back
+to Knockdane.</p>
+
+<p>The 'Jungle' was crowned with flames. Everything
+was thickly peppered with ashes and the
+sun shone luridly through the smoke. For a
+moment Zoe was utterly at a loss&mdash;then she limped
+up the accustomed path towards the fir tree.
+Once or twice she trod on a burning cinder, and
+the heat made her whiskers shrivel; but she kept
+on bravely for the sake of the baby in the pine-tree
+nursery.</p>
+
+<p>She darted to the nest. There was just half a
+minute to spare before the fire would sweep up to
+the tree. The earth was burning hot, and already<span class="pagenum">[176]</span>
+the ivy leaves were blistering. She plunged into the
+hole and groped desperately for her treasure.
+The moments flew by&mdash;she could not find it. Her
+eyes were accustomed to see in the gloom, but this
+darkness was impenetrable. Ah! at last she
+touched the mewing kitten, and gripping it turned
+to fly. Outside she shrank back, for she was met
+by a veritable wall of flame. The fir tree was surrounded
+by fire, for the grass was blazing, and
+the bushes were kindling in every direction. There
+was only one place through which escape could be
+made&mdash;where the burning zone was narrowest.
+Zoe gripped the kitten tighter, laid back her ears,
+closed her eyes, and leaped. For one fierce moment
+the fire actually licked her body, and then she
+dropped safely on the ashes beyond. Her whiskers
+were gone, her beautiful ruffle had shrivelled away,
+her coat was black with ashes; but the kitten for
+whom she had dared so much was safe. She crawled
+wearily away, dragging it after her, while the fire
+leaped and danced round the old fir tree.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>At sunset, as Grimalkin prowled through the
+fields at the back of the church (for he avoided the
+woods while that mysterious bright power hunted
+there) he saw Zoe, again carrying a singed kitten.<span class="pagenum">[177]</span>
+In the hour of danger old ties had reasserted themselves.
+She was going back to man, for with all his
+ignorance he had treated her better than the wild
+had done, and already four of the kittens lay in the
+Rectory hayloft.</p>
+
+<div class="p177">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p177-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p177-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>She put up her back when she saw Grimalkin,
+but he made no attempt to stop her, and only trotted
+behind with a puzzled air. They came to the gate
+of the Rectory yard, and Zoe crawled underneath;
+but Grimalkin heard the scorched woods calling to
+him, and he could not follow, for he hated the
+abodes of men. 'Meaow!' he cried, but Zoe took no
+notice. At that moment a girl came into the yard,
+and stopped short in surprise: 'Why, Zoe, my pet!'
+she cried joyfully. Zoe, trained in caution by weeks
+of woodland life, climbed into the hayloft. The
+girl knew better than to follow her there, but
+presently she came back bearing a saucer of milk
+for the parched throat, and laid it down outside.
+Grimalkin turned and crept away.</p>
+
+<p>That night the drought broke, and a thunderstorm
+burst over Knockdane. The rain poured
+in torrents and doused out the fire completely. But
+for many months there was a wide black clearing
+where the 'Jungle' had been; and a charred log in
+the middle was all that was left of Zoe's nursery.</p>
+
+<p class="spacer">&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="spacer">&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="spacer">&nbsp;</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[178]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="cCHAPTER_V" id="cCHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<p class="h3">WHERE THE BATTLE IS TO THE STRONG</p>
+
+<p>In March the nights are long and winds are cold;
+food is scarce, yet hunters must live.</p>
+
+<img class="split" src="images/left-cat.jpg" width="100" height="118"  alt="left-cat.jpg" title="left-cat.jpg">
+
+<p>Grimalkin passed down the palings at the woodside,
+and stole on noiseless feet among the grass-tufts
+under the stormy dawn.</p>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/right-cat.jpg" width="100" height="108"  alt="right-cat.jpg" title="right-cat.jpg">
+
+<p>Four summers have passed over Grimalkin's
+head since we saw him last; four years of uninterrupted
+supremacy in the woods. His own kind
+feared him; the lesser Fur Folk fled from him; the
+gamekeeper hated him. He was the patriarch of
+his race, a Prince among his people. But these
+four years, while raising Grimalkin to the height
+of his fame, had taken their toll. His coat already
+showed a suspicion of grey along the spine and
+jowl; his eyes were keen as ever, but many kills had
+blunted the mighty claws and teeth; and his whiskers
+had fallen in. Nevertheless the Spring Longing
+danced as gladsomely in his blood as when he had
+been a kitten.</p>
+
+<p>March mornings are stormy. The wind woke
+at daybreak and sighed up the valley. The trees
+of Knockdane swept a stately arpeggio in answer
+as the steely south-easter roared louder through
+the organ pipe of the woods, and bent the tasselled<span class="pagenum">[179]</span>
+larch on which the storm-cock chanted to the
+celandines.</p>
+
+<p>The sunrise was pale and watery, fitful gusts
+shook the bushes. Grimalkin's thoughts ran on
+rabbits&mdash;the rabbits always come out on the Long
+Bank first of all. He squatted under a briar brake,
+tucked his paws away cosily before him, and
+watched.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>A rustle among the brambles, a stir on the dead
+leaves. Grimalkin's muscles stiffened, and his
+whiskers twitched. He crouched flat, then slid
+forward sinuously, paw after paw. Never yet had
+he failed in his spring on a March rabbit. His eye
+dilated and his muscles swelled with the thought
+of victory. Then came the rub. The quarry,
+nervously nibbling at the open grass, was outside
+striking distance. A young cat might have risked
+a spring and failure. Grimalkin was too old a
+hunter, and sat down to wait.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>Again the grasses stirred, and green eyes, keen
+and deadly, were framed in the waving stems. The
+hunter knew them well. A reproduction of his own,
+they belonged to his great-grandson, a worthy
+whose well-groomed face betrayed all feline vices.</p>
+
+<p>The newcomer licked his lips, his face took a smug<span class="pagenum">[180]</span>
+complacent expression. He also scrutinised the
+rabbit&mdash;he also would wait. If there should be a
+battle, well and good&mdash;let the strongest win. Grimalkin
+made no sign save that he bared his teeth
+in a silent snarl of concentrated hate; but hot
+anger boiled within him, for it is one of the laws of
+the Fur Folk, that if one beast hunts the quarry of
+another of the same kind, the latter may kill him
+if he will. But never before had another cat dared
+to stalk Grimalkin's game, or beard him to his face.
+It was intolerable, and he half turned, and in so
+doing betrayed himself. The rabbit is the wariest
+of Wood Folk. If he were not so he would have died
+out centuries ago. He sat up with alert ears, and
+lilted suspiciously to a distance. The hunters saw
+that their game had disappointed them, but they
+scarcely heeded it. They watched one another for
+a minute with slowly undulating tail-tips. Then
+very evenly and softly from the patriarch's throat
+rose the challenge of Clan Cattus: 'mi-ee-awl.'
+His grandson answered, flinging back the
+cry loudly and defiantly, interlarding it
+with those insults of which a tom-cat is
+such an unrivalled master.</p>
+
+<div class="p180">
+ <div class="split" id="p180-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="split" id="p180-2">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="split" id="p180-3">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>The heroes circled round one
+another, and then closed, striking
+out tufts of fur until the ground was<span class="pagenum">[181]</span>
+sprinkled with them. They buffeted one another
+until they were utterly exhausted, and then drew
+back to recover before renewing the attack. Grimalkin
+strained every sinew to teach this upstart
+the respect due to his position and years, but&mdash;try
+as he would&mdash;not a blow went home. Feint, counterfeint,
+undercut and smashing downward stroke,
+all were parried, and Grimalkin sank down breathless
+after every round with blood trickling from his
+ears. A new sensation assailed him&mdash;his limbs
+seemed numb and feeble. He was weary. It
+was not now revenge for which he sought&mdash;he
+was struggling despairingly for the right to live.
+His blows grew more feeble, and foam hung on his
+jaws. Now was the time for the superiority of
+young blood to tell. Down came the iron paw,
+armed with the strong curved claws, upon the
+veteran's skull. Grimalkin yelled and leaped back
+as a hot red curtain fell before his sight. Baffled
+and half stunned, he crept away, cowed, into the
+bramble covert.</p>
+
+<p>The victor sat up and licked his wounds. Henceforth
+there was a new king for the cat-folk in
+Knockdane.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" style="width:20%">
+
+<p>The day was well begun. Why did the throstle
+pipe overhead? Why did the daffodils dance in<span class="pagenum">[182]</span>
+the breeze? Why was the Spring Longing so
+insolently apparent in every bud and bough, and
+why did they flaunt it so heartlessly in his face?
+Could they restore a darkened eye, or rejuvenate
+weakened limbs? Thus might have mused Grimalkin
+of Knockdane, who was king there no more.
+It had come at last, a cold hand which grips man
+and beast alike, certain and irremediable. <i>Old Age</i>
+was stealing fast behind him. And old age means
+more to the Fur Folk than to human beings. When
+their strength once declines ever so slightly, they
+must go to the wall to make room for stronger
+hunters. They are the lawful prey of any who
+can take them. If by any chance they escape
+death by their fellows, nothing remains but Starvation&mdash;a
+slower agony.</p>
+
+<p>Grimalkin could not look into the future and
+see what Fate had in store for him, but perhaps
+he was all the happier for it. Mortified and baffled
+as he was at his defeat, he did not realise that a day
+would come when he must pass by the full-grown
+buck rabbit for the young and sickly, or later on
+prey on grass-mice which he now disdained. But
+this day was still far off. Loud called the March
+wind overhead. Grimalkin rose, and ceased to try
+and tear the darkness from his blinded eye. He
+was hungry, and his hunter's skill still remained to<span class="pagenum">[183]</span>
+him. What he lacked in strength and endurance
+must be compensated for by cunning. He crept
+from his hiding-place, and stole silently down the
+path to his hunting grounds.</p>
+
+<p>So passes Grimalkin from this tale, through the
+grey trees, into the depths of the mysterious woods,
+where the race is only to the swift and the battle to
+the strong, and about which man can know nothing
+certainly.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/p183.jpg" width="400" height="355"  alt="p183.jpg" title="p183.jpg">
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter"><p><span class="pagenum">[186]</span></p>
+
+<h2>THE BIOGRAPHY OF STUBBS THE BADGER</h2>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="dCHAPTER_I" id="dCHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[184]</span></p>
+
+<p class="h3">THE TWILIGHT HUNTERS</p>
+
+<div class="p186">
+ <div class="split" id="p186-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="split" id="p186-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>The spoor was impressed deeply in the muddy
+ground where a stream ran by the path. The
+broad toes were well defined, and the punctures of
+the great digging claws had cut the clay. 'There's
+badgers in the auld earth again,' said Paddy
+Magragh, standing up.</p>
+
+<p>It was a mild evening in March, with a grey
+sky streaked with faint reflections of the unseen
+sunset. Paddy turned to the right, up a track
+used more often by the Fur Folk than by man.
+There was a shallow pit here, and under the brim
+opened the mouth of a big burrow. Generations of
+persevering diggers had lived and died there, and
+each had added his quota to the mound outside the
+hole, and excavated yet another chamber among
+the honeycomb of galleries tunnelled into the hill.<span class="pagenum">[187]</span>
+However, for some years, the 'earth' had been
+empty, and the dead leaves had drifted thickly
+against the entrance. The rabbits had dug burrows
+about the place; and after a hard-pressed fox had
+taken refuge there, two winters before, Magragh
+himself had built up the 'set' with stones and
+earth, so strongly that fox-pads could not open it.
+Now, however, the barricade was scraped away,
+and leaves and grass littered the mound outside.
+Magragh looked up at the fading sky and turned
+homewards, but after a few steps he returned.
+Had Fate set him in another sphere, he might have
+been a great naturalist. As it was, although he had
+a profound knowledge of those of the Wild Folk
+who furnished 'shpoort' for himself and his fellow
+men, of the lesser breeds he was almost entirely
+ignorant. Nevertheless, the spirit of the true
+naturalist slept in him, unsuspected, and to-night,
+for once in a way, it awoke. He would not admit
+to himself that he desired to see the inmates of this
+burrow without chance of 'shpoort' or slaughter,
+but muttered shamefacedly: 'Shure, I'll watch
+a bit see would the craythurs come out to-night.'
+Those who spend much time alone under the free
+sky acquire this habit of soliloquy; indeed, after
+a while, each finds himself his own best company.</p>
+
+<img class="split" src="images/left-badger.jpg" width="100" height="142"  alt="left-badger.jpg" title="left-badger.jpg">
+
+<p>Paddy Magragh sat down under a tree, and<span class="pagenum">[188]</span>
+watched the light fade from the surrounding bushes.
+The bats hawked to and fro, and a blackbird 'chink-chinked'
+in notes like the dripping of water. A
+rabbit came out of a hole hard by with his scut
+buttoned down, and slid away to feed, so softly that
+his footsteps never stirred the leaves; but he did
+not see Paddy Magragh, who, in his tattered coat
+and broken boots, looked as shapeless and as
+knotted as the old stump against which he leaned.
+The woods were quite quiet but for the trickling
+of the little stream near at hand, and even the
+nibbling of the rabbit in the brambles was plainly
+audible.</p>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/right-badger.jpg" width="100" height="114"  alt="right-badger.jpg" title="right-badger.jpg">
+
+<p>When it was so dark that the shrews could only
+be located by their voices as they squabbled in the
+dead leaves, there came a rustle at the 'earth'
+mouth, and a striped snout was poked out. After
+the snout slid a long grey body&mdash;a shadow among
+the shadows&mdash;humped and clumsy, yet so silent
+that not a twig snapped under the heavy pads.
+Magragh sat with his hands clasped over his 'ash-plant.'
+The badger snuffed suspiciously, then
+waddled off by a little, well-worn path. A minute
+or two afterwards, from the stream, could be heard
+the sound of water lapped down a thirsty throat.
+Paddy was wise. He sat for another ten minutes.
+The silence grew more tense and the darkness<span class="pagenum">[189]</span>
+deeper. Then, without any warning, a badger,
+larger than the last, scurried across the pit so quickly
+that Magragh's old eyes had barely caught sight
+of him before he vanished in the shadows.</p>
+
+<p>'A pair o' thim,' said the old man, hobbling
+homewards.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="p189">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p189-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p189-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>A week later he waited there again; waited
+until the woodcock had settled down to feed, and
+the light was almost gone, leaving the pit so dark
+that his eyes saw nothing when his ears caught
+the rustle of a single hunter turning up the hill
+from the 'earth.'</p>
+
+<p>'There's cubs wid'in,' opined Paddy Magragh.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" style="width:20%">
+
+<p>Tunnelled ten yards into the hillside, up a narrow
+gallery to the right, and then down another, dug
+at right angles to avoid a rock proof against even
+a badger's claws, was the nursery; and here the
+cubs were born at the end of March. If Mother
+Badger had been wary before, she now increased
+her caution to an unheard-of degree. Even the
+distant shuffle of her mate's footsteps, as he went
+out to feed, was sufficient to rouse her to a rumbling
+growl. She herself never stirred outside the 'earth'
+until after midnight, and, even then, the 'wick-wick'
+of a wakeful throstle set her heart thudding.</p>
+
+<p>It was the middle of April before Mother Badger<span class="pagenum">[190]</span>
+took her cubs into the woods. She chose a starlit
+night&mdash;the badgers love the stars better than the
+moon&mdash;and led them to the burrow mouth. They
+crawled up the mound outside, and then flopped
+down to rest; for their longest journey hitherto had
+been across their nursery, and their short legs
+soon grew weary. Although the alternate tracts
+of their pied snouts were well defined, the black
+was washed over with chocolate colour; otherwise
+they were exact replicas of their parents.</p>
+
+<p>Mother Badger did not dare to lead them far
+afield that night. As it was, once or twice she took
+alarm and hustled them underground. However,
+the cubs did not trouble about the limitations of
+their bounds. The sand at the burrow mouth was
+light and dry, and they delightedly thrust their
+paws into it and scattered it about, just as children
+at the seaside dabble their feet in the water. The
+biggest cub found a rabbit scrape, and, thrusting
+in his nose, dug lustily. Presently one of his sisters
+came pushing up and they fought viciously, rolling
+over and over to the bottom of the mound, with
+locked claws. This roused Mother Badger, who
+lay above the 'earth' with one eye on her cubs
+and the other upon the woods. She waddled
+down and cuffed them; then brought them back,
+and licked and fed them tenderly. Long before
+<span class="pagenum">[191]</span>dawn she took them below ground again; even
+before Father Badger had returned home, grunting,
+to his solitary dormitory.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 432px;">
+<a name="p4" id="p4"></a>
+<img src="images/p190.jpg" width="432" height="600" alt="HOMEWARD BOUND" title="">
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class="caption">HOMEWARD BOUND</p>
+
+<p>The next night, however, they went as far as the
+Hollow Field. Mother went first, and the cubs,
+their eyes fixed upon her shaggy, bumping quarters,
+followed her closely in single file. Her feet made no
+sound; but now and then one of the little ones, less
+used to tread where the least rustle aroused the
+whole woodside, snapped a twig. That was their
+first real hunting. Last night by the 'earth' had
+merely been play, but now they learned the science
+of smells, for a badger relies very greatly upon his
+nose. They learned that, as the night wore on,
+the scent grew stronger or fainter according to the
+dew-fall and the wind and the state of the ground,
+and to what different smells belonged. A strong
+taint blew aslant the hedge&mdash;that was fox. Mother
+Badger sampled it scientifically, and the cubs
+dutifully followed her example. The rabbit trails
+intersected one another in a labyrinth, but the
+badger has no dealings with grown rabbits, and
+they passed these by. Every tree and herb and
+bird and beast has its own particular odour, and,
+as there is no directory of scent in the woods but
+that which each of the Fur Folk compiles for himself,
+the little badgers had to learn each separately.<span class="pagenum">[192]</span></p>
+
+<p>Thus, follow-my-leader-wise, they entered the
+Hollow Field, and Mother Badger sought a likely
+spot where the babies might receive a first lesson in
+beetle-hunting. She dug up the turf, and grunted
+for her family to turn over the scrapings. He who
+nosed deepest obtained the morsel&mdash;a dor-beetle,
+well-flavoured, and devoured with gusto with
+the condiment of Nature's providing.</p>
+
+<div class="p192">
+ <div class="split" id="p192-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="split" id="p192-2">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="split" id="p192-3">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="split" id="p192-4">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>Presently, the Mother Badger craned her long
+neck, and her little eyes twinkled. She had winded
+something else which would afford a very good
+object-lesson, besides supper, for the cubs. Each
+little one tiptoed up and sniffed in turn: it was
+an unknown smell, but good&mdash;decidedly good.
+'Hunt it!' grunted Mother Badger, as plainly as
+grunt could speak. Listening, they heard needlets
+of sound, and the ghost of a rustle, as though some
+tiny thing thrust the grass-blades aside. The eldest
+cub went first. He located it, as he thought exactly,
+and snapped gingerly. He caught a mouthful of
+grass only, and the rest had no better fortune.
+Mother Badger saw that she must assist, or
+else her pupils would go supperless.
+She thrust in her snout, drew out
+a mouse, and dropped it before
+them. The cubs rushed
+in helter-skelter, and the<span class="pagenum">[193]</span>
+eldest presently pushed his way out of the scrimmage
+with the rest of his brothers and sisters tugging and
+snatching at the mouse which dangled from his
+mouth. He tore it to pieces, growling, and the others
+kept at a safe distance, for he was the biggest and
+strongest of the litter. After this they turned down
+the field to the pool in the middle, and here Mother
+Badger showed them another game. On the bank
+the meadow-sweet grew rankly, and hearing the
+familiar 'plop-plop' of a frog in the dew-soaked
+herbage, she set the example of chasing it. The
+cubs grew eager, and hunted with little squeaks
+and snorts of excitement. Frog was better than
+mouse, for it could not run from them so silently.
+Now and then there was a splash as some amphibian,
+more lucky than his fellows, dived through the
+crowfoots into the pond. When this occurred the
+cubs were puzzled&mdash;water was a mystery to them&mdash;but
+another frog was soon afoot, and the chase
+began again.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, night by night, they learned field-craft,
+and gradually grew to know the geography of the
+woods, with every pool and thicket and pathway.</p>
+
+<p>At the top of Knockdane there are three or four
+acres, which are so rock-encumbered, and so overgrown
+with heather and bracken, that an occasional
+broken-topped fir or oak sapling is the only tree<span class="pagenum">[194]</span>
+which will grow there. Here and there a narrow
+path twists through the fern, and the industrious
+rabbit people, who live among the rocks, keep the
+grass on those spots close and green. Above this,
+the hill grows steeper till it meets a grey crag which
+drops sheer down from the fir wood, whose brow,
+shaggy with gorse and ling, overhangs the place.
+The Fur Folk all visit this wilderness. The rabbits
+and squirrels love it, because the grass and fir-cones
+there are good, and the blood-hunters follow them
+thither. There the badgers went one evening at
+sunset, and feasted on the great worms which were
+tempted out by the coolness of the night, and on the
+pignuts in the clearings. After their surfeit the cubs
+could scarcely waddle among the bracken, for their
+tight little bodies brushed the stems on either side.
+Under the crag they stopped to drink, where the
+water dripped from the height above; and as five
+badgers guzzling in the mud made much commotion
+and splashing, Mother Badger never heard the
+thud of approaching feet until they were almost
+on the top of her party. She grunted of danger,
+imminent and serious, and gathered her cubs
+together. Dinny Purcell had made a short-cut
+through Knockdane, on his way home from a
+meeting of the local branch of the Gaelic League
+at Whelan's 'public'; and, as the proceedings had<span class="pagenum">[195]</span>
+terminated agreeably with some toasts to the success
+of the League, Dinny felt valiant enough to defy any
+number of ghosts. Mother Badger stood on the
+other side of the little marsh, and growled thunderously;
+but Dinny did not hear, and stumbling and
+cursing, knee-deep in mud, came on. The cubs
+glided into the fern, but the old badger stood her
+ground. She had never met her match where
+strength was concerned, therefore she did not
+trouble to use her teeth, but set her snout against
+the intruder's legs and shoved.</p>
+
+<p>'Holy Mother&mdash;it's the divil,' hiccoughed
+Dinny Purcell, crossing himself; and he tried to run
+faster, but Mother Badger growled and thrust again.</p>
+
+<p>'Give over,' muttered Dinny, fuddled with drink,
+and striking out timorously with his stick, he
+thwacked Mother Badger's shaggy coat, and thereby
+incited her to charge again. Dinny would gladly
+have taken to his heels, but as his feet were stuck
+fast in the mud it was impossible; and sobered by
+superstitious fears, he remembered his match-box,
+and fumbled for it. Mother Badger was normally
+placid and slow to wrath, but this man's presence
+so near to her cubs angered her. She caught the
+top of his boot&mdash;it was well for Dinny that her
+fangs missed his leg&mdash;and bit it. Just then he
+<span class="pagenum">[196]</span>found his matches, and struck one. It was hot&mdash;bright&mdash;pungent,
+such as she had never winded
+before. She backed hastily, but as what a badger
+has seized that will he hold as long as there is breath
+in him, she ripped the boot from top to sole. Dinny
+yelled, and dropping the match, which fell sputtering
+into a puddle, he swung himself on to an adjacent
+rock and tucked up his legs. 'It's the divil, an'
+he runnin' like a pig,' he groaned.</p>
+
+<p>But Mother Badger had no mind to fight for
+fighting's sake. Had she not feared for her cubs,
+she would have fled at once from a creature who
+could summon that hot, bright mystery at will. She
+withdrew cautiously in her tracks, and one by one
+her cubs followed her from rock or heather tuft
+where each lay. Once in the darkness, beyond the
+reek of whisky and the dreaded voice of man, they
+breathed more freely; and they bumped along in
+single file down to the beech and bramble woods
+which lie by the Hollow Field, and which from
+bud-time to leaf-fall are seldom visited by men.</p>
+
+<p>But, from that day to this, Dinny Purcell swears
+that the devil met him that night in Knockdane,
+in token of which he shows his split boot-leather;
+and for every time of telling, the devil increases so
+much in size and ferocity.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>Towards the end of May the cubs were weaned,<span class="pagenum">[197]</span>
+and henceforth they hunted less with their parents,
+and more often alone, or in couples. In this litter
+of four there were two sows and two boars, of which
+one was the little badger who has hitherto been
+referred to as the 'eldest cub,' but because his legs
+and likewise his snout were short and stumpy, even
+for a badger, he was afterwards known in Knockdane
+as Stubbs. It is he with whom this history deals.</p>
+
+<p>The young ones opened the other galleries of
+the old 'earth,' and slept in dormitories away from
+the nursery. But in June, when the nights were
+short, and the badgers sometimes went hunting
+before the sun was well set, and stayed out until the
+dawn had broken over the hills, now and then it
+happened that morning overtook one of the family
+far from home, and, blinded by the early sunshine,
+he was obliged to seek some hide-up for the day.</p>
+
+<div class="p197">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p197-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p197-2">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p197-3">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p197-4">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>By August, Stubbs was almost full-grown, and
+his knowledge of field-craft was profound. He
+could detect a nest of young rabbits hidden any
+distance underground, and once he had located
+the place, no power on earth could hinder him from
+digging them out. He would work all
+night, dislodging stones and shovelling
+earth, if at the end there
+was a chance of a meal of
+rabbits. If, during<span class="pagenum">[198]</span>
+his task, the unfortunate doe-rabbit came home,
+he paid no attention to her. She might stamp
+as much as she pleased at the stumpy tail protruding
+from her nursery&mdash;nothing would turn
+Stubbs aside from his purpose. He could also
+locate truffles six inches underground&mdash;the big
+knobby ones which grow under oak trees, and the
+little potato-like ones which smell so strong, and are
+found under laurels in Knockdane. Besides this, he
+could wind a man a quarter of a mile away, and he
+knew every 'shore' and rock and tree in Knockdane.</p>
+
+<p>The badger's daily round is more monotonous
+than those of most of the Fur Folk. He is too large
+greatly to fear any other beast, and he is so wary
+that he seldom comes in collision with man. Year in,
+year out, from spring to autumn, autumn to spring,
+his comings and goings follow the set rules of his
+ancestors. Now and again, however, a badger is born
+to a more stirring career, and such a one was Stubbs.</p>
+
+<p>In September the badgers lived well, and their
+sides grew sleek and round. They dug up the
+bykes of the orange-bellied bumble-bees, regardless
+of their stings, and guzzled over the sticky sweetness
+of the honeycomb. Later they visited the crab-trees,
+and spent many a blissful hour scrunching the sour
+pippins, and dropping the pieces about the grass,
+for the badger is an untidy feeder.<span class="pagenum">[199]</span></p>
+
+<p>At the end of the month the 'earth' was littered
+down in preparation for the winter's Big Sleep.
+The whole family were still living under one roof, so
+to speak, but as they mostly occupied galleries
+far apart, it was almost more like a hotel. More
+than half a badger's life is spent in sleep&mdash;profound,
+blissful sleep, in a world of great silences and deep
+shadows. In October came a night with frost nip
+in the air, and a damp mist. Stubbs felt the chill in
+his bones as he crept to the entrance of the 'earth';
+nevertheless, because he was hungry, he went out.
+Shortly afterwards his brother came up, snuffed the
+wind, stretched himself and yawned&mdash;then, because
+he was sleepy, and the night undesirable, he
+waddled back again and slept the clock round.
+The next night the rest did likewise&mdash;why hunt when
+they were not hungry? There are few winter nights
+in Knockdane that are not either cold or wet, and
+such nights the badgers eschewed. Now and again
+they went out for a few hours, but in the small hours
+when the morning frost set the grass in the meadows
+crackling with rime, they grunted disgustedly and
+returned to bed.</p>
+
+<p>The whole family&mdash;parents and young ones&mdash;slept
+through December without ever stirring out, for
+snow was on the ground most of the month; but
+in January I know not what mysterious influence,<span class="pagenum">[200]</span>
+creeping underground, knocked at the closed doors
+of the badgers' brains, and told them that the frost
+was gone and the night was warm. Stubbs woke
+first, and groped his way out. The air was mild and
+damp, and the roar of the river was borne to him
+as, rain-laden, it plunged over the weir. The dead
+leaves were moist and limp, and overhead a foggy
+moon peered through the bare trees. He trotted
+stiffly down the woods and visited his old haunts,
+but, go where he would, he could find nothing to eat
+but a few sodden mushrooms. An hour later he
+returned, wet and chilled, and lay down in his dormitory
+to suck his paws meditatively, until sleep
+overtook him again. His head dropped on his forepads,
+and, with a sigh, he fell into a slumber which
+lasted, with few waking hours, until the Spring
+Longing came to the woods, and roused him with
+the rest of the Fur Folk.</p>
+
+<p>Spring nights are stormy with driving rain-showers,
+but under the trees the Fur Folk are
+sheltered from the blustering winds, and come and
+go from dusk to dawn; for the day on which the
+first throstle sings is the beginning of the new year
+in the woods.</p>
+
+<p>The badgers came out with the rest, but they
+were lean with long fasting, and their toes were
+tender with much drowsy sucking. Stubbs went<span class="pagenum">[201]</span>
+through the elder trees, whose buds were growing
+big and purple, and he dug up and ate the wild
+arum tubers. They were very bitter and burning
+to taste, but a badger's palate is not a delicate one,
+and he devoured them greedily. Besides, there
+was nothing else left to eat in the woods, for, during
+the recent famine time, they had been patrolled
+up and down by bird and beast.</p>
+
+<p>In March, Mother Badger had another litter of
+cubs in the old nursery, but there were fewer grown
+badgers in the 'earth' at this time, for the younger
+boar cub of the previous season had been 'stopped'
+out one February night, and had never come home
+again&mdash;perhaps the Carkenny hounds knew why.
+Stubbs lived a bachelor life by himself at one end of
+the 'earth.' Even now he was scarcely thoroughly
+awake after his long sleep, and on any cold or
+wet night he lay abed. By April, however, he felt
+better, and put on flesh; and it was then that he
+finally broke with his family. One night he went
+round by the Heronry where grew Father Badger's
+'Claw-Clapping' tree, a young wych-elm. Father
+Badger used to resort thither to polish his long
+digging claws and to scratch himself, and
+his feet had patted down a
+little track round the roots.
+Stubbs went up to the<span class="pagenum">[202]</span>
+sapling, and began, with great satisfaction, to chisel
+off strips of bark, for he was proud of his claws.
+He grunted contentedly, and rubbed his shaggy
+sides up and down&mdash;and, the next minute, heavy
+as he was, he was sent flying head over heels; for
+Father Badger had come along, and was wroth
+to find his place usurped. For the first time he
+realised that, during the Big Sleep, the cub
+had become a full-grown badger almost as strong
+as himself. Therefore he challenged; and it was
+a sign that Stubbs had arrived at adult badger
+estate that he accepted his father's challenge.
+They ran at one another, growling ferociously, but
+they did not use their teeth, only thrust with their
+snouts; for it is the law of the Fur Folk that two
+of a kind shall not fight to the death, and it is a law
+that is not often broken. However, Father Badger
+was the older and the heavier, and, although a year
+later Stubbs would have been fully his match, he
+drove his son away. After that Stubbs did not return
+to the 'earth' among the elder trees, but led a
+nomadic life in the woods for some weeks, sleeping
+in a dry drain or old rabbit-hole, and at night wandering
+miles abroad over the countryside. In those
+days there was a drouth in Knockdane, and the
+streams dried up. It was serious for the badger
+people, for they were often obliged to search very<span class="pagenum">[203]</span>
+far afield for water. Sometimes a shower fell, but
+never enough to fill the springs. At such times the
+badgers resorted to a hollow in a path, along which
+horses had passed in winter when the mud was
+deep. Now, after a shower, each hoof-mark was a
+clay goblet of water, and the badgers' thirsty red
+tongues used to lick out the contents gratefully.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>One close night in May, Stubbs went down to
+the Great White House, where the men live. The
+Great White House stands on a little oasis of open
+grass, but the woods come up close round, and the
+rabbits trespass under the very windows. In the field
+round, the men have planted roots which are new
+to badger palates, and some of them are very good.
+Stubbs sampled them all. Some were narcissus
+and hyacinth, evil-tasting and slimy, and he threw
+them aside. Others, the crocus and tulip, were
+better; but best of all were the snowdrops, which
+were sweet and nutty, and of these Stubbs ate all
+he could find. At last he ventured quite close to the
+walls of the house. Faint notes of music beat from
+one of the windows, and these made Stubbs raise
+his head suspiciously. All at once it seemed that
+eyes were watching him from the shadow to his
+leeward side&mdash;mysterious eyes, eager yet timid. He
+grunted, and dug up another bulb, but the sensation
+of being watched grew stronger. Instinctively<span class="pagenum">[204]</span>
+he knew that it was not an enemy who spied
+upon him thus&mdash;rather the contrary. He could
+neither see, hear, nor wind anything unusual, but
+that mysterious sense which is perhaps the parent,
+not the outcome, of the other senses, told him that
+the watcher was hidden under the oak tree to his
+right, and that he would do well to pursue it thither.
+Suddenly the shutters of a window were thrown open,
+and a golden beam of light was flung across the
+darkness. It lit up the rough bark of the oak tree
+on the lawn, and at the foot of the latter, blinking
+resentfully in the light, Stubbs saw the owner of the
+watching eyes. In a second or two the light was
+shut off, and the music grew muffled again; but
+Stubbs thought no more of bulbs, for he heard the
+patter of feet which scampered back to the wood,
+and gave chase.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps she did not run very fast, at all events
+he soon came up with her. In size she was less
+than himself, but judged by badger standards her
+charms were surpassing. Also she did not repulse
+him, for she came from the Ballinakill 'earth'
+outside Knockdane, and had dwelt mateless for
+many days.</p>
+
+<div class="p205">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p205-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p205-2">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p205-3">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>So Stubbs and Grunter hunted together that
+night; that is, Grunter set the pace and chose the
+paths, and Stubbs followed. They went by the<span class="pagenum">[205]</span>
+main badger path, and crossed the lane which runs
+across Knockdane, slithering down a five-foot drop
+which is scored in every direction by deep claw-prints,
+and entered the Big Meadow together. The
+cattle slept in the dewy grass, and, stealing in among
+them, the badgers hunted every inch of ground
+for beetles. Every now and then a 'bum-clock'
+boomed overhead, and then fell 'splotch' to earth.
+Small chance had it when the badgers' noses probed
+for it in the grass: but Grunter took the lion's
+share, for in the wood there is a law that, during the
+days of courtship, the female may take what she
+will and her mate shall not gainsay her.</p>
+
+<p>Henceforward they hunted together night after
+night. Sometimes they sought for partridges' eggs&mdash;eggs
+are a badger tit-bit, when he can find them,
+which is not often&mdash;and these went down, shell and
+all, 'crunch-squolch.' Sometimes they beat a way
+through the standing meadow grass, leaving a
+track behind which two days' sun would not eradicate,
+or searched for wasps' nests in the hedge-banks.
+These were honeymoon nights, and, sweet
+though they were, they could not last for ever.
+It was the weather which first stimulated
+the pair to find a permanent
+'set.' It was showery, with now
+a cool wet evening which made<span class="pagenum">[206]</span>
+the badgers think of the comfort of a deep burrow
+in preference to a makeshift rabbit-hole or drain;
+and then again came a hot starlit night, a hunter's
+night, when Stubbs filed his claws on a tree-trunk
+because of the wasted digger's energy within him.</p>
+
+<p>On the second such night they went to Larch Hill.
+The soil there is dry and sandy, and it is a pleasant
+place&mdash;cool in summer and warm in winter&mdash;and,
+wherever the wind stirs, the supple larches bend
+before it, and nod and whisper mysteriously among
+themselves. Here there was an empty rabbit
+burrow, and Stubbs poked in his nose, and snuffled.
+Grunter shouldered him aside and crawled in until
+only her shaggy hind-quarters appeared. Then she
+began to dig, and a continuous shower of sand spurted
+out between her hind-legs. When the heap bid fair
+to block her in altogether, she backed awkwardly,
+shovelling it out as she came. This was Stubbs'
+chance. He lumbered into the cavity, and scraped
+likewise until his coat was full of dust. Grunter
+tried to press in after him, but a well-directed kick
+sent her sprawling upon her broad back, and she
+was obliged to wait outside until her mate was
+tired. So they worked alternately, until a most
+respectable tunnel had been driven under the larch
+trees.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, however, the herons flew in from the<span class="pagenum">[207]</span>
+bogs, full cropped after the night's fishing, and the
+morning wind was heavy with the scent of elder
+flowers. The caverns of shadow around began
+to resolve themselves into cool green arcades, and
+the woodcock croaked during their aerial rompings
+overhead. The larks sang up on the hill, and the
+wood birds answered with a blast of song. The
+badgers were tired and dusty and sleepy. Grunter
+crept into the half-completed 'earth'; and Stubbs,
+after pausing to lick his sore pads, followed her.
+They lay down with grunts of content, snout to
+snout, stomachs upwards, and in two minutes
+were snoring comfortably. That was their house-warming.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/p207.jpg" width="400" height="304"  alt="p207.jpg" title="p207.jpg">
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[208]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="dCHAPTER_II" id="dCHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<p class="h3">BORRIGAN'S BAITING</p>
+
+<p>'Get out, ye baste!' growled Marky Borrigan,
+shaking the sack he carried over the mouth of
+a barrel. There was a stifled grunt, a struggle,
+and a grey bundle fell into the cask with a thud.</p>
+
+<img class="split" src="images/left-badger.jpg" width="100" height="142"  alt="left-badger.jpg" title="left-badger.jpg">
+
+<p>'Shure, we have him all safe,' said Borrigan,
+with a grin.</p>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/right-badger.jpg" width="100" height="114"  alt="right-badger.jpg" title="right-badger.jpg">
+
+<p>'Begob, that was a good night's work,' said
+Micksey Bolger, henchman and confederate of the
+said Mark. 'Where had ye him cot?'</p>
+
+<p>''Twas over in Knockdane. I was there at two
+o'clock this morning and up at the "earth." I had
+the sack wid a bit o' cord run round the mouth,
+an' I put it down the hole wid just the mouth set
+open, an' the twine fast to a three-thrunk. I sent
+the dog huntin' down the wood, and by and by I
+heard this felly cantherin' up as it might be a pig.
+He stopped just fernent me, and bedam, he cut a
+look on me as wicked as a Christian, an' I t'rew the
+stick at him an' druve him into the sack in the
+hole. But, indade, whin I come to pick it up he
+was fightin' inside like the divil an' all his childher,
+and a terrible job I had to git him here, six mile in
+the ass-cair.'</p>
+
+<p>'He's a gran' big felly,' said Bolger, peering<span class="pagenum">[209]</span>
+into the cask. 'I'm told Andy Grace'll bring his
+tarrier, an' there are two boys from Ballyoughter
+wid a dog that won the coorsin' there at the New
+Year, and two three more. This chap is fresh an'
+in fine condition. Bedam, he'll put up a great
+fight this evening!'</p>
+
+<p>'Put him, barrel an' all, into the ould barn,' said
+Borrigan. 'The flure there is concrate, an' he'll
+not get away on us.'</p>
+
+<p>They carried the barrel into the barn, and went
+away, and the yard was left quiet.</p>
+
+<p>All Stubbs' preconceived notions of life had
+been rudely shaken, when he had darted into his
+burrow, only to find it changed into a treacherous
+cul-de-sac; and they had been still more overset
+when he found himself thus unceremoniously imprisoned
+in the barrel. At first he was bewildered
+into quietude, but as, in spite of his stolid ways, a
+badger is as plucky a beast as hunts the woods, he
+soon began to revolve plans of escape. When all
+had been quiet for an hour and a half (a badger's
+wits are like his legs, slow but serviceable), Stubbs
+stood up and upset the barrel. The barn was
+lighted by a single loophole, and was quite empty.
+The floor was of concrete and undiggable, but the
+walls were plaster, and Stubbs' claws&mdash;the strongest
+in the woods&mdash;stripped them bare quickly. Alas!<span class="pagenum">[210]</span>
+underneath were bricks, bricks&mdash;nothing but bricks:
+not a chink or cranny to give purchase to his claws.
+In fear and trembling he hid in the cask again,
+where the mild light of the summer morning could
+not filter; and there, ostrich-like, he believed
+himself safe.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>That day was a holiday, and therefore it was
+arranged that, in the afternoon, the cur dogs of the
+neighbourhood should have an opportunity of
+trying their mettle against Stubbs' formidable
+teeth and claws. It was very hot, and the badger,
+accustomed to the fresh mildness of the hours of
+darkness and the cool of the burrows, gasped in the
+stuffy barn. There had been a pan of water in
+the place, but in his first terrified scamper he had
+upset this, and it had not been refilled. He panted,
+and watched a dusty streak of sunlight creep from
+west to east along the wall. Every time that he
+heard a louder voice or step outside, he fled into the
+barrel; for hitherto he had known nothing but
+the silence and shadows of the woods at night, and
+noise and light were both terrible to him.</p>
+
+<p>At last he heard footsteps clatter up to the barn.
+The door was flung open, and a flood of sunlight
+poured in.</p>
+
+<p>'All right! he's in the tub,' said Borrigan,<span class="pagenum">[211]</span>
+looking inside. Stubbs felt himself lifted up and
+carried out. There was much clamour of voices
+and shuffling of feet.</p>
+
+<p>'Take two to one on Grace's tarrier.' ... 'Not
+weight enough. Shure, none o' them dogs could
+pull him down.' ... 'A shilling on Comerford's
+sheep-dog!' and so on.</p>
+
+<p>The barrel was turned upon its side, and Stubbs,
+half blinded by the glare, and wholly terrified, saw
+many men peering at him. The cluster of grinning
+faces all seemed to be part of one awful monster;
+and he slunk back, growling, with bared teeth.</p>
+
+<p>'Begob, he'll put up a fight,' said Micksey
+Bolger. 'Let the dogs come at him wan be wan,
+at first.'</p>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/p211.jpg" width="400" height="154"  alt="p211.jpg" title="p211.jpg">
+
+<p>The first was a medium-sized dog, with prick
+ears, and a woolly yellow coat. He evinced a
+decided desire to fly at the throats of the rest of
+his kind, but this being checked, he advanced
+truculently to the barrel, with his scruff standing up.
+Some one kicked the tub and shouted: 'Git up, ye
+divil'; and there was a chorus of yells from the
+bystanders. Stubbs bundled out in a hurry, and
+at the same moment the dog flew at his throat. The
+unprovoked assault restored his wits to the badger.
+At any rate here was a definite
+enemy, who fought,<span class="pagenum">[212]</span>
+not with sacking and rope, but by recognised
+methods. He struck out, scoring his assailant's
+shoulder, and then backed hastily into the barrel,
+until only his striped snout could be seen. A
+badger realises that his weakness lies in his lack of
+agility, and by preference he fights with his back
+to a tree, that he may not be taken in the rear.
+Three times the dog charged the barrel; and each
+time, strong and vigilant, the badger drove him
+back, amid the shouts of the men and the yells of
+the surrounding dogs. For the fourth time the dog&mdash;the
+blood trickling down his muzzle&mdash;rushed in.
+His temper was up, he was utterly reckless, and
+he left his shoulder unguarded. Like lightning
+Stubbs' claws fell&mdash;and under that stroke the dog's
+ribs were laid bare. His owner came forward and
+carried him out of the ring, and the next dog was
+brought out.</p>
+
+<p>Of the fight which Stubbs fought for the next
+hour I shall say little more, for it is neither good to
+read about nor to write of. It will be sufficient to
+say that of the five dogs which at last were set upon
+him at once, four bear scars to this day, and the fifth
+never moved again. Although Stubbs still crouched
+victoriously in the barrel, he had sustained three or
+four wounds. His eyes were red, for he was very
+angry, and he growled continuously; but he was<span class="pagenum">[213]</span>
+very tired. However, there was no dog left to match
+him.</p>
+
+<p>The men stood round undecidedly, when suddenly
+a voice in the group said: 'Shure, ye should set
+Kinchella's dog agin him!'</p>
+
+<p>'Me dog's too good for this sort of job,' returned
+Kinchella. But his voice was none of the steadiest,
+for, in addition to the farm and a flourishing poaching
+business, Borrigan showed the match-box in the
+window.<a name="FNanchor_1_4" id="FNanchor_1_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_4" id="Footnote_1_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> In some parts of Ireland a box of matches in a cottage
+window is a secret sign that the place is a 'shebeen,' or house
+where drink is distilled, or sold without a licence.</p></div>
+
+<p>'Ah, now, what hurt to him,' said Mark in
+honeyed tones, for he was in no hurry for his
+customers to depart. 'Shure, he is twice the size
+o' that little baste there, and he'd have him pulled
+down aisy.'</p>
+
+<p>'Pull him down, is it?' broke in another.
+'Begob, that badger would skkin anny dog between
+this an' the say, let alone that bit of a sheep-dog o'
+Kinchella's.'</p>
+
+<p>'He'd pull him down fast enough,' retorted
+Kinchella sharply, 'but I've no mind to have
+him kilt on me, an' that lad's claws cut like a
+mower!'</p>
+
+<p>'Bring him, an' let us see it!' shouted another.
+'Didn't me little tarrier ate the face off him lasht
+week, an' him runnin' from him like a rabbit.'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[214]</span></p>
+
+<p>Kinchella turned round scowling. 'Bedam, but
+I'll fetch him,' he said thickly; 'an' whin he has
+this baste aten, ye'll alther ye singin'.' And he
+strode heavily away.</p>
+
+<p>Now James Kinchella's dog, Moss, was well
+known. He was a big grey sheep-dog with a wall
+eye; and although he counted a collie among his
+immediate ancestors, the rest of his pedigree was
+buried in oblivion. However, he was reckoned the
+best cattle dog in the country; and besides, had
+the name for killing a dog (let alone a fox) in half
+the time taken by his peers. He was the apple of
+his master's eye, and in a cooler moment Kinchella
+would sooner have tackled the badger himself, bare
+handed; but as it was, he presently reappeared
+with the dog in a leash.</p>
+
+<div class="p214">
+ <div class="split" id="p214-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="split" id="p214-2">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="split" id="p214-3">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="split" id="p214-4">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>Stubbs was exhausted, for, besides the strain of
+his imprisonment, he had been fighting for his life for
+more than an hour; nevertheless, when some one
+kicked the barrel and shouted at him, he prepared for
+battle again. But it was a hot evening, and the dog
+was not inclined to fight. He sat down and
+yawned. To his master's orders he merely whined
+apologetically and wagged his tail. 'More
+power to ye,' shouted Grace sarcastically.<span class="pagenum">[215]</span>
+Kinchella had been drinking, and his eyes were hot
+and angry. He dealt his dog an unaccustomed kick,
+and urged him savagely towards the barrel. Moss
+rose, hurt and puzzled; then catching sight of
+Stubbs, he instantly associated him with the outrage,
+and flew at his throat. The badger snapped
+back again, and they grappled together. In many
+respects they were evenly matched, for although
+the dog was the larger and more active of the two,
+the badger was heavy, and furthermore was protected
+by the barrel. However, Moss was too clever
+to be rash. He knew the power of Stubbs' paw, so
+he circled round just out of reach, endeavouring to
+tempt his opponent into the open that he might
+take him in the flank. But the badger was also
+very wary. He knew the strength of his position,
+and refused to budge. These feinting tactics went
+on for some minutes, and then the men began to
+jeer: 'He should have him cot by now' ...
+'Indeed, he is a great lad on his pins' ... 'Not so
+handy wid his teeth'....</p>
+
+<p>'Damn it,' shouted Kinchella, 'what chance
+has the dog wid ye dirthy barrels?' And striding
+forward, in his drunken rage he tipped up the cask,
+and tumbled the badger into the open yard, just
+as the dog rushed in.</p>
+
+<p>They met in a smother of dust, and whirled<span class="pagenum">[216]</span>
+round. Now and then white fangs snapped, and
+once&mdash;twice the great claws of the badger fell and
+rose again, stained crimson. It was a fight to the
+death, and no man there dared interfere; not even
+James Kinchella, who looked on, half sobered by
+the result of what he had done. Gradually the
+dust cleared, and the combatants, locked together,
+heaved this way and that in their struggle. The
+dog had seized the badger behind the left ear and
+shoulder, and again and again in his frenzy he
+almost lifted his antagonist from the ground; but
+the latter had a lower hold, and slowly and surely
+he was seeking his way to his enemy's throat. The
+dog felt the relentless fangs closing more and more
+tightly, and he fought madly for breath; but however
+torn, battered, beaten a badger may be, he never
+quits his hold, even in death. Gradually his teeth
+met ... the dog's struggles grew weaker ... his
+head lolled back.</p>
+
+<p>'Pull off your divil, Borrigan!' yelled Kinchella,
+breaking into the ring; but he was powerless to
+loosen Stubbs' jaws&mdash;those terrible jaws that are
+designed for such work as this.</p>
+
+<p>'Shure, he has him kilt!' said Bolger.</p>
+
+<p>It was many minutes before the two could be
+separated, for the badger clung to his dying adversary
+with a tenacity which defied them all. Then<span class="pagenum">[217]</span>
+the dog lay limp and still, and Stubbs himself was in
+little better plight.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="p216">
+ <div class="split" id="p216-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="split" id="p216-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>James Kinchella, completely sobered, picked up
+the body of his dog and walked in silence to the gate.
+The men made way for him to pass, and there were
+no more jeers nor laughter. 'Ye should put a
+bullet into that felly's head, Borrigan,' growled the
+owner of the other dead dog.</p>
+
+<p>But Borrigan knew that the publican at Rathmore
+would pay well for the loan of the badger, and,
+without heeding the openly expressed anger of the
+men, he drove Stubbs back to the barn, and locked
+the door.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" style="width:10%">
+
+<p>Some hours later the last drunken shouts had
+died away, and the yard was quiet once more.
+Stubbs had been hiding in a corner under a wisp
+of straw, but now that the daylight&mdash;the hateful
+daylight&mdash;and the noise were gone, he ventured to
+creep out. He was very tired, and his wounds
+were stiff and sore; nevertheless he was determined
+to escape. He shuffled round the place, testing
+every brick in the walls. Presently one pale moon-beam
+filtered through the keyhole. The moon was
+rising just as he had seen her rise night after night,
+behind the larches in front of the badger earth,
+miles away in Knockdane. There was only one<span class="pagenum">[218]</span>
+crack, and that a very little one; nevertheless he
+worked his claws into the interstice and dug.
+Some minutes' hard labour, and then the loosened
+brick fell out. Inside, the mortar had crumbled a
+little, and broke away in cakes; nevertheless the
+bricks were sound, and now and then one jammed
+obliquely across the opening, and it gave him much
+trouble to dislodge it. At the end of two hours he
+had made quite a creditable breach in the masonry;
+but the wall was far more strongly built than that
+of most Irish barns, and he seemed as far as ever
+from the fresh air. Time after time he drew back
+panting, his tongue dry with dust; but nothing in
+the woods is stouter than a badger's claws except
+a badger's heart, and he always fell to work again.
+By and by he came to a place where the bricks
+had broken, and he tore them away more easily,
+scraping them out behind him with his sturdy hind-legs.
+Once a shrewd kick sent one flying across
+the barn with a clatter, and Stubbs scurried into
+the straw, in terror lest the men should be upon him
+again; but luckily Borrigan slept soundly, and never
+dreamed of how his captive was employing the
+night.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The moonlight began to fade, and the breeze
+which heralds the dawn sighed around the farm.
+Stubbs knew instinctively that morning was not<span class="pagenum">[219]</span>
+far away, and that were he not free by then his
+chances of escape would be poor indeed. But surely
+a fresher draught blew through the stones? He
+stuck in his claws and scraped again, and five
+minutes later a brick fell&mdash;not inside the barn,
+but outwards with a thud into the field behind.
+He had made an opening at last. It was child's
+play to enlarge the hole that his head might enter;
+and where a badger's head and shoulders can go
+the rest of him can follow. He wormed his way
+between the bricks, and tumbled head over heels
+into the nettle bed below the wall.</p>
+
+<p>No one saw him canter across the fields. The
+grass was soaked with dew, and the moon, red and
+luminous in the haze, looked at him like a friendly
+eye. He pattered along at his best pace, for the
+east was growing bright, and he feared lest daylight
+should find him in the open. He knew the country
+immediately round Knockdane as he knew the
+passage of his own burrow, but these fields were
+strange to him. However, he picked his way with
+that unerring instinct which is the peculiar heritage
+of the Wild Folk, and of men who live as the Wild
+Folk live. He turned northwards, and, fording
+the trout stream where he paused to drink deeply
+and cool his sore feet, entered the low-lying fields
+which lie between Coolgraney and Knockdane.<span class="pagenum">[220]</span>
+The grass was all but hidden under a blue blur of
+scabious, and the cobwebs in the hedges were
+elaborately studded with dew-drops. In some places
+the corn was already ripening, and the sparrows
+harvested there before the farmer was astir. A
+kestrel patrolled the fields for breakfast, and a
+hare lilted back to her form. Lazy pigeons flapped
+over the barley fields, and the rabbits kicked up
+their scuts and bolted into the hedges as the badger
+trudged past.</p>
+
+<p>As he climbed the long slopes at the back of
+Knockdane, the early beams of the August sunrise
+shot over the hill. A cock-pheasant, gobbling
+blackberries, ran away at his approach, and boomed,
+crowing, over the hedge. Something must indeed
+be amiss that the badger was astir after sunrise.
+Stubbs had never seen the sun so high in all his
+life, and to his eyes the whole world was bathed
+in perplexing glare&mdash;green, blue, and golden. He
+climbed painfully over the boundary wall and into
+the grateful shadows of the wood, where the mists,
+as though entangled in the tree-trunks, were long
+in lifting.</p>
+
+<p>He turned down the well-known track, and
+presently, like the gates of a city of refuge, the
+mouth of the 'earth' opened before him. Not a
+leaf stirred, but scent lay long on the warm air,<span class="pagenum">[221]</span>
+and his nose told him that Grunter was down there
+before him. He slid underground, and limped
+through the comfortable darkness to the dormitory.
+There she slept with her limbs extended awkwardly.
+She did not awaken; and Stubbs, flinging himself
+down with his head between her fore-paws, closed
+his eyes with a sigh of content. Two minutes later
+he was completely oblivious to light or darkness,
+man or beast, as he sank into a blessed sleep which
+bade fair to last far into the succeeding night.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/p221.jpg" width="400" height="278"  alt="p221.jpg" title="p221.jpg">
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[222]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="dCHAPTER_III" id="dCHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<p class="h3">THE LARCH HILL 'EARTH'</p>
+
+<p>On the sunny side of the wood where the larches
+spindle up tall and thin, each trying to outstrip
+the rest in the race for free air and sunshine, is the
+'earth' which Stubbs and Grunter dug, as has
+been already related. It had originally been an old
+rabbit burrow, but no rabbits had used it for many
+years, although it was well drained, warm, and dry.
+It consisted of one long main tunnel, with other side
+chambers communicating with it, and of a smaller
+gallery running parallel to the first. The 'earth'
+had only one main entrance, although there was a
+rabbit-hole some distance off which opened into the
+upper of the two principal galleries; but its roof
+was so low that a badger could hardly have crept
+along it.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/p222.jpg" width="400" height="138"  alt="p222.jpg" title="p222.jpg">
+</div>
+
+<img class="split" src="images/left-badger.jpg" width="100" height="142"  alt="left-badger.jpg" title="left-badger.jpg">
+
+<p>As a spider sits in the centre of his web, so the
+badgers lay in the middle hall of their abode. Long,
+grey and sprawling, they snored noisily in their
+sleep like pigs, with their pied snouts nestled together<span class="pagenum">[223]</span>
+in the stuffy darkness. At moonrise, however,
+Grunter woke, punctual as an alarum clock. She
+rose from the warm bed of moss, and stretched
+herself so vigorously that she woke her lord, who
+smote his head against the roof and growled. She
+glided past him down the passage, and came to the
+main entrance, where the fresh night air blew in.
+Grunter was hungry. The last two nights it had
+rained, and the badgers had lain a-bed, but to-night
+was fine and mild again. She thrust her long
+snout right and left, and sampled all the strong damp
+odours of the night before she ventured to trust herself
+to the woods; but all was still, and she pattered
+away. Five minutes later Stubbs stole out. By
+that mysterious telepathy which is the secret of the
+Fur Folk, he knew whither she had gone, and followed
+her down the main highroad of the badgers
+of Knockdane, under the wet bushes to the fields
+by the river bank.</p>
+
+<img class="splitr" src="images/right-badger.jpg" width="100" height="114"  alt="right-badger.jpg" title="right-badger.jpg">
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>Greybrush came along about two hours later,
+and snuffed thoughtfully at the hole. Greybrush
+was a Ballymore fox. He had been born in a
+hedgerow during the spring, and now that autumn
+was coming on, he sought winter quarters in Knockdane.
+There were certainly many desirable points
+about this 'set.' He sat down and sucked his
+pads, for they were wet with dew, shook his brush<span class="pagenum">[224]</span>
+plumy again, and meditated. The upshot of his meditations
+was that he presently entered the 'earth.'</p>
+
+<p>Before the autumn sun had struggled through
+the mist, the badgers came home, grunting with
+comfort begotten of a raided bees' byke and truffles.
+But when Stubbs poked his snout into the burrow
+he drew it out again smartly, and his grunt said
+plainly and indignantly: 'Fox!' Then more
+cautiously they proceeded to investigate. Stubbs
+crept in first, and Grunter followed exactly two
+feet behind, in approved badger fashion. The
+passage wound downwards, and the air inside
+being hot and still, the scent was very strong.
+Suddenly the silence was broken by a low snarl&mdash;the
+snarl of a full-fed fox awakened from his sleep.
+Stubbs backed precipitately, for the sound was just
+under his paws, and in so doing collided with his
+mate. For a few seconds there was a scrimmage
+as they jammed shoulder to shoulder in the narrow
+passage. Then Stubbs struggled free, and they
+fled to discuss the situation from a safe distance. A
+fox is no match for a badger in open fight, but in
+this case the advantage of position decidedly lay
+with the intruder. As they deliberated, the ringing
+snarl sounded again. That settled it. Sleep is a
+necessity to a badger, and it was already long past
+bed-time. Stubbs was wet, full-fed, drowsy, and in<span class="pagenum">[225]</span>
+no fighting trim. They retired to the draughty main
+tunnel, and slept there on the bare ground.</p>
+
+<p>The next evening the fox went out hunting, and
+when the badgers woke and gingerly investigated
+the dormitory, they found it empty. They immediately
+took possession again, and sniffing fastidiously,
+dragged out the deep comfortable bedding which
+they had prepared against the winter; for Stubbs
+hates anything which a fox has tainted.</p>
+
+<p>On his return Greybrush found the passage
+littered with moss and leaves, while porcine snoring
+resounded throughout the earth. The fox was too
+cunning to assail the badgers in their lair. He
+dug a hollow in the rabbit burrow and slept there,
+for he was not particular, and only desired some
+place to protect him from the weather; but he
+had no intention of making an 'earth' for himself
+if he could find one already made.</p>
+
+<div class="p225">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p225-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p225-2">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p225-3">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>But it certainly was annoying for the badgers, for
+Greybrush's ideas of cleanliness did not coincide with
+theirs. To find a rabbit's head or other refuse lying
+about, distressed them terribly, and night after night
+Stubbs delayed his hunting that he might scavenge
+the gallery where the fox slept. It is also one of the
+laws of the badger code that the nest shall be spring-cleaned
+twice a year: in March before the cubs
+are born, and in September, in preparation<span class="pagenum">[226]</span>
+for the winter's sleep. The last-named clearance had
+only just been effected, and the dormitory was in
+apple-pie order before the fox's intrusion. However,
+the badger is nothing if not persevering, and
+Stubbs and Grunter decided to make one last effort
+to oust the invader. They entered the other gallery
+one night, prepared to turn their unwelcome lodger
+out of doors; but the fox had opened up the ancient
+rabbit burrow to serve as his back door in case of
+emergency, and when the indignant badgers arrived,
+they found him 'not at home.' They congratulated
+themselves on having ousted him so easily, and
+began to refurnish their chamber. There happened
+to be a spell of warm dry weather just then, and
+the fox lay out in the woods without once returning
+to Larch Hill, so that they met with no hindrance.
+There is a clearing about two hundred yards from
+the mouth of the 'earth,' overgrown with dead
+grass. Here the badgers repaired for their harvesting.
+They tore up quantities of dry grass and moss,
+and twisted them into long wisps deftly enough.
+By the time Stubbs had made a selection of what
+he considered the finest and driest bedding, the
+clearing looked as though a herd of pigs had been
+rooting there. The path to the 'earth' was littered
+with balls of grass and moss. Several times Grunter
+started home with a heavy load, but by the time
+she had reached the burrow she had dropped all<span class="pagenum">[227]</span>
+but one little wisp, which, however, she carried
+underground, and deposited with as much care as
+if she had housed the whole collection. At this rate
+the badgers' progress was naturally slow, and it
+was nearly a week before all was arranged to their
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>Alas! the first wet night found the evicted
+lodger back in his former quarters, and the badgers,
+seriously perturbed, prepared to give battle. They
+found the smaller gallery empty, but a snarl from
+the passage beyond told them where the intruder
+had ensconced himself, and they had perforce to
+retire baffled. This happened not once but many
+times. Stubbs never came to close grips with his
+enemy; the fox was too clever to be caught napping,
+and at the sound of shuffling pads in the gallery,
+he used to back hastily into the old rabbit burrow,
+which was too small for the badger's comfort.</p>
+
+<p>So matters dragged on for more than a month,
+and then the hounds came to Knockdane, and
+precipitated the crisis.</p>
+
+<p>One night the fox went out betimes, but it was
+damp and raw, and the badgers slept longer than
+usual, for their winter slothfulness was creeping
+over them. The weather also accounted for the
+fact that Paddy Magragh, the earthstopper, went
+his rounds before moonrise that he might return
+the sooner to his warm cabin. It was only eight<span class="pagenum">[228]</span>
+o'clock when he came by the Larch Hill earth, and
+examined the marks outside. He saw Stubbs' broad
+spoor (Stubbs' spoor was a spoor to be wondered
+at&mdash;two and a half inches in width), and he chuckled,
+for he had heard of Borrigan's 'baitin'' and its
+sequel. Then he set to work with such right good-will
+that when Grunter wished to go out, an hour
+later, she found a firm barricade of earth and
+branches piled against the burrow's mouth. Grunter
+was very wary. The hated taint of man hung
+about the place, mingled with the smell of wet
+earth. What might not be lurking outside? She
+crept back to the entrance to the fox's quarters,
+and picked her way delicately to Greybrush's
+back door, which was so small that it had even
+escaped the keen eye of Paddy Magragh. Then
+she buttoned down her stumpy tail, and waddled
+off truffle-hunting.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>The morning was grey and misty, with a cold
+nip in the air. Scent lay strong in covert&mdash;every
+rabbit which hopped across the path left a trail
+which lingered on the wet leaves. The tits aloft in
+the bare branches chatted together in little splinters
+of song, and the woodpigeons squabbled over
+clusters of unripe ivy berries. It was as though
+the day was reluctant to come; and at noon, save<span class="pagenum">[229]</span>
+for a pale sun spot in the mist overhead, it was
+as still and damp as at daybreak.</p>
+
+<p>The jays, scolding in the Fir Plantation at the
+top of the wood, saw Greybrush running hard from
+Carigaboola with seven couple of hounds behind
+him. His tongue was out and his brush was down,
+and he thought gratefully of the 'earth' on Larch
+Hill as he tore through the brambles, and stubbed
+his nose against tree-roots, as fast as his stiff legs
+would carry him. All the chaffinches cried: 'Spink&mdash;spink&mdash;see
+the fox! 'ware fox!' but as the
+hounds did not understand finch language it did
+not matter much. He dived in through his back
+door just as the foremost hound burst out of the
+covert. The latter marked the place, and bayed
+there, with his comrades round him, until the men
+rode up. The huntsman crashed through the
+bushes and looked at the hole, and then he ordered
+a terrier to be brought and put in, that it might
+bolt the fox. But Paddy Magragh came down the
+path, and although he knew that he ought to have
+found and stopped this hole, yet his love of the
+hunt was greater than his pride in his woodcraft,
+and he said: 'Bedam, Captain, if ye put a terrier
+down there ye'll niver see the tail of him again.
+This burra' goes into the "earth" below, and there's
+badgers in it. Shure, they'd ate him.'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[230]</span></p>
+
+<p>But the master, who was young and very foolish,
+said: 'This is too far away to join the big "earth."'</p>
+
+<p>'Them badgers would dig down to hell itself,'
+said Magragh. But the master would have none
+of it, and called again for a dog.</p>
+
+<p>Now Rip, the kennel terrier of the Carkenny
+pack, was as game and eke as disreputable a little
+cur as ever ran with hounds. His rough coat was
+pepper and salt, and his right ear was pricked, but
+the left had drooped down ever since it had been
+torn in a great fight which he had with an old dog-fox
+in Kiltorkan rocks. But he was a bold little
+terrier and went straight into the 'earth' after
+Greybrush.</p>
+
+<p>Stubbs was awakened by a smell of fox. Smells
+do not awaken human beings as a rule, but a badger's
+nose is exquisite, and is always alert, even when its
+owner is asleep. Since the fox had come to the 'earth'
+this was not an uncommon occurrence; as a rule
+Stubbs growled in his dreams and lay still, but
+to-day his ear caught the sound of scuffling close
+at hand, and he stood up. The burrow was pitch
+dark, and the narrow passages carried sound like a
+telephone, but overhead Stubbs heard&mdash;or rather
+felt&mdash;mysterious thuds. Grunter, quick to take
+alarm, cowered down at the back of the chamber with
+the moss heaped over her back, but the hair along
+Stubbs' spine rose, and he went out to investigate.<span class="pagenum">[231]</span>
+Now, as we have said, the Larch Hill 'earth'
+consists of two main tunnels connected by a side
+passage. As Stubbs listened he heard something
+moving along the other gallery, and knew that the
+fox had bolted home in a hurry. Suddenly he
+whisked round. He was standing at the spot
+where the passages crossed, and something had
+glided behind him into his dormitory. He growled,
+and waddled back, for he guessed what it was.
+Greybrush was thoroughly frightened, and not
+daring to lie up in his own quarters, he had sought
+refuge in those of the badgers. Stubbs began a
+systematic search of the chamber. It was not
+large, but it was pitch dark, and so close that his
+nose could not guide him. Halfway round he
+bumped into Grunter, who had also taken the
+alarm, and for a minute or two there was a wild
+scuffle before they could establish one another's
+identity. Greybrush, too terrified to move, lay still
+in the middle, which was perhaps the best thing
+he could have done, for the two badgers groped
+round the walls and thus missed him.</p>
+
+<div class="p229">
+ <div class="splitr" id="p229-1">&nbsp;</div>
+ <div class="splitr" id="p229-2">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>But presently another smell was wafted down
+the gallery. Stubbs' nose disentangled it from the
+scent of fox and damp earth around; and then his
+little pig's-eyes grew red and angry, for he had not
+forgotten the smell of dog which he had learned
+in Borrigan's yard that summer. The terrier was<span class="pagenum">[232]</span>
+groping his way awkwardly, for the dust in his nose
+made him sneeze, and his eyes were as yet scarcely
+used to the darkness. However, when he discovered
+which way the fox had gone he gave an excited
+yelp, and came on. Stubbs rumbled threateningly.
+A badger does not fight willingly, and always gives
+notice when his patience is growing short. Rip instantly
+snarled and rushed in&mdash;fox or badger, either
+was a legitimate adversary. In the dark he partially
+missed his hold and seized Stubbs under the ear.
+Stubbs grunted, and flung his head back, but Rip
+hung on gamely. Then the badger bored forward
+and crushed him against the side of the passage,
+and he let go for an instant; but the next moment
+he sprang in again, and his teeth met in the other's
+shoulder. What little air there was in the burrow
+was thick with dust, and both the combatants choked
+for breath. Stubbs cut at the terrier with his
+digging claws, but the space was too confined, and
+only a grunting gasp and momentary tightening of
+the teeth in his neck told that his blows took effect.
+Rip then shifted his hold again, and tugged and
+dragged at the badger's thick hair, with all four
+legs widely extended. Stubbs lunged forward in
+vain&mdash;his enemy merely retreated backwards as he
+felt the strain on his jaws slackening. Suddenly
+the grip of the terrier's teeth gave way, and he<span class="pagenum">[233]</span>
+staggered back with his mouth full of grey hair.
+The badger ran forward and in the darkness stumbled
+right on the top of the dog. Something hairy
+brushed his mouth, and his jaws closed like a trap
+upon the terrier's leg. It was well for Rip that
+it was his leg and not his body which those teeth
+seized, or else all the life would have been squeezed
+out of him very quickly; but as it was, as he fell
+he twisted himself round and snapped at Stubbs'
+jaw. The badger grunted and let go, and the
+terrier crawled backwards, dragging his broken leg
+and sobbing in his breathing.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/p233.jpg" width="400" height="255"  alt="p233.jpg" title="p233.jpg">
+</div>
+
+<p>But as long as there was life in Rip's shaggy
+body there was pluck. He rested for a few seconds,
+and then turned to the attack again. The badger
+heard the muffled yelping close at hand, and knew
+that to win his way to the open air he must face
+the snapping fury in front of him. He resolved
+upon another plan. Grunting and gasping in the
+stifling atmosphere he turned round, and plunging
+his pads into the light soil, he began to throw up a
+barricade. He dug with his long fore-claws, and
+shovelled the earth with his hind-legs until the pile
+nearly filled the passage. He could hear the terrier
+whimpering and scuffling on the other side as he
+attempted to climb the barrier, and dug the deeper.<span class="pagenum">[234]</span>
+Only when he had put two feet of earth between
+himself and his assailant did he slink to the bottom
+of the burrow to lick his wounds.</p>
+
+<p>Rip climbed the barricade time after time. Then,
+when he was finally convinced that it was useless,
+he dragged himself to the light of day once more,
+tattered and torn, with his eyes and nose full of
+sand. But they could see that he had fought a
+great fight, and Dennis the Whip vowed that he
+should never go underground any more. Indeed,
+he never could do so, but limped on one leg to the
+end of his days.</p>
+
+<p>How Greybrush ultimately escaped from the
+badgers I do not know, but he was not seen abroad
+in Knockdane for several days. However, after the
+battle the badgers ceased to try and evict him.
+Instead, they dug a new and deeper gallery at right
+angles to their former one, and dwelt there. So
+that if you go to Knockdane and ask Paddy Magragh,
+he will show you the Larch Hill 'earth,' and tell
+you that foxes live in the upper tunnels and badgers
+in the lower. And if you could creep down, where
+even Paddy Magragh cannot go, you might hear
+the rumbling snores of Stubbs from a side dormitory;
+and in the deepest chamber of all, well lined and
+cosy, the maternal snorts of Grunter, and the
+squeals of her new-born cubs.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/p234.jpg" width="400" height="199"  alt="p234.jpg" title="p234.jpg">
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lives of the Fur Folk, by M. D. Haviland
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lives of the Fur Folk, by M. D. Haviland
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Lives of the Fur Folk
+
+Author: M. D. Haviland
+
+Illustrator: E. Caldwell
+
+Release Date: August 19, 2011 [EBook #37127]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIVES OF THE FUR FOLK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Matthew Wheaton
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LIVES OF THE FUR FOLK
+
+
+    LIVES _of the_ FUR FOLK
+
+    _BY M.D. HAVILAND_
+
+    _illustrated by E. CALDWELL_
+
+    _LONGMANS, GREEN & COMPANY_
+
+    _39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
+    NEW YORK, BOMBAY & CALCUTTA_
+    .1910.
+
+
+    TO
+    E. B. S.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The following, to a certain extent, are composite histories--at
+present our knowledge of the life of the individual wild animal is too
+limited to admit of anything else; but the incidents related are all
+founded on fact, and Redpad, Grimalkin, and the rest actually lived,
+although here they are sometimes credited with adventures which in
+reality befell others of their race.
+
+It may be thought that I have gone too far in endowing wild animals
+with the primitive elements of superstition, self-sacrifice, &c.; but
+although the majority are certainly guided to a very great extent by
+pure instinct, here and there we find one whose actions cannot be
+altogether explained thus; and it must not be forgotten that it is
+from similar exceptions, who lived and died in long past ages, that
+our own powers of reason and reflection, our morality, sense of
+religion, our artists, heroes and saints have evolved.
+
+For deciding some knotty points in the natural history of the badger,
+I am indebted to an excellent article on the animal by Mr. Douglas
+English. The rest of my information is entirely derived from personal
+observation, or from that of gamekeepers, 'earthstoppers,' huntsmen
+and others, whose calling has brought them into close contact with
+wild animals. To all these my thanks are due.
+
+                                   M. D. HAVILAND.
+
+  COURTOWN HARBOUR,
+  CO. WEXFORD.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+    _THE STORY OF REDPAD THE FOX_
+       I. THE SPRING RAINS
+      II. THE HUNTERS
+     III. FIRST BLOOD
+      IV. HOW THE DEBT WAS PAID
+       V. THE SHEEP SLAYER
+      VI. FROM KILMANAGH TO KNOCKDANE
+
+    _THE STORY OF FLUFF-BUTTON THE RABBIT_
+       I. HOW FLUFF-BUTTON CRIED QUITS
+      II. THE SPRING LONGING
+     III. THE INVASION OF GARRY'S HILL
+      IV. THE FEAR THAT WAS IN THE WAY
+       V. UNDER THE MOON
+
+    _STORIES FROM THE LIFE OF GRIMALKIN THE CAT_
+       I. THE FIRST HUNTING
+      II. THE STEALTHY DEATH
+     III. THE COLLARED BUCK
+      IV. ZOE
+       V. WHERE THE BATTLE IS TO THE STRONG
+
+    _THE BIOGRAPHY OF STUBBS THE BADGER_
+       I. THE TWILIGHT HUNTERS
+      II. BORRIGAN'S BAITING
+     III. THE LARCH HILL 'EARTH'
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF PLATES
+
+
+    LONELINESS AND LONGING
+    FLUFF-BUTTON WAS SEATED ON THE OTHER BANK TAKING A TONIC
+    GRIMALKIN
+    HOMEWARD BOUND
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF REDPAD THE FOX
+
+[Illustration: THE STORY OF REDPAD THE FOX]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE SPRING RAINS
+
+
+Vix found the old drain at the beginning of March. It was warm and
+roomy, and ran under the gate of the Plantation Field. Once upon a
+time, before the reservoir was built further up the hill, the stream
+which rose under St. Bridget's Tower had emptied itself through this
+drain into the bog; but that was many years ago, and now the moss and
+ferns grew thickly round the opening, and the grating at the further
+end was choked with rubbish. Nevertheless, because it was dry and
+lonely it suited Vix exactly, and the four cubs were born there
+towards the end of the month. They were blind, red, squealing
+creatures who groped and fought in the hot darkness to reach Vix and
+nuzzle at her side, and at first she spent most of the twenty-four
+hours among them; but as they grew bigger and needed more food she
+was forced to spend much time on hunting excursions. Fortunately,
+however, as rabbits were to be had for the picking up in Knockdane
+Woods over the hill, and mice and rats were plentiful in the bog, the
+neighbouring poultry yards were not too severely taxed and Vix's
+nursery remained undiscovered.
+
+April was ushered in by a cool dark evening after heavy rain. The
+sunset was pale and stormy, blotted out by ragged clouds, and as Vix
+trotted home she heard the 'rail' singing up the river. The 'rail' is
+the name which the Fur Folk have given to the sound which is heard at
+night before a storm, and it is one of the most mysterious noises of
+the whole countryside. There may be no wind stirring at the time, but
+the Wild Folk hear the strange whining far away over the woods and
+bogs, and know that there is a gale blowing up from the sea.
+
+Vix's path lay by the reservoir, and here, startled perhaps by some
+night noise among the rushes, she paused. The reservoir had been built
+many years ago when Paddy Magragh's father had plenty of money, and
+much stock which required water. He caught the little brook which
+trickled through Vix's drain from St. Bridget's Tower to the bog, and
+turned its course into the big cement basin, leading off the water by
+a sluice into a new channel. But the farm had fallen on evil days at
+the hands of Paddy Magragh, and the reservoir was choked with cresses
+and duckweed. Much rain had fallen this spring, and the basin was
+dangerously full. The sluice was shut fast, but the brown water
+squirted through the chinks and danced down the hill. The stream, all
+wild with joy of the great rains, brought down leaves and twigs in its
+rush, and waltzed them round and round in the plaited current until it
+heaped them against the ever-growing scum and debris at the sluice. By
+and by the branch of a tree came rolling along, and stuck fast. The
+leaves were driven against it until a high barricade was raised, and
+the water could only trickle through the sluice. Then Vix went home to
+her cubs, but the stream still poured into the basin from which it
+could find no outlet. There was only one flaw in the cement, and that
+quite a little one, patched with clay and willow withies, but the
+water--the brown, treacherous water--found it out, and worked silently
+and steadily all night. O a mad, merry miner is the water!
+
+Hard after the 'rail' came the wind and the rain. Safe and warm below
+ground, the foxes heard the howling of the gale in the Plantation, and
+the steady splash of rain drops on the sodden ground; but the brick
+walls of the drain were still strong and water-tight. Paddy Magragh in
+his cabin also heard the storm roaring outside, and remembered that he
+had left the sluice of the reservoir closed; but he dismissed the
+thought with a characteristic 'time enough to-morrow.'
+
+Vix was astir at daybreak the next morning. The wind still moaned in
+fitful gusts and brief rain-storms drove across the sky. There was a
+watery gleam in the east which told of the sunrise to be, and the
+fields were flooded. Vix reached the reservoir. It was full of turbid
+water which lipped to the very brim, and the clay which dammed up the
+broken wall was sodden and dripping.
+
+As Vix watched, a strange thing happened. A lump crumbled outwards and
+a ripple of water ran down the slope towards the fence. It swelled a
+little as the hole grew larger, until it became quite a broad stream.
+It sang a merry little song to itself as it ran--so merry that a
+number of brother ripples hastened to join it. They crowded into the
+hole in such numbers, struggling to pass through, that suddenly the
+whole earthwork tottered and crumbled away, and the coffee-coloured
+flood leaped through the gap down the hill in the wake of the first
+ripple. Brawling, tumbling, spreading into shallow pools and splashing
+cascades, it raced down the field. The hedge barred its way for a
+moment, but urged by the rush behind, it rose, and crept between the
+hawthorns into the ditch on the further side. It was many a year since
+the stream had found its way down that ditch. It poured into its old
+bed joyously, and kissed the primroses with foam kisses before it
+drowned them in its cold ripples.
+
+Not until the flood had entered the Plantation Field did Vix realise
+what it meant. Then she ran, faster than when the hounds were at her
+brush, straight to the drain where her four ruddy cubs lay in the
+torrent's path. The stream was perilously near them. It had carved a
+way for itself among the grass and brambles which choked the ditch,
+and sang to itself lustily on the way to the bog. Vix dashed
+underground, and, seizing the first of the warm whining creatures
+which she stumbled over in the darkness, she turned to fly. Too late!
+She was caught in a trap. The water burst into the drain, and surging
+to and fro to find an exit, it filled the tunnel to the roof. Vix,
+half drowned but still clinging to the cub, was battered to and fro.
+Something which was not driftwood was driven against her in the
+darkness; but though her mother-love was great she could not hold two,
+and it slipped past her. Twice she fought her head above water, and
+twice she was washed off her feet. The third time, gasping and
+choking, she gained the opening, struggled to land, and laid the
+dripping cub on the bank. But there were three more down there. Vix
+looked at the flood which plunged through the drain and into the field
+through the further opening, and that good instinct which bids the
+Wild Folk care first for that which is nearest conquered. She picked
+up the half-drowned cub, and galloped up the hill towards Knockdane.
+
+When, three hours later, Paddy Magragh strolled by, the flood had
+subsided, and only a trickle filtered through the drain, which was
+half choked with rubbish. On the bank lay three little red bodies, and
+there were marks on the wet earth where strong frenzied pads had
+striven to dig down to the treasures hidden below.
+
+That was all that Paddy Magragh ever knew, but that spring an old fox
+cared for her one remaining cub in the woods of Knockdane. And that
+cub was Redpad.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE HUNTERS
+
+
+So this was the coming of Redpad to Knockdane. A whole book might be
+written about his early adventures, but as this is to be his history,
+I must pass them by to speak of those things which befell him as he
+grew older. It is sufficient to say that he entered on his career in
+the woods with two important assets--a good nose and a good mother;
+and these two will carry one of the Fur Folk far.
+
+Vix kept her cub in an old rabbit burrow until he was old enough to
+hunt for himself. The first blood which Redpad ever drew was, strange
+to say, his own. One May evening he was playing by the mouth of the
+hole, when all at once a rustle in a bluebell bed attracted him. His
+instinct, which until now had lain dormant, awoke. He bunched his
+woolly legs together and bared his little milk teeth. The flower bells
+waved to and fro again--and Redpad cleared the intervening space with
+one bound, to land, pads extended, upon a sulky hedgehog. He crept
+whimpering back to his mother to lick his sore toes and meditate on
+one of the oldest saws of the Fox Folk, which runs: 'Never spring
+until your nose confirms your eyes and ears.'
+
+The woods are at their loveliest in May, when the chestnut leaves
+spread out their cool fingers, and a filmy green veil of foliage is
+flung over the beeches' naked branches. In the long light evenings
+scores of rabbits grazed along the woodsides, and it was upon these
+that Redpad took his first lessons in hunting. He obeyed Vix and her
+signals implicitly, and therefore learned by imitation, which is the
+only form of pedagogy known in the woods.
+
+One evening when the sun shot long slanting shadows across Knockdane,
+the foxes stole out to hunt. Between the woods and the river lies a
+flat meadow, and thither Vix led Redpad, the latter aping the carriage
+of his mother's brush to the best of his ability. She made him crouch
+down in the thicket twenty yards from the fence, but she herself crept
+forward. Although the bushes were too thick to allow her to see into
+the field, yet the air was full of that peculiar silence which means
+that many hearts are beating and many ears listening close at hand.
+But the senses of a fox are very keen, and above the murmur of the
+river over its pebbles, Vix could hear eager lips snatching and
+nibbling at the coarse grass, and many feet splashing in the dew. She
+crept forward until she could peep into the field, and saw a dozen
+rabbits feeding there. A fox has two methods of completing a
+'stalk'--the spring and the rush. Vix preferred to spring Thug-like
+upon her victim, but in this case the prey was too far away, and she
+resolved to rush it. Cramping her limbs together she dashed through
+the fence and leaped at the bunny she had marked. She might as well
+have pursued a shadow. A dozen pairs of feet stamped a warning, and a
+dozen scuts scuttled into the bushes. There was a twang as some
+reckless rabbit stubbed his nose against the wire, and then the patter
+of feet darting in every direction.
+
+Had Vix been hunting alone that evening she would have gone
+supperless, but as it happened, one rabbit chose that runway where
+Redpad crouched. It saw its danger too late and swerved--but the cub
+darted forward and rolled it over, almost turning a somersault in the
+vehemence of his rush. Vix came leaping through the bushes and tugged
+the kill away from him. He yielded it growling, but ultimately was
+permitted to demolish by far the largest share.
+
+By such expeditions Vix taught her cub to know every lane, bank, and
+'shore'[1] in the country round Knockdane, and this knowledge was very
+useful to him when later on he was obliged to hunt and be hunted by
+himself. Besides the rabbits, there were rats and mice to be had. Vix
+took Redpad down to Kilree Bog, where there are deep ditches choked
+with furze and bramble, and banks tunnelled through by burrows.
+Sometimes they went rat hunting by Paddy Magragh's farmstead at
+moonrise; but this was dangerous country, for in the yard dwelt a
+certain long-legged yellow dog with a keen nose and ready tongue.
+
+[1] Shore = A covered drain.
+
+September came, and in the fine warm weather the foxes spent most of
+their time above ground. Golden ragweed blazed in all the fields, and
+the swallows began to assemble for their journey south. Yellow sprays
+appeared among the dark leaves of the beeches, and Redpad attained
+proportions more in keeping with the size of his head. His white
+tagged brush was his great pride, his coat was shining with health,
+and he was remarkable for his forepads, which were many shades lighter
+than those of his mother; in fact, they were not black at all, but
+deep bay--hence his name. Not until he was full grown did his mother
+teach him how to hunt that swiftest and wariest of game--the hare. The
+stoat and the cat claim equal rights with the fox over rabbit,
+squirrel, and rat, but only the fox is strong enough to pull down the
+grown hare.
+
+One hot dark night the foxes awoke just before moonrise. Vix
+stretched herself and whined, and Redpad raised his muzzle, which was
+curled round into his brush. The burrow was pitch dark, but he felt
+his mother glide past him, and he rose and followed her. Outside they
+paused and sniffed the west wind appreciatively--the scent was good.
+
+Vix turned down the hill, picking her way daintily through the fern
+and brambles, and Redpad followed. Fox language must consist of signs
+of the ears and whiskers, for it is noiseless. Nevertheless she
+conveyed to him whither they were bound. They trotted through
+Knockdane, scaled the high boundary wall, and gained the open country,
+which lay placid under the twilight of moonrise.
+
+They hunted far afield that night. Two hours before daybreak they
+crossed the Killeen road and came to a wide brook. The moon was high
+in the sky, and every tree and bulrush on the bank was plainly
+visible. The sleepy cattle, chewing the cud under a willow, heaved
+themselves up with a grunt and herded together as the foxes loped
+past. They trotted up-wind in silence some hundred yards apart, ears
+alert to catch the least sound, brushes drooping. Then Vix suddenly
+put down her nose and broke into a canter, and as Redpad galloped
+after her, the warm wind bore the scent of hare to his nostrils.
+
+The meadows were dotted with tall thistles and ragweed, so that,
+running close to the ground, the foxes could not see far ahead, but
+one of the axioms of the Wild Folk is: hunt with your nose, kill with
+your teeth, and let your eyes take care of themselves. The scent led
+them across the road into a bog. Here Redpad, who led the chase, lost
+the trail at the edge of a dyke and was thrown out, but Vix leaped
+over and picked it up on the other side. They crossed the bog at full
+speed, scaring a silent heron, who was fishing knee-deep in a pool,
+almost out of his wits. On the other side the trail led over a
+furze-clad hill, and here there were many other scents--fox, rabbit,
+badger and other hares--and the foxes separated. But Redpad, hunting
+to and fro like a beagle, worked out the line into the grass-lands
+again, and they crossed some stubbles where the sheep rushed together
+into a jostling stamping flock at their approach.
+
+Hitherto the hare had kept her lead well, but now before dawn the
+scent clung persistently to the dewy grass, and the hunters began to
+gain ground. The chase bent round towards Knockdane once more, but the
+trail curved and twisted in turnings as intricate as those of a
+swallow. The 'false dawn' appeared over the mountains, and the air
+grew cooler. The foxes' tongues were out, and their flanks heaved,
+but they pressed on as keenly as ever, as first one and then the other
+picked up the failing scent.
+
+Several times the hare had doubled back a short way and then leaped
+aside to baffle her pursuers; but Vix was cunning, and by casting to
+right or left, never failed to nose out the line.
+
+At last they came to a field not very far from their starting point,
+and here they checked at fault. Redpad turned to the right, but Vix
+snuffled her way down the loosely built stone wall which bounded the
+field. Suddenly a hare leaped up almost under her feet, and hurled
+itself at the wall. It clung to the top for an instant and then,
+slowly stiffening, dropped back into Vix's jaws. The chase was over.
+
+Redpad galloped back across the field, his coat wet with dew and his
+tongue flopping out. Vix was already crouched over her kill. At his
+approach she glanced at him suspiciously, and for the first time in
+his life she growled at him--not the low lazy growl of an old vixen to
+her riotous cub, but the deep menacing rumble of one grown fox to
+another. For this, Redpad's first long chase and kill, was, so to
+speak, the day of his coming of age. Vix's instinct told her that the
+change had come. He was no longer the red, woolly cub who had tugged
+at her side, but a full-grown fox able to fend for himself, and also
+able to snatch the kill from her had he so chosen. Hence she snarled
+at him; and it was another proof that Redpad had passed the days of
+cubhood that he did not fly at her throat, as he assuredly would have
+done had any other fox used him so, but only hovered near to devour
+such morsels as she rejected. For it is one of the laws of the Fox
+Folk that a he-fox shall never attack a vixen to snatch her kill from
+her. It is a wise and good law, as are all those which are observed in
+the woods.
+
+When Vix had eaten her fill she rose and quenched her great thirst in
+a stream. But only a little remained for Redpad, and his hunger was
+scarcely appeased when they trotted back to Knockdane on the hill in
+the grey dawn.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+FIRST BLOOD
+
+
+Vix lay under a bush with her brush curled round her nose and eyes.
+Only her ears, ever wakeful and alert, kept watch while she slept. It
+was six o'clock, and a still misty morning with a heavy dew over
+everything. Close by lay Redpad with his nose on his pads; but he
+slept more lightly than Vix, for he had eaten less than she had done
+after their hunting. Thus he was the first to wake at the sound of a
+yelp in the valley. He sat up with a whimper and looked at his mother.
+He expected her to leap up, but she only stretched out her forelegs
+lazily and closed her eyes again. Perhaps her heavy meal at dawn had
+blunted the senses which as a rule gave her such timely warning of
+danger. Redpad could neither see nor smell anything suspicious, but
+those noises had convinced him that all was not right. He cast a last
+look at Vix, and then trotted away among the bushes.
+
+Presently he met an old badger plodding along. The badger was glancing
+back every now and then at the sound of a 'yow-yow-yow' in the valley;
+and by and by a hare scudded past in a panic. All the while the
+clamour was drawing nearer, and was interspersed with whip-cracking
+and shouts. It all sounded very loud and alarming to Redpad, who was
+accustomed to the stillness of the woods, and he decided to move on.
+He was cantering along a ride when suddenly, on turning a corner, he
+came full upon a horseman. The man stared at Redpad, and Redpad stared
+at the man for a few seconds, and then the former leaped into the
+bushes; but as he fled he heard a view-halloa behind him.
+
+He galloped through thickets and crashed through briars, and as he ran
+he heard the pack give tongue on his line. Up till now he had not
+realised that the presence of the strangers in the wood boded anything
+evil to the Foxkind, but had simply avoided them because they were new
+to him and noisy. At last it dawned on him that he was pursued, and he
+experienced all the fears of the hunted. In his extremity he ran back
+to the thicket where he had slept, to seek his cunning mother's help.
+Several times he was obliged to go out of his way to evade hounds who
+were hunting up and down the wood; for it was the first time that many
+of the puppies had been out, and the experience had proved too much
+for their wits. Some four couple were unpleasantly close to Redpad's
+brush as he entered the thicket, but he dodged them, and ran straight
+to his mother's lair. It was still warm, but empty. Redpad made up his
+mind quickly. To his right the wood was less thick. Here and there
+grew an isolated oak or pine, and the hillside was covered with rocks
+and fern. A little way off there was a crag some forty feet high at
+whose foot rose a little stream. Redpad pattered up this to its
+source; and about six feet from the ground, half hidden by polypody
+ferns, found a cleft in the limestone. A rush and a scramble carried
+him into this retreat, which was just large enough to contain him; and
+the ferns had scarcely ceased to wave before the hounds broke out of
+the covert.
+
+Redpad watched the huntsman put them into the patch of bracken. One
+worked one way, and one another, but they had no leader, for the old
+hounds were mostly down in the valley. And the longer they lingered,
+the staler grew the scent.
+
+Suddenly a lemon-and-white hound on the bank of the stream lifted up
+his voice and announced that a fox had passed that way, and the rest
+rushed after him. Two men rode behind the hounds, and one said to the
+other, pointing out the pale one who had picked up the scent:
+
+'That's a grand houn' in the makin'.'
+
+'Ay,' said the other, 'an' he's as swate on a stale line as ever auld
+Pirate was before him. Hike! Hike to Ravager!'
+
+The hounds hunted almost up to the crag, but the morning air was
+merciful, and drew the scent above their heads. However, the yellow
+puppy was not to be baulked. There was a narrow ledge which ran
+obliquely from the ground to the cleft where Redpad lay hidden, and up
+this he climbed. Redpad was watching the rest of the pack from between
+the fern fronds, when a joyous bay above his head proclaimed that he
+was discovered.
+
+Redpad leaped from his hiding-place and darted away with the leading
+hound not a dozen yards from his brush. There was no time to turn or
+try any tricks--he ran for his life. He led his pursuers right across
+Knockdane, but it seemed as though there was a galloping horse in
+every path and ride, and a hound in every brake. In his extremity he
+turned to the moor. He raced up the steep hillside through clumps of
+solemn fir trees, where the tits twittered as though there were no
+such thing as man, and through beds of ivy and fern.
+
+At last the long slope of the Big Meadow lay before him, and he
+gathered all his remaining strength for the dash over this danger
+zone. By the hedge stood a horse and rider who halloaed as he passed,
+but to fox ideas a man was far less dangerous than the hounds behind,
+and he took no notice. He galloped across the field and entered the
+clump of trees in the middle. Suddenly another fox leaped up and went
+away in front of him. It was Vix. She knew well who were following
+their line, and cantered at her top speed; but she was still heavy and
+drowsy after her full meal at dawn, and presently Redpad, tired as he
+was, overtook and passed her.
+
+The pack was very close behind as they entered the narrow belt of
+woodland at the top of the field; but the hounds were all alone, for
+the thick hedge had stopped the horses at the bottom of the hill, and
+they had been obliged to go a long way round. Redpad's tongue was out,
+for he had run far through the wood that morning, and, besides, he was
+very frightened. Just in front of him loomed the high demesne wall.
+Redpad had leaped upon it, when he suddenly noticed a thick bush of
+ivy which overhung the coping to his right, and instead of leaping
+down the other side he crept into the ivy and lay there panting.
+
+A second later Vix came up. Twice she leaped and twice she fell back,
+but the third time she gained the coping just as the hounds came up.
+They crowded over the wall on the scent, Ravager leading, and poured
+down the hill on the other side after the little red figure half a
+field's length in front. They were so close to him that one spring
+would have landed Redpad in their midst, but he lay like a stone, and
+they passed him by.
+
+'Head them off if ye can, Mike,' yelled the huntsman, galloping up.
+''Tis an auld fox!'
+
+'It was not, then! Didn't I see him cross the path below, an' he a
+cub?'
+
+'Don't stand there arguin', ye fool! Nip round to the gate above, for
+she's bet, an' we've none too many in this country.'
+
+They galloped away, and the 'yowl-yowl' of the pack died away over the
+moor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Redpad lay among the ivy until the morning mists cleared away; and the
+croon of the woodpigeons was the only sound which broke the stillness.
+Then he leaped from his sanctuary and crept down the hill. He sought
+for his mother high and low, through thickets and rocks, but he could
+not find her; and when the autumn moon rose he wandered to and fro and
+yelped for her, but she never came back again to Knockdane.
+
+Nevertheless woodland grief is as short-lived as it is poignant, and
+before September had given place to October, Redpad hunted in
+Knockdane and robbed the Ballygallon hen-roosts contentedly alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+HOW THE DEBT WAS PAID
+
+
+All the following winter Redpad hunted in Knockdane. Several times the
+hounds came and he had to run for his brush, but it takes a great deal
+to catch a hardy Irish fox who is sound in wind and limb. When summer
+came he picked up plenty of young rabbits and grew fat. Paddy Magragh
+learned to recognise him, and designated him 'the big red felly.'
+Although he had been deprived of his mother so early, yet he learned
+by experience and instinct, those best of teachers, how to overcome or
+circumvent the wiliest of the wood creatures for his own ends. He
+established himself in the upper gallery of a badger's 'set.' The
+badger had cleaned it out for his own winter use, but Redpad
+discovered it one day, and adopted it. The badger was seriously
+annoyed and endeavoured to oust the intruder by every means in his
+power, but Redpad went on the principle of bowing to the storm. When
+the badger offered to fight him he discreetly sought quarters
+elsewhere; but no sooner had the rightful owner triumphantly freed the
+burrow from the hated taint of fox, than he returned. At last the
+badger grew weary of the contest. He took up his residence at the
+bottom of the earth, and left Redpad in undisputed possession of the
+upper gallery.
+
+Winter came round for the second time, and by now Redpad had come to
+his full strength. Knockdane seldom sees hard frost or snow, but as a
+rule the south wind blows up a warm mist, and a steady rain drips
+through the leafless trees.
+
+In December rabbit-traps were set in Knockdane, and Redpad was not
+long in finding them out. It was against regulations to set traps in
+the open, but Paddy Magragh, who was in charge of the trapping, was
+not particular; and Redpad's first introduction to a rabbit-trap was
+the snap of steel jaws on his toe. He wrenched himself free, but he
+walked lame for many a day afterwards, and he had learned his lesson.
+He soon found out that the trapper made his morning and evening rounds
+with fair regularity, and he arranged that his own excursions should
+be made accordingly. He trotted round the traps just in front of
+Magragh, and when the latter arrived, more than half of them contained
+nothing but a severed rabbit's head. This happened two or three times,
+and then Magragh, who knew nearly as much about wood ways as Redpad
+himself, reversed the order in which he visited the traps, and
+presently caught the thief red-handed.
+
+'Every dog has his day, me fine lad,' muttered Magragh, hurling a fir
+cone after the white-tagged brush; 'but I'm thinking the hounds will
+have theirs before so long.'
+
+After that Magragh lifted his traps to the other side of Knockdane,
+for which Redpad had no great liking, as there were more farmsteads in
+the neighbourhood, and consequently more cur dogs.
+
+During the fine weather about Christmas time Redpad left the main
+woods, and hunted and slept in the thick hedgerows by the river below
+Knockdane. They were full of rats and rabbits, but were not a very
+safe resort, for it is one of the Sabbath amusements of the youth of
+those parts to go out with dogs, and hunt any outlying fox in the
+hedges. Redpad could outrun any dog in the country, but his slender
+limbs were no match for the more sturdily built terriers and
+sheep-dogs at close grips, so perhaps it was just as well that a cold
+snap drove him back to the woods again.
+
+While the frost was on the ground Redpad was hungry and robbed
+hen-roosts recklessly. One night twelve hens roosted in an outhouse
+with a defective latch at John Skehan's farm. The next morning when
+the owner went his rounds, three corpses lay on the floor, and the
+rest of the fowls had disappeared; all but one broody biddy under a
+basket.
+
+'Ye may go afther the rest, ye divil,' said John Skehan to this
+survivor bitterly, and dismissed her with a kick. His words were
+fulfilled more literally than he expected. She alighted cackling
+beyond the farmyard wall--a red shadow sprang up silently, and John
+Skehan had a glimpse of a white-tagged brush heading towards Knockdane
+along a path strewn with feathers. This was more than flesh and blood
+could stand, and Skehan set his dog after the thief. At first the dog
+gained on Redpad, who was weighted with the fowl, but presently the
+fox dropped his burden, and John Skehan chuckled at the thought that
+the robber would not profit by his raid. But Redpad increased his lead
+again, and then picked up another hen from behind a hedge. This
+happened twice, and every time he had to leave his booty to escape
+from his pursuer; but the third time he succeeded in carrying it in
+triumph to Knockdane. Afterwards it was found that those hens which he
+could not carry away he had deposited in caches along the path between
+Knockdane and the farm, in order to remove them at his leisure.
+
+This misdeed hurried on the day of reckoning. John Skehan laid the
+tattered remains of his poultry before the proper authorities, and in
+consequence one day early in the year the hounds came to Knockdane.
+The best hound in the dog-pack that season was that Ravager who had
+been blooded on the morning when Vix had been hunted down, more than a
+year before. Redpad had met Ravager once before that winter, and had
+been obliged to resort to every trick he knew in order to circumvent
+that sagacious leader of the pack.
+
+Of course Redpad found the 'earth' stopped when he returned home at
+daybreak, and he accordingly sought out a hiding-place which had
+already baffled his enemies several times. There was an ivy-grown fir
+tree which the wind had partially uprooted and flung against its
+fellows. It was quite easily climbed, and Redpad curled himself up in
+the ivy about fifteen feet from the ground. Here he slept very
+comfortably until noon, and then the familiar 'yowl-yowl' awakened
+him. For an hour or more he watched the hounds as they occasionally
+galloped past; and at last two men in pink coats rode along and halted
+under the very tree where he lay hidden. Presently a squirrel, passing
+through a neighbouring tree, looked down and caught sight of a fox
+sitting like an owl in an ivy bush. Nothing upsets a squirrel so much
+as curiosity, and a fox in a fir tree was something quite outside the
+experience of this particular one. He instantly desired to know a
+hundred things as to the why and wherefore of this strange occurrence,
+and in short was transformed into one tense note of interrogation.
+
+He chattered tentatively--the fox did not move. Then he chattered
+defiantly, but still there was no sign. He hopped near and dared the
+fox to chase him, but Redpad knew better than to stir. Then the
+squirrel grew almost beside himself with passion. He kicked the branch
+on which he sat, he scolded until the woods rang, he jibbered with
+rage. Three jays came up to see what the fuss was about, and added
+their voices to the commotion. At last it grew so loud that even the
+dull human ears of the men under the tree remarked that something
+unusual was going on. They looked up--saw something red stir in the
+ivy and--'By Jove!' said the younger; and his halloa sent the squirrel
+leaping away.
+
+Five minutes later a council was held under the tree.
+
+'Who will climb up and fetch him?' asked the master; but the 'boys'
+standing round only grinned and shook their heads.
+
+Then old Paddy Magragh, who loved the foxes of Knockdane for the sake
+of the sport which the foxes begot, said: 'An' if I fetch him down to
+yez, will yer anner see that he has fair play and a good start?'
+
+'Yes,' said the master; 'you shall turn him down yourself.'
+
+So Paddy began to ascend the tree with a sack in one hand and his coat
+wrapped round the other. When he was about half-way up the tree he
+came face to face with Redpad, and the fox looked up with a snarl, but
+he could retreat no further up the trunk. Magragh crept closer and
+held out his coat. Quick as lightning Redpad buried his double row of
+ivory fangs in it. But it was too thick for them to reach the hand
+inside, and Magragh, seizing him by the back of the neck, tumbled him
+into the sack.
+
+Redpad was let loose in the middle of the Big Meadow. When the
+sack-mouth was opened, he went away like an arrow without a glance
+behind.
+
+'Good luck to yez,' said Paddy Magragh, 'for, begob, 'tis a great hunt
+ye'll give them to-day.'
+
+It is a true saying that a bagged fox will not run far, but this was
+not so with Redpad, for he knew every inch of the country, and
+besides, he had not been long enough in the sack to grow cramped. He
+flew over the short grass, and as he cleared the demesne wall he heard
+the pack open behind him. To the south lay Carricktriss with its rocks
+and heather blue in the distance; down in the plain there was
+Sutcliffe's Gorse, surrounded by wet fields where the horses would
+sink fetlock deep at every step, and hedges impenetrable to anything
+but a blackbird. However, Redpad had made up his mind where he was
+going, and set his mask resolutely towards the east. Four miles of
+meadow-land lie between Knockdane and Kiltorkan Hill, but Redpad had a
+map of the country in his head, and he knew that no covert in the
+country was a surer refuge for a hunted fox. He slipped across a grass
+field where a couple of hobbled goats bucketted away at his approach;
+and, taking just the same line which Vix, his mother, had chosen for
+her last race for life eighteen months before, he galloped over the
+bog.
+
+Most of the fences were wide-topped banks with a 'grip'[2] on the
+further side, and Redpad took them with an easy spring on and off. He
+was running with a good lead over a marshy field when he met with his
+first check at the highroad. A train of 'side cars,' 'ass cars,' and
+pedestrians, nearly a quarter of a mile long, were slowly proceeding
+to a funeral at Ballycarnew. Redpad could not cross the road under
+their feet, and was obliged to make a long detour which brought the
+hounds considerably nearer his brush--so much nearer indeed that
+presently he ascended a little knoll covered with furze to see if a
+certain drain was open. Although he did not know it, Vix in her
+extremity had also tried to reach this hiding-place, and she too had
+found it blocked. But Vix had been too exhausted to run any further
+and had turned to face the hounds in the field beyond, whereas Redpad
+was still fresh and with strength to spare.
+
+[2] Ditch.
+
+He looked back at the pack working out his line in the fields below
+him, and saw that Ravager was at their head. The horsemen had been
+stopped by a wire fence, and were following far behind. For the first
+time Redpad felt a little anxious. The scent was evidently good that
+day, and Kiltorkan was still more than two miles ahead. He quickened
+his pace and tried the old old trick of running through a herd of
+cattle in order to foul the line. This checked the hounds for a
+moment, but Ravager cast forward, and presently they came on faster
+than ever.
+
+Redpad was still running strongly, but his tongue was out and he was
+coated with mud. He skirted two or three farmsteads, forded a brook
+where he paused to gulp a mouthful of water, and then climbed a long
+gradual slope. At the top he paused and looked back. He saw that
+Ravager with two couple of the best hounds was working some fifty
+yards ahead of the rest of the pack, and that some distance in the
+rear rode a man in pink. Kiltorkan was about half a mile away, but at
+its base ran a thin shining line of railroad. The Fur Folk of
+Kiltorkan care little for the noisy, fussy train which pants down to
+Waterford twice a day. They have found out long ago that it is only
+formidable in its own place, and is hedged in in some mysterious way
+by the wire fence on either side of the embankment.
+
+Whether Redpad had any preconceived plan in his head as he raced to
+the railway I cannot say, but as soon as he climbed the bank on to the
+metals he heard a low roar, and round the distant curve the mail train
+swung into view. The hounds were now very close behind, for the pace
+for the last half-mile had been terrific. A cunning scheme came into
+Redpad's brain. He raced madly up the track towards the oncoming
+train. Belching forth smoke, and shaking the ground with the thunder
+of its rushing wheels, it had fewer terrors for him than the hunters
+behind. It was a hundred yards off--fifty--thirty--Redpad leaped aside
+and let the roaring monster hurtle past him, but the hounds, running
+blindly on the hot scent, never saw the danger. As Redpad leaped down
+the embankment the engine-driver saw what would occur and jammed the
+brakes to the groaning wheels, but it was too late. There was one
+yell, which rose above the clatter of the train, and then all was
+over.
+
+Redpad struggled up the hill with his heart thudding against his ribs.
+At the summit there was a cairn of stones strong enough to defy pick
+and spade. Before slipping inside he looked back. The remainder of the
+pack were huddled together in the field below the railway. The train
+was at a standstill, and a group of men stood on the track looking at
+something lemon-and-white which lay without moving at their feet.
+
+Redpad knew that he had nothing more to fear that day. If he had been
+a philosopher he might have reflected upon the saw that 'every dog has
+his day'; but as he was only a fox he crept into Kiltorkan Cairn to
+pant and bite thorns out of his pads.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE SHEEP SLAYER
+
+
+The temptation came late in February, for that is famine time in the
+country-side. The rabbits were alert, and it was difficult to stalk
+birds successfully when the leaves were off the trees. In three days
+Redpad had only picked up a starved rat and a sick pigeon, all skin
+and bone, and on the fourth day he caught nothing at all. His sides
+had fallen in, and his haunch bones stood out. At last he went to the
+moor; but although he hunted there for a long while, he did not even
+see a field-mouse. The sun had set when he returned to Knockdane, and
+the stars came out, one by one, in the steely sky. It was going to
+freeze. Redpad jumped a wall into a little field, where withered fern
+grew more plentifully than grass, and across which the sheep
+stampeded. These were the ewes with young lambs, and they wheeled into
+a jostling flock at his approach. Redpad never looked at them as he
+skirted the field. He was well used to sheep, but so far, in his
+opinion, their only use was to foul his line for the hounds. Also,
+even had he been so minded, he could scarcely pull down a lamb under
+the hoofs of the dams, for collectively the old ewes were formidable.
+Therefore he did not give them a second thought until he came to the
+far side of the field, when a little cry in the fern made him pause
+with pad upraised. He snuffed his way cautiously under the wall; and
+there, sheltered by a boulder from the cold wind, lay a newly dropped
+lamb. It was one of a couple, but being sickly, it had not risen and
+followed the dam to the rest of the flock as its fellow did. It was
+too weak to stand, and could only lie and shiver as the fox crept up.
+Redpad was ravenous--starving, in fact--and far and near the
+countryside was empty in the night. The old ewe was not at hand;
+nothing watched him but the hungry stars overhead. He seized the lamb
+by the shoulder, and it did not even bleat as he swung it over the
+wall, and cantered with it to Knockdane. That night, for the first
+time for many days, Redpad was full-fed, and slept soundly.
+
+The theft might have remained undiscovered, but unluckily the sheep
+belonged to Jack Skehan; and twice a day, during the lambing time, he
+went along a certain path in Knockdane to visit the flock. The next
+morning, when on his usual round, his dog ran on ahead, and presently
+returned carrying the woolly leg of a lamb. On the path were
+unmistakable traces of Redpad's last night's meal; and worst of all,
+in the soft earth where he had drunk from a puddle, were the plain
+prints of pads. There was no doubt who had done the deed.
+
+Jack Skehan himself was not kindly disposed to the Hunt, and he threw
+out dark hints as to his future plans. However, he had no opportunity
+of carrying these into effect, for Redpad did not visit the sheep
+again after his one theft. What with one thing and another, his luck
+began to turn. He picked up two or three snared rabbits and other
+trifles, and the press of famine was over for a time.
+
+However, a week later, he was patrolling the fir wood at the top of
+Knockdane. It was a still night, mild for the season, with a crescent
+moon struggling behind a mass of little sheep-backed clouds. Presently
+he heard a businesslike patter of feet on the fir needles, and
+snuffing, that his nose might confirm his ears in correct fox fashion,
+he winded a dog. Redpad hated dogs only one degree less than men, and
+slipped quietly away into the shadows. The footsteps paused
+undecidedly at the spot where he had turned aside, then passed on.
+
+Shortly afterwards, Redpad was scaling the demesne wall, when a
+distant rumble of hoofs startled him. The ground slopes away gently
+from the end of the wood, over the fields, and then rises again to
+meet the moor. Hence, from the wall, Redpad could look down into the
+field where the sheep dwelt. He saw the whole flock--a grey mass in
+the twilight--collected in a corner; and listening, it seemed to him
+that he heard a shrill yelp. However, it was not repeated, and as he
+winded nothing unusual, for the night air was damp and chilled the
+scent, he continued his way. Night after night he went to the moor by
+the same path--over the wall, and across the little field where the
+sheep grazed among the stones. Here he suddenly crossed a line from
+which the Fur Folk usually turn--the line of fresh blood; and among
+the dwarfed gorse he found the body of a young lamb. At that moment
+the sheep stampeded, and one lamb, breaking from the flock, bounded
+hither and thither among the rocks with the agility of despair. As it
+leaped, something small and dark sprang beside it. There was a wicked
+snarl, a piteous stifled bleat, and the lamb was dragged headlong into
+the furze. Redpad waited no longer, but cantered back to the wood. If
+something was worrying the sheep, this was no safe place for him.
+
+When Jack Skehan came up at eight o'clock, two lambs were missing. He
+called a conclave of neighbours, and they sat in judgment upon
+Redpad's real and supposed delinquencies. Jack Skehan, who was very
+wrathful, purposed to put a notice to 'foxhunters and others' in the
+local press, and resort to drastic measures by means of strychnine;
+but the rest of the council shook their heads, for they had no wish to
+banish the hounds from Knockdane. Ultimately they all went down to
+consult Paddy Magragh, whose reputation for wisdom was deservedly
+great where animals were concerned. Paddy was smoking in his cabin,
+and after he had heard all that they had to say, he said: ''Twas a
+dog, not a fox, took the lamb lasht night, I'm thinking.' And this
+opinion he held to in spite of all arguments against it.
+
+Nothing occurred that night, and the following day Paddy Magragh went
+alone to the field on the hill, and searched it thoroughly. He came
+upon the carcase of the lamb in the gorse, and he grinned, for he knew
+the ways of the Fur Folk, and their law, better than most of the men
+round Knockdane. The next day, however, there was great consternation.
+Jack Skehan's flock was untouched, but Dinny Purcell had left his ewes
+in a field adjoining the wood, and a young lamb lay torn and draggled
+upon the grass. The remains were taken triumphantly to Paddy Magragh,
+and the foxlike print of the fangs displayed; and secretly even his
+conviction was shaken, although he declared stoutly that it was a dog
+and not a fox that had done the deed.
+
+With one accord it was decreed that poison should be laid down; and
+Jack Skehan went to Skelagh and bought strychnine, ostensibly to
+poison rats. Paddy Magragh had manfully opposed this scheme, for
+besides the fact that every fox hunted from Knockdane meant ten
+shillings in his pocket, he had 'stopped' the woods for twenty years,
+and took more pride in his foxes than he cared to own.
+
+'If ye'll do as I tell ye,' he declared, 'ye'll lay the mate on a bit
+o' paper, an' if it's a fox, he'll never touch it at all, for he'd be
+afeard o' the paper, but if it's a dog he'll ate it.'
+
+And this was the utmost they would grant him. Indeed, if they had
+believed him, he could not even have extorted this concession.
+
+They 'doctored' some rabbit paunches with strychnine cunningly enough,
+and laid them seductively in the field. It was just before dark when
+they returned home, so they did not see how the magpie fluttered down
+a few minutes later, and spying the bait, sidled up to it. He did not
+altogether like the white paper, but he was hungry, and a paunch was a
+paunch. He picked it up gingerly and carried it off, for a magpie does
+not care to eat where he has killed--he is too accustomed to traps.
+Even an egg is impaled on his bill and conveyed away. Luckily for this
+magpie, however, it so happened that when he was flying into the wood
+he accidentally let the choice morsel fall out of sight among the
+trees. Therefore, although he went supperless to bed, he was fortunate
+in that he roosted in the branches that night, instead of lying claws
+upwards on the ground. Redpad found that paunch two days afterwards
+and ate a piece; but something peculiar about the morsel--in its taste
+or odour--warned him, and although he was very sick for some hours,
+yet he eventually recovered.
+
+There was great jubilation the next morning when it was found that
+some of the poison had been taken; but the triumph was short-lived,
+for the following night another lamb had disappeared. The next evening
+Jack Skehan took his old gun and the little whippet-nosed dog who
+worked for him among the sheep all day, and sat up to watch. The dog
+sat beside him on a stone, and when he was not watching his master for
+orders, he gazed serenely above the heads of the sheep. Nothing,
+however, came, and at six o'clock, tired and chilled, Jack Skehan
+went home.
+
+The poison was still there, but Redpad, made wary by his former
+experience with the rabbit paunch, passed it by, and besides, the
+mysterious rustling of the white paper underneath scared him. The real
+sheep slayer never touched it, for he seemed to prefer warm meat to
+cold.
+
+On the two following nights again nothing was taken; but on the third
+morning news was brought that an older lamb had been killed in Jack
+Skehan's flock, and that the carcase had not been removed, so Paddy
+Magragh went up to the field.
+
+'Bedam! I'll have the poison thick in every field on the farm, and put
+up the wire besides,' stormed Jack Skehan. 'Is al' me sheep to be
+worried on me that the gintry may hunt their dirthy foxes over me
+land? I'll have ivery mother's son o' thim prosecuted.'
+
+'Now I'll go bail,' said Paddy Magragh, who had picked up the carcase,
+'that 'twas a dog had this killed.'
+
+'An' what dog in this counthry would touch a sheep, an' they wid 'em
+all day?' demanded Garry, Jack Skehan's young brother.
+
+'Where have ye that felly o' yours shut at nights?' asked Paddy
+Magragh, looking at the little narrow-headed cur who slunk at
+Skehan's heel.
+
+'Shure he slapes in the cowhouse, and I lets him out in the mornin'.
+But he'd never harm a sheep--I rared him meself.'
+
+Paddy Magragh spat discreetly. 'I'd have me cowhouse door mended, an'
+the window blocked,' said he.
+
+'Are ye sayin' that it was a dog all the while?' demanded Skehan
+irately.
+
+'I do not. Maybe 'twas a fox took one or two--the first was a little
+small one, an' he sick-like. But this is a dog, shure enough.' And he
+looked again at Jack Skehan's sheep-dog, who was licking his paws
+thoughtfully.
+
+'Well, I'll have the poison down again, an' that widout the paper.
+Shure there's enough o' talkin'. If there's another lamb worried on
+me, begob, but I'll poison every fox in Knockdane,' grumbled Jack
+Skehan.
+
+Paddy Magragh said nothing, for he was crafty, and the Knockdane foxes
+were near to his heart and his pocket, but that night, after the bait
+had been laid, he went to the field, and, taking the carcase of the
+dead lamb, he put in enough strychnine to poison a dozen dogs or foxes
+either, and left it by the gate.
+
+'It's a bit o' a risk,' he mumbled, 'but shure, if I don't have the
+right lad cot to-night, Jack Skehan is that bitther with the Hunt
+he'll not lave a fox in the woods, what wid the traps an' the poison.'
+
+That night the hunger pain hurt Redpad sorely again; and if he had
+reflected upon the subject, he might have envied the squirrels, who,
+during that hard March weather, eked out a living upon germinating
+beechmast, or the badgers who dug up and ate the acrid tubers of the
+wild arum. But the Fur Folk do not possess the faculty of comparing
+their own lot with that of others. Perhaps they are all the happier
+that they lack it.
+
+It was after midnight, and the moon was not long risen, when Redpad
+trotted by the gate of the field where the sheep were. He had no idea
+of taking a lamb. They were all able to run well by now, and he had
+too much respect for the hoofs of the old ewes to attack the entire
+flock. He crept under the gate (there be those who say that a fox will
+not do this, but the hedgerow rabbits whom the fox stalks know better)
+and then he found the carcase of the lamb. His recent experience with
+the rabbit paunch had made him wary, otherwise he might have eaten of
+it, for he was very hungry; but to his sharp senses something seemed
+not altogether right--perhaps the taint of human hands was still upon
+the food--and he passed on. For two hours he hunted in the fields, but
+the meagre results only whetted his appetite. Then he recollected the
+dead lamb, and desire for one full meal overcame his caution, and he
+returned to the place.
+
+The moon, which had been obscured by sullen clouds, here brightened a
+little, and he caught sight of the lamb's carcase in the fern,
+gleaming in the dusk. He was hurrying up to it, when suddenly, by a
+wandering night breeze, he winded dog, and at the same instant the
+clouds broke entirely from the moon. Redpad stood petrified, for not
+thirty yards away, his back turned and his foot on the dead lamb,
+crouched Jack Skehan's tried sheep-dog. He looked up, and snarled at
+the sheep who stared fearfully at him. Evidently he was devouring his
+last night's kill, before attacking the flock. As Redpad watched, the
+dog tore off a mouthful and swallowed it. Then he growled again, and
+Redpad slunk silently away. The dog was lightly built, and smaller
+than he was, but he was thin and weak, and in no condition to fight.
+The Fur Folk seldom contest a kill, and besides, in Redpad's mind,
+dogs were so intimately connected with men that he was by no means
+certain that a man might not lurk under the wall. But as he went
+there was a half-strangled, hysterical yell behind him. The dog
+suddenly leaped up, and rushed madly towards the gate, as though in
+his terror his first instinct was to run home. His agonised eyes,
+fear-stricken, glinted white in the moonlight, and there was foam on
+his jowl. Redpad took the wall in one bound, but as he sprang he heard
+a dull thud, as the dog, leaping blindly in the extremity of his
+frenzy, struck the top bar of the gate, and fell back struggling
+convulsively.
+
+Redpad ran as he had seldom run before, for he believed that the other
+pursued him, and that the mysterious madness would be upon him too if
+he were overtaken. But the hideous sounds which tore the silence of
+the night behind gradually grew fainter, and before he had crossed the
+demesne wall the dog lay still and stiff beside the torn lamb. There
+Paddy Magragh found him at dawn, and went home chuckling; and there
+also, a little later, his owner found him, and buried him secretly in
+the corner of a turnip field.
+
+For obvious reasons Jack Skehan did not publish the story of that
+night abroad; but in the country round it was noticed ever after that
+his lambing ewes were kept in the home-field; and also that from this
+time onwards he ceased to be accompanied everywhere by his favourite
+dog. Until recently, indeed, the identity of the sheep killer was only
+known to three persons--to Skehan himself, who never divulged it; to
+Paddy Magragh, who kept the secret faithfully, and only revealed it
+long afterwards in order, on another occasion, to clear the name of
+the foxes of Knockdane; and lastly to Redpad. But for a long while the
+latter avoided the place; for in his memory dwelt the recollection of
+that strange death which men deal to those who break the primitive law
+which ordains that man is placed in dominion, not only over the beasts
+who eat his bread, but over the Wild Folk of the hills and woods, and
+that his dependents and possessions are sacred, and not to be harmed
+with impunity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+FROM KILMANAGH TO KNOCKDANE
+
+
+From Kilmanagh Hill the highlands stretch north and south mile after
+mile, with here and there the grey head of a limestone crag protruding
+through the heather. In the less rugged spots the peasants have
+collected the stones and piled them up, so as to enclose a tiny
+half-acre field with a wall as strong and high as a rampart; but for
+the most part the country lies derelict in moor and bog--the home of
+the curlew, plover and hill-fox. It is a weird land this, which in
+rockbound loneliness looks out over the cultivated plain. From its
+southern limits can be seen the sea, a pale streak in the distance;
+and often all day long the Atlantic mists settle down and wrap the
+hills in a chill pall until sunset, when the sun breaks out and the
+moor glows beneath him like a wet pebble. But to-night the sun had
+long since disappeared behind the cone of Galtymore, and the stars had
+taken his place, until they in their turn were drowned by the January
+moon which rose, polished with frost, above the highest of the eastern
+tiers of mountains. The western slopes of Kilmanagh were still hidden
+in deepest shadow, but on the east every bush and heather tuft was
+visible, and the faces of the limestone boulders glistened with rime.
+
+A shadow glided through the bushes, and sprang upon a rock. The
+moonlight shone on the thick brush and ruddy pads which Knockdane knew
+so well. But Knockdane was ten miles away over the moors. What brought
+Redpad to Kilmanagh that winter's night? Two days before he had left
+his home covert, and travelled after sunset across the open country to
+the foot of these wild highlands which lie some four miles to the
+south of Knockdane. He had travelled along leisurely, hunting as he
+went, and sleeping under some rock or bush. He did not know why he
+thus wandered through an unknown country. He only felt a desire which
+he could not gratify--the desire which awakens earliest in the Fox
+People--the desire of Love. No matter how keenly January frosts bite
+or January sleet showers blow, they leave their native haunts, and
+wander away to seek a mate. Perhaps some mysterious hereditary
+instinct led Redpad to the hill, for on just such a night his sire had
+left the highlands and come to Knockdane three years before.
+
+To-night Redpad climbed to the highest peak of Kilmanagh Hill to see
+the moon rise; and there, because he was solitary and the Love Desire
+so strong, he raised his long muzzle and yelped out his loneliness
+and longing. A sheep-dog below heard and answered with a deep
+'row-row-row!' of disgust at the chain which prevented him rambling
+from his home.
+
+[Illustration: LONELINESS AND LONGING]
+
+'Yap! yap! yap!' shrilly and insistently Redpad, silhouetted against
+the moon, yelped a love song and challenge in one.
+
+From the shadowed side of Kilmanagh rose a call less loud and defiant
+than his own. Redpad swung round, ears cocked, pad raised, but the
+still cold air of mid-January was silent but for the sheep-dog's bark.
+He whimpered a little and then plunged into the heather. The hillside
+was very dark, but Redpad's nose was keen and told him plainly who had
+passed that way. Where the main peak of Kilmanagh meets the more
+gradual slopes which rise up to meet it from the plain, is a little
+ravine, and here the night air bore a faint unmistakable taint to his
+nostrils--fox. Among the shadows ahead, his eyes, catlike, accustomed
+to see in the gloom, detected something which appeared more solid than
+a shadow. He approached it cautiously, while a low growl arose in his
+throat. A pair of ears twitched and then slid into the bushes. Redpad
+put his nose down and hunted out the trail as carefully as ever he had
+done that of hare or rabbit. By and by he came to a clearing. The moon
+had just risen above the sloping shoulders of Kilmanagh, and to fox
+eyes the hill was light. Here his quest ended, for not six yards from
+him sat the Beloved. Her coat was as red as that of a winter squirrel,
+her brush was as thick as a pine sapling, and she was as desirable as
+a sunny evening in May. Therefore because she satisfied Redpad's
+longing he called her the Beloved on the spot, and indeed he never
+knew her by any other name. He came forward cautiously, for he doubted
+what his reception might be, leaping this way and that and dropping on
+his forepads like a cub inviting a game. But the Beloved had also been
+very solitary. She too had yelped the story of her loneliness to the
+moon. She trotted forward and touched Redpad caressingly, and then
+playfully rolled him over with her muzzle. They romped together for a
+few minutes, and either gave and received sundry love nips, and then
+they trotted down the hill in company.
+
+The sheep-dog was silent, but a snipe rushed up crying 'kek-a-kek.'
+Rabbits were playing among the furze, and there Redpad and his Beloved
+hunted together until the moon began to sink, and some wet clouds from
+the west rose over her face, bringing warm rain.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It still wanted some two hours till dawn when Redpad and his love
+came back up the hill, full-fed and contented. The Beloved trotted in
+front, and her mate followed some little way behind. Suddenly the
+narrow goat-path took a sharp turn, and they came full upon an
+enormous fox. He stood half an inch higher at the shoulder than
+Redpad, and his coat was as grey as a badger's. He bared his teeth a
+little at the sight of Redpad, but most of his attention was
+concentrated upon the Beloved. He crept forward with his long neck
+stretched out and touched her red shoulder. Redpad bared his double
+row of ivory fangs and the hair along his spine rose. In another
+moment he would have flown at his rival's throat, had not the Beloved,
+as is the custom of the fox-kind, taken the quarrel upon herself. She
+flew at the Grey One with a fierce growl, and made her teeth meet in
+his flank. He would have fought with Redpad while he had a pad left to
+stand upon, but by the law of the Woods a fox may not attack a vixen
+in the love season. He felt the Beloved's strong jaws close like a
+trap behind his ears, and fled. The vixen trotted back slowly to her
+lair, glancing back now and then over her shoulder and growling softly
+at the recollection of her recent skirmish and many other things. And
+Redpad, her accepted suitor, followed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The afternoon was dull and raw. The frost had gone, and the fields in
+the plain were studded with pools of flood water, for much rain had
+fallen.
+
+Redpad in his lair was awakened by a frightened woodcock which dropped
+down just in front of him. He sat up suspiciously with cocked ears,
+for it is not the way of woodcock after a clear night to shift their
+quarters undisturbed. There was a faint halloa at the top of the hill:
+'Try-Tra-i-y.' Redpad slipped silently from the warm lair, and the
+Beloved followed him, for they both knew the meaning of that sound.
+Suddenly there was a joyous 'yow-yow-yow.' 'Hike! hike!' came the
+shout again; and Redpad trotted down the hill, for although the
+heather hemmed him in, he knew well enough what was forward on the
+summit.
+
+There is a low stone wall at the foot of Kilmanagh which separates a
+thick gorse brake from the fields, and Redpad squatted down behind it
+to watch. The hounds were gradually working down the hill. There was a
+man on a horse standing at a corner of the field, and all at once he
+waved his cap above his head. The Grey One was slinking down the
+fence. He had crossed the first field when a couple of hounds gave
+tongue close by. His heart failed him--he swung round to the covert
+again, leaped over Redpad with a snarl, and galloped back up the
+hill. The hounds broke into the field on his line, wheeled like a
+flock of plover, and came straight to where Redpad lay. It was time to
+be stirring--a strange covert is no refuge to a hunted fox. Redpad
+cantered gracefully a little further up the fence, and just as he
+leaped upon the wall in full view of the watcher in the field, some
+erratic puff of wind told him that his Beloved had just passed that
+way up the hill to safety. He wavered for a moment, then the pack
+spoke again and he leaped. But he had not gone a hundred yards before
+the hounds gave tongue behind him, and a distant voice proclaimed:
+'Gone away--awa-a-y--awa-a-y!'
+
+From the very start Redpad knew where he was going, and set his mask
+towards Knockdane on the hill ten miles away. At first the fields he
+crossed were small, and cropped as bare as a billiard-table by
+starveling goats and sheep, while between them rose walls of loosely
+piled stone, five feet high and so broad that a horse could walk along
+the top. More than one horseman turned home that day with a red
+bandage round his horse's fetlock, for Kilmanagh stones are sharp.
+
+Two miles slipped by. Redpad kept up his best pace, for he felt
+instinctively that he had not increased his lead during the last
+half-mile, and the scent was good that day. He was in the best of
+condition and ran strongly, but he did not know the hiding-places in
+this part of the country as well as those of Knockdane, and was
+obliged to trust more to his legs and less to his wits than was his
+custom.
+
+Presently he turned to the right and climbed the steep hillside to the
+moor. There was a big rabbit hole in his path into which he tried to
+creep, but just below the surface it narrowed, and he was obliged to
+back out with his coat full of dust and several precious moments lost.
+He could see the hounds--a pied patch on the fields below him. At that
+distance they appeared to be crawling along, but as a matter of fact
+they were racing at top speed. Just behind them rode a horseman on a
+great black horse, but the rest were further behind.
+
+Redpad ran on steadily, for he could see Knockdane with its crest of
+trees in the distance. The moor was boggy, and he crossed patches of
+quagmire which trembled even under his light weight. A big grey heron
+burst out of a pool and swung skywards, and the snipe sprang up in
+every direction; but Redpad never paused and the hounds never checked,
+until the men began to wonder if their horses would hold out, and took
+what short cuts they might.
+
+Three miles further on the moor sloped down to the tilled lands again.
+Redpad was cantering along a bohireen[3] when he suddenly came full
+upon a countryman mending a wall. The man sprang up and shouted, and a
+big yellow sheep-dog darted from his heel. Redpad cleared the fence at
+a bound, and went away over a turnip-field with the collie not half a
+dozen yards behind. The field was a wide one, and although he
+succeeded in shaking off his pursuer on the other side, yet the sudden
+effort told upon him. His tongue was out, and now and then his gallop
+dropped into a hurrying trot.
+
+[3] Narrow lane.
+
+By now he was in fields which he knew well, and tried all the familiar
+hiding-places one after another. There is a 'shore' by Kilmacabee and
+a badger set in Charlesfort Wood; but the rain had filled the former
+with water, and the latter was blocked up.
+
+The early January evening began to close in when the home covert was
+still three miles away, but the scent lay stronger than ever on field
+and bog. Redpad was spattered with mud and his breath came in gasps,
+but he ran on gallantly over ploughed fields where the plover rose
+screaming at his approach, and over pastures where the sheep
+stampeded. Once he met a donkey-cart crawling down a road. The old
+woman in it screamed and waved her shawl at his approach, and obliged
+him to turn a hundred yards out of his way, but even a hundred yards
+is far to go when limbs are weary, and there is withal the certain
+knowledge that the pursuers are gaining ground. Nevertheless he could
+see Knockdane more and more clearly, and knew that there was only
+another half-mile, and the river to be forded, before he could lie
+down in the old 'earth.' Looking back he saw that the hounds, though
+tired themselves, were coming on faster than ever, and he knew that he
+must run his best if he would arrive at the ford by the old willow
+before them. His heart thudded as though it would burst its way
+through his ears, and his famous ruddy pads felt as though each were
+bound to the earth. More than once he lay down with closed eyes, and
+had he been a soft-hearted fox or a vixen he would have died there and
+then; but as he was as gallant a fox as ever ran before the hounds to
+a ten mile point, he rose stiffly and stumbled aimlessly forward
+again.
+
+As he crossed the brow of the hill from whence the slope fell steeply
+down to the river, the sun came out over the shoulder of Knockdane and
+shone wanly on the flood pools in the meadows. The mists were already
+rising, and the great solemn woods on the other side lay in shadow.
+The waterhens feeding on the river bank scuttled away as he limped
+down to the water's edge.
+
+The river was in full flood and rushed hurrahing seawards, carrying
+foam flakes and branches of trees in its coffee-coloured current. It
+filled its banks to the brim, and not a ripple was left to tell where
+the ford had been. The willow tree which grew beside the spot was
+partially uprooted and drooped into the water with its branches
+festooned with flotsam. Redpad paused bewildered, for never before had
+this ford failed him at his need. Just then the hounds broke over the
+brow of the hill and tore down the slope. Redpad saw them, and
+determined to make a desperate bid for freedom. Very slowly and
+stiffly he crept out along the horizontal trunk of the willow, and so
+into the smaller branches above the water, where a hound could not
+venture. The pack came up and crowded baying round the tree. Now and
+then one tried to follow along the trunk, but they were less nimble
+than a fox and slipped back into the water. Redpad lay crouched flat
+with his teeth bared, and no hound could reach him from below.
+
+Presently two men rode down and dismounted from their tired horses.
+One was the man on the black horse who had ridden so well that day,
+and the other was the huntsman. The latter tried to climb out along
+the tree to Redpad, but it swayed so perilously that he was forced to
+return.
+
+'It's no use, sir,' he said. 'I am afraid we can't reach him there.
+Shure, it's a pity for the hounds not to chop him afther all, afther
+the way they hunted him.'
+
+'It was as fine a hunt as ever I saw,' answered the other. Then
+looking at Redpad's half-closed eyes, he added: 'But that fellow will
+never run again--he is dead beat, and it is a pity they did not run
+into the poor brute back yonder where he lay down. At all events he
+has cheated us of his brush, for he was as plucky a fox as I ever
+saw.'
+
+With this, his requiem, in his ears, Redpad stretched out his muzzle
+on his pads and closed his eyes, as he had done many a morning in the
+old earth in Knockdane. The light of the after-glow lit up the bright
+coats of the two men and the tired hounds behind. They were only a few
+yards away, yet he knew that they could not reach him, and therefore
+paid no further attention to them. The water lip-lapped round the
+willow, and the roar of the flood deepened as twilight fell, and the
+night wind shivered in the aspens. A waterhen called, and a flight of
+wild duck, quacking softly, flew over the hill. Redpad straightened
+himself slowly--then he gave a lurch, and dropped into the water. The
+broad stream caught him, and swept him out into the midcurrent. He
+struggled a little, but the eddies bound down each tired limb, and the
+ripples broke against his closed eyes. The water, which had so nearly
+cut short his life in early days, was a good friend to him now. As his
+body was borne down the misty stream, away from the clamour of the
+hounds into the august silences of the night, the waves lapped gently
+over his head; and under their kisses, his spirit drifted quietly out
+to the Grey Fields of Sleep where the souls of the Fur Folk go.
+
+There is no rain known there nor any sun, and no one is ever weary or
+hungry or afraid, but they lie wrapped in warm mists in a country
+where there is no noise nor bright light burning. They sleep on there
+and take their rest, knowing neither joy nor grief nor hope nor
+disappointment until time and space shall be no more.
+
+The moon rose over the mountains, and the flood sang joyfully on its
+way to the tumbling waves in the estuary.
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF FLUFF-BUTTON THE RABBIT
+
+[Illustration: FLUFF-BUTTON THE RABBIT]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+HOW FLUFF-BUTTON CRIED QUITS
+
+
+A lane winds steeply through Knockdane Wood; and at the top of the
+hill where the trees grow sparsely, there is a gate leading to a
+furze-grown field. The grass is cropped short and thick by generations
+of sheep and rabbits; and the slopes are dotted with gorse bushes
+which they have nibbled into all kinds of fantastic shapes. Between
+the wood and the field the gorse forms a prickly barrier six feet
+high, but it tapers off to mere pin-cushions of eighteen inches in the
+open. The first time that White-Lamb saw the bushes, he stubbed his
+nose into them, and then cried out because the thorns pricked.
+White-Lamb had only lived two days of his allotted span, and had not
+yet learned that gorse is prickly.
+
+There were a score of sheep in the field, and each of them had her
+white lamb (or maybe two) running beside her; but only one White-Lamb
+comes into this story, because he was the only one who had anything to
+do with the course of events in Knockdane Wood, and even his influence
+was only indirect through Fluff-Button the Rabbit. Fluff-Button was a
+great hero in Knockdane, as any of the Fur Folk can tell you; but he
+would never have grown up at all if it had not been for White-Lamb, as
+this story will relate.
+
+In the year of which I write, March and April changed places; for
+although the human calendars said that it was March, and in the woods
+the catkins had not shrivelled on the hazels, yet all day the westerly
+wind drove rain-storms over Knockdane. The lambs huddled close to
+their mothers with nothing but their restless tails appearing,
+when--hey presto--no sooner had they tucked themselves away
+comfortably, than the squall passed, and the sun blazed out upon the
+wet skirts of the rain. Raindrops dripped merrily from the
+hazel-catkins as the wind or a leaping squirrel shook them, and the
+air was full of the scent of wet earth and breaking buds.
+
+Towards evening the showers became less frequent, and the sun shot
+long slanting rays over Knockdane. The old sheep coughed as they
+snatched at the wet grass, and the field resounded with the incessant
+bleating of the lambs who ran to a strange ewe and were butted aside.
+
+Because White-Lamb still kept his close lamb's coat, and had not yet
+lost the instincts of his race in the placid vegetable life of his
+mother, he grew restless towards nightfall, and trotted over to the
+gate to look at the woods--an unknown land to him. The Night Longing
+calls to the animals who live under man's dominion as surely as to the
+Wild Folk, but they very seldom hear it. Sometimes, however, the
+sleepy cattle in the meadows lose their wits in the dark; and if a man
+passes by they forget that he is their lord and master, who in the
+daytime goads them where he will, and only remember that at one time
+their forefathers charged his naked ancestors through the forest, and
+gored and trampled upon them. The old impulses are strongest in the
+young animals, just as among men a boy burns with a hundred noble
+purposes which he will forget when he becomes a man, and soils his
+hands in the world's ways.
+
+The path wound away until it was lost to view among the fir trees; but
+right at the end of the vista, and barred across perpendicularly by
+the tall stems, was a clearing into which the sunset light slanted. As
+White-Lamb watched the light on the path, and listened to the wind
+among the branches, he saw a shadow move among the withered fern
+stumps, and steal quickly towards him. White-Lamb watched it approach
+with his pink-tinted ears spread wide, and his innocent face pressed
+against the lower bar of the gate. At first he thought that the
+strange beast was a sheep, but a furtive gleam of sunshine touched its
+back and pointed ears and turned them ruddy. It came on with an easy
+silent gait, glancing from side to side, and did not perceive
+White-Lamb until it was quite close to him. Then it stopped, and eyed
+him narrowly with a pair of keen yellow eyes. White-Lamb felt a vague
+misgiving, and ran back a few steps towards the flock. The other slunk
+forward and slipped through a little hole at the side of the
+gate-post, whence his sharp nose peeped out. A dozen rabbits were
+playing a little distance down the fence, close to the sheep, and his
+attention was fixed upon these. Suddenly White-Lamb realised that all
+was not to his liking, and he uttered a loud and plaintive bleat.
+Instantly his mother raised her head, saw the intruder, and cried to
+her companions. The whole flock rushed together, each ewe with her
+lamb galloping beside her; and forming into a close circle they faced
+the enemy and stamped an insistent warning: 'Fox! fox!' The rabbits
+took the alarm at once, without pausing to discover the reason for the
+stampede. A dozen scuts whisked in the air, and then vanished into the
+hedgerow. There was, however, one small rabbit who had evidently but
+just left the nesting burrow, for he showed no fear. He hopped a few
+feet nearer the hedge, and then raised himself upon his fluffy pad of
+a tail to peer over the grass.
+
+The fox saw his ears twitch, and glided forward a few feet before
+making a spring. But the old ewes took the alarm again, and stampeded.
+As White-Lamb scampered by his mother, his flying hoof struck the
+little rabbit, and brushed him aside. The flock then wheeled again
+upon the fox, just in time to see the rabbit's scut uppermost as he
+rolled head over heels into the runway, and hear the click of the
+fox's jaws which closed on the empty air at the end of his spring. He
+stood sulkily watching the sheep for a minute or two; but though he
+did not fear them individually, yet collectively the old ewes looked
+dangerously ready to trample upon an enemy in defence of their lambs,
+and he thought better of it. He turned away and cantered off towards
+the moor.
+
+That was the first time that White-Lamb saw Fluff-Button the Rabbit,
+and but for his happy instinct to baa for his mother, it would have
+been the last. However, as it was, they often saw one another again,
+for Old Doe Rabbit had tunnelled her nesting burrow under a fir tree
+inside the wood, and used to lead her family out to feed in the
+evening. At first there were six of them, but as March turned into
+April, and White-Lamb's body grew to proportions more in keeping with
+his legs, foxes, cats and stoats took their toll, and their numbers
+diminished to three. After a time they achieved a certain
+independence. They crept out alone, and sat among the bluebells and
+combed their ears and pretended to be grown-up rabbits, until a pigeon
+clattering out of the fir trees or a magpie croaking in glee over a
+throstle's nest, made them tumble inside to their mother in a hurry. A
+mere human hunter would have said that there was absolutely no
+difference between Fluff-Button and his sisters, but he would have
+been wrong. Fluff-Button was no more like them than all the children
+in a human family are like one another, but only another rabbit could
+have seen the difference. They all had the same white dab of a tail,
+and the same ever-twitching whiskers, and they all had to go through
+the same training. All knowledge in the woods is divided into two
+kinds: those things which you are born knowing, and those things which
+you find out for yourself. Fluff-Button was born knowing that grass
+was good to eat, but he had to find out for himself that the bluebell
+leaves, which look much like grass, are full of unwholesome slimy
+juice and not nice to nibble. He also had to find out by experience
+that while foxes are dangerous and should be avoided, sheep are quite
+harmless. When he had learned this, he used often to find his way to
+the Sheep Field all alone, and feed among the lambs.
+
+Once a day Paddy Magragh used to climb the hill to count the sheep. At
+his heels slunk a yellow terrier with a keen nose and a silent tongue,
+who could do anything from rounding up a sheep for his master, to
+killing a fox single-handed in Knockdane. But for this early morning
+visit, life in the Sheep Field was very peaceful. Nothing came between
+the furze bushes and the spring sunshine except when a rook flew
+overhead, croaking a quaint spring song to himself, or when a filmy
+cloud raced across the sky. The gorse flowers gave out a heavy perfume
+like warm apricot jam, and the fine spell brought out a horde of
+insects to hum round them. The lambs played together among the
+ant-hills, and the little rabbits played also. The games they played
+were the oldest games in the world--tig, catch as catch can, and king
+o' the castle. But though White-Lamb often saw Fluff-Button, and used
+to run and sniff at his little brown ears in the grass, I cannot say
+positively whether they ever talked to one another or no. I often lay
+in the bushes and watched them feed side by side; but the language of
+the Woods is not that of men. It is a more subtle, and yet a more
+simple language, communicated by movements of the eyes, ears, and
+whiskers, and no man has ever thoroughly learned it yet.
+
+The night after the first bluebell had opened, Fluff-Button went all
+alone to the Sheep Field at moonrise for the first time. He was now
+three-parts grown, and instead of feeding by the hedgerow with one eye
+on covert, he crept further and further out towards the middle of the
+pasture like any old buck rabbit.
+
+It was a chilly night; but the air on the hill was less cold than that
+in the valley, where a damp mist lay. A sheep-dog yelped monotonously
+at the end of his chain from a farmhouse beyond the wood; and at the
+bottom of the field short grunts and incessant bleating told that the
+sheep were feeding. The Sheep Field was always noisy at night. One or
+another of the ewes would lose sight of her lamb behind a bush, and
+then for a long while either cried to the other, and yet neither would
+stir; and the wind everlastingly sang in the trees in Knockdane.
+
+By and by a pale April moon rose, and Fluff-Button sat up for the
+tenth time to flick the dew from his whiskers. The bushes around him
+took curious shapes in the half-light; and wander where he would among
+them, he saw no other rabbit. But suddenly his long ears sprang from
+the horizontal to the vertical, and his forelegs stiffened. The turf
+of the Sheep Field was firm and close, and carried the sound of
+galloping hoofs like a telephone. The sheep were on the move.
+Fluff-Button, used to their senseless panics, would have paid little
+heed had not the night air brought another faint taint to his
+nostrils. As it was, he hopped away slowly between two furze thickets.
+Almost before he could tumble aside the sheep were upon him, ewe and
+lamb jostling one another, while White-Lamb, who headed the stampede,
+leaped the bushes like a chamois. They rushed into a dense phalanx,
+and all stamped their fear and anger at something which was
+approaching them between the gorse bushes. Fluff-Button skipped round,
+and it was well that he did so, for there, not five yards away, stood
+Magragh's yellow cur dog with his tongue lolling out, and his wicked
+eyes on the sheep. The Night Longing had moved him and strange
+impulses stirred within him. He had forgotten all about his quiet
+domestic life, and his love for his master, and only listened to the
+voice which whispered that it would be good to chase the silly, woolly
+things in front of him--and leap upon them--and worry them. But for
+the moment he stood hesitating, for all his life it had been his duty
+to care for the sheep.
+
+It was well for the sheep that they stood firm. Had they broken and
+run, the scales, which were now evenly weighted, would have turned.
+The dog would have dragged them down from the sheer lust of killing;
+and after that night he would have developed into what every farmer
+hates and fears--a sheep-killing dog. But a weight dropped into the
+other scale, and that weight was Fluff-Button. He lay right in the
+path, and his presence decided the matter. Cur Dog forgot those
+strange impulses which bade him kill the sheep, and only remembered
+that here was a rabbit which was lawful prey.
+
+Fluff-Button doubled away nimbly from his rush, but even so the dog's
+jaws snapped together just behind his scut. Away they went down the
+field, the rabbit leading by a few bare yards. He had no time to
+double back into the gorse, and here there was no covert but a few
+bushes, therefore he headed for the wood.
+
+Cur Dog had won many a Sunday's coursing, and had something of the
+greyhound strain mingled with his terrier blood. He did not give
+tongue, but ran silently with his nose to the ground. With his pursuer
+so close behind, Fluff-Button dared not try any of those elaborate
+dodges and twists which every rabbit knows, but he tore down the field
+like an arrow. The slope was in Cur Dog's favour, for a rabbit never
+runs his best downhill. He decreased his distance by a foot or two,
+but he came no nearer, for Fluff-Button strained every sinew, and
+buttoned down his ears and whiskers, that nothing might hinder him in
+the race.
+
+Thus they reached the fence, and Fluff-Button cunningly slipped
+between two saplings, hoping that his enemy would dash into them in
+the dark, but Cur Dog was fortunate, and came through unscratched.
+Then began a long series of turns and twists among fern stumps and
+trees. Several times Fluff-Button thought that he had shaken off his
+pursuer, but every time a yelp from behind told him that the latter
+was still hot on the line. In a long chase the odds are against the
+rabbit. He is not accustomed to sustained efforts, and although only a
+swift dog can catch him in a dash to the burrow's mouth, yet if hunted
+far he soon tires. Fluff-Button longed for a bramble brake, but there
+was none near. His heart thumped against his ribs until he felt as
+though it must burst, for just then Cur Dog gave tongue loudly and
+long, with the confidence of a hunter who knows that his quarry is
+weary.
+
+Fluff-Button turned down a ride. The moon had risen, and here where
+the trees grew sparsely it was comparatively light. Nevertheless the
+woods on either side were in deepest shadow, and Fluff-Button had eyes
+for nothing but the dog behind him. Hence he never saw a dark figure
+standing in the shadows, and he passed so swiftly that he scented
+nothing unusual. Neither did Cur Dog see or smell it as he tore down
+the ride, yelping on the trail with his nose to the ground.
+
+Suddenly there was a flash--and a loud report split the silence of the
+woods. Cur Dog bounded his own height into the air, his howl died into
+a sob--he rolled over twice and then lay still.
+
+'Not bad in the twilight,' said the keeper, jerking the cartridge from
+his gun.
+
+Fluff-Button heard the report as he scudded through the bushes, but he
+never noticed that the galloping feet behind him had ceased. Some
+fifty yards further on was an old rabbit burrow. He dived into it, and
+lay panting in its bottommost recess until long after moonset. But no
+Cur Dog came to nose at the burrow's mouth.
+
+Thus Fluff-Button might have cried quits with White-Lamb for the time
+that the latter summoned the flock to face the fox. But though the
+next evening found them together in the Sheep Field, yet they fed
+placidly side by side and exchanged no word nor sign; for it is not
+the way of the Wild Folk to show gratitude to one another.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE SPRING LONGING
+
+
+In the valley at the foot of Knockdane Hill there is a great meadow.
+It is like an island surrounded by the sea, for the woods come close
+up to its hedge on all sides except on the east, where the river runs;
+and just as an island may have a lake in the middle, so in the centre
+of the Big Meadow there is a little copse. The trees in the copse are
+sycamore and red-stemmed pine, and in spring the ground is carpeted
+with celandines and anemones. In the copse there is a hollow where
+long ago men used to quarry out stones; but now it is never used, and
+the heaps of flints are draped with bramble and cinquefoil trails.
+
+When the men ceased to dig out gravel and gave the copse back to the
+Fur Folk, an old rabbit made his burrow under the roots of a pine
+tree, and he or his descendants lived there ever after. At the time of
+which I write, however, the woods had been rigorously trapped during
+the winter, and one by one the inhabitants of the Copse Burrow had
+disappeared until there were only two doe rabbits left. One was Mutch,
+a veteran of four seasons, with long yellow teeth and a grey coat,
+well versed in the wiles of the woods; and the other was Cuni, who
+had only been born the previous July, and who had fur as brown as her
+big soft eye.
+
+From a human point of view a celandine bed is the most beautiful
+thing. It covered the copse with a broad sheet, softly green and
+golden, and the first things the rabbits saw when creeping from
+subterranean darkness were the golden flowers. Nevertheless, from the
+rabbit's point of view celandines are not so desirable. They are just
+the wrong height, and tickle the bunnies' noses as they hop through
+them; and besides, the broad leaves catch and retain raindrops, which
+is a grievous disadvantage when soaked and muddy paws have to be
+licked dry. At least that is what Cuni found. She came out when the
+flowers were all asleep after the rain, and the dawn was breaking over
+the mountains. The wind was keen and fresh, and bore the strong sweet
+scent of wet earth with it. The pine trees swayed and sighed--not with
+the boisterous roar with which they struggled with the autumn gales,
+but triumphantly, as though the sap were mounting to their topmost
+twigs. The light in the east grew primrose-coloured behind the
+wind-torn clouds, and beyond the river the rooks in the Ballylinch
+elms awoke and clamoured for the sun.
+
+As the gale swept along, the woods were filled with a spirit which,
+although it is as old as the world itself, is yet born anew every
+year--the mad spirit of Spring.
+
+Even old Mutch felt that the season was changing. As for Cuni, she
+leaped three feet into the air, and tried to play at hide and seek
+with herself round an ash tree; but Mutch, who was old and surly,
+chased her into a bramble bush. It is a curious thing that, just as in
+human society some old spinsters ape masculine dress and ways, and
+prate much about the Rights of Women, because, poor dears, they do not
+know what those rights really are; so in the woods old doe rabbits or
+old hen birds often gradually adopt the colours and language of the
+other sex. Therefore Mutch coughed in a deep voice and gobbled grass
+untidily like any old buck rabbit, but Cuni fed daintily and watched
+the stormy sunrise.
+
+Presently she heard a rustle in the celandines, and sniffed cautiously
+to discover whether that which was coming were harmless rabbit,
+slinking stoat, or prowling cat. Suddenly there was a crisp, short
+thump which made the Copse ring: it was a signal. The old doe rose on
+her hind legs and listened; but Cuni peeped through the brambles to
+see from where the noise came.
+
+Fluff-Button sat and kicked the ground loudly and persistently. He did
+not know _why_ he did so any more than the celandines around his paws
+knew why they waved in the wind; but Fluff-Button knew _when_ he did
+so and the flowers did not--there lay the difference. He was calling
+for his love, and as though fascinated Cuni's tremulous nose was
+thrust from covert, and she began to steal towards him. But as she was
+about to stamp an answer, she looked to the right and saw that old
+Mutch had hopped half-way across the clearing.
+
+Fluff-Button turned round and saw two pairs of ears twitch. One pair
+was grey and lopped with age, but the second pair was adorable, and he
+made up his mind quickly. He hopped towards Cuni, utterly disregarding
+Mutch, and rose on his haunches to display his white vest and long
+whiskers. Cuni was visibly impressed by these, and by the beauty of
+his fine scut. When he tried to caress her she did not turn away, but
+suffered him to nuzzle at her furry shoulder, while she gave him
+delicate tickling kisses with her whiskers. After that Fluff-Button
+knew that his cause was won.
+
+By now the sun was up, and the celandine calices expanded into perfect
+golden stars. The Spring Longing bade Fluff-Button leave the Copse and
+spend the day in the main wood, and Cuni went with him. They crossed
+the field, and entered a clearing where the low briars were draped
+with dry grass. The rabbits crept inside a tuft and hollowed it out
+into a neat round chamber. Fluff-Button obliterated the door with two
+deft touches, and then they settled down side by side. No hawk had
+eyes keen enough to detect them from above, and any foe on legs might
+have passed within a yard and never have seen them. But there are
+other ways of hunting than by sight.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Crash! It was noon. The rabbits, dozing contentedly in their form,
+awoke. Fluff-Button's ears moved the fraction of an inch, and then he
+squatted down with his eye glued to a peep-hole. Some heavy animal was
+forcing its way through the briars, but that did not frighten the
+rabbits so much as did a more distant sound: 'yow, yow, yowl.' 'Good
+dog!' said a voice just above their heads. Suddenly something rustled
+beside the form. The grass curtains were violently torn aside, and a
+huge grey rabbit head was thrust in. It was old Mutch. As she burst
+into the form her eyes glinted white as she glanced backwards. She
+thrust Cuni violently aside, and squatted down panting in her place,
+while Fluff-Button lay as still as death with his ears flattened and
+his paws bunched together. Cuni, terrified, forgot that primary rule
+of 'lie still,' in keeping of which rabbit safety lies, and ran a few
+steps. The man, standing knee-deep in briars, saw the grass stir.
+'Here! good dog!' he called; and motioned with his hand. There was a
+rush, a wild scuffle, and Cuni bolted down the hedge. It was well for
+her that the dog started in pursuit, otherwise the gun would have
+cracked before she had gone a dozen yards; but as it was the man dared
+not fire for fear of hitting his dog, and when he did so the shot
+merely buried itself harmlessly two feet in front of Cuni's nose.
+
+Now began a long chase. The dog was young and headstrong, and the
+temptation to chase the rabbit was too much for him; but afterwards he
+wished that he had obeyed his master's whistle and left her alone. For
+first of all Cuni led him through laurels against which he stubbed his
+nose at every turn; and then she took him through some brambles where
+he tore his ears; and last of all she raced for the Lower Wood. Here
+she increased her lead a little, and then, looping back upon her
+trail, she ran under a fallen fir tree, and went to ground thirty
+yards further on. The dog went down the blind lead first, then had to
+turn back along the true one to the fir tree. It took three minutes
+for him to convince himself that his game was gone, and then he
+returned, panting, to an interview with his irate master, after which
+he was a sadder and wiser dog.
+
+Cuni could not stay long underground when the Spring Longing was
+abroad in the wood, and two hours afterwards she crept out again. Her
+instinct led her back to the bramble patch, but, alas, the form was
+cold and empty. A jay squawked overhead and warned her not to linger.
+The jay is a most untrustworthy watchman and gives a false alarm
+twenty times a day; but the Wood Folk know that if by any chance an
+enemy should pass by, the jay will surely see it, therefore they
+always obey his warning. On this occasion the enemy turned out to be a
+stoat, and Cuni fled quaking lest it should be on her trail. Not until
+she was far away did she feel safe to continue her search. Once she
+ventured to signal timidly, but the only answer she received was from
+a doe rabbit, who, when she found that it was one of her own sex who
+had stamped, looked much as one girl in a ballroom might do if another
+invited her to stand up and dance.
+
+At last Cuni came upon a trail. It was cold and stale, but
+unmistakably rabbity, and the Spring Longing bade her follow it. It
+led her through devious ways across the Big Meadow into the Celandine
+Copse, and thither Cuni followed it through an archway under a
+bramble. The wind had dropped and the Copse was silent but for the
+spring chirp of an oxeye. Under the trees the scent was stronger but
+strangely irregular, as though a second and feebler trail were mingled
+with the first. Cuni followed it into the gravel pit, expecting a
+signal, but none came. She slid down a heap of tinkling shale, and her
+nose led her to the old cart road on the other side, where the grass
+was tender and beloved by the rabbits.
+
+Cuni could guess well enough what had happened here, for the trails
+were like a double string of beads--a narrow thread where the rabbits
+had hopped straight forward, and here and there an expansion where one
+or other had turned aside to graze.
+
+Suddenly Cuni turned a corner and came full upon Fluff-Button, who was
+sitting with his back turned to her; while just in front of him
+stood--Mutch. Fluff-Button was feeding in a nervous, jerky manner, and
+when presently Mutch crept up to him and touched him pleadingly, he
+only hopped away petulantly.
+
+Mutch, repulsed, sat up and looked round--to see Cuni. Whether the
+sight awoke in her the old mother instinct of the woods to drive away
+a young one able to fend for itself, or whether it was simply
+jealousy, I cannot say, for the Spring Longing works strange changes
+in the beasts; but, anyhow, she rushed straight at Cuni and ripped a
+tuft of fur from her flank. Cuni staggered, but Mutch was no longer
+young enough to wheel and pursue her advantage quickly, and before she
+could renew her attack, the little rabbit, spurred by the pain and
+fear of the old bully, whisked past Fluff-Button into the bushes.
+Mutch hopped back, full of pride at her achievement, and sought to
+caress Fluff-Button with her whiskers. But her jealousy had
+over-reached itself. Fluff-Button had wandered all the way from the
+Wood to the Copse seeking something which had gone from him; and
+although Mutch had followed him all the way with caresses he had
+rejected her, for she did not satisfy the longing which possessed him.
+However, when he saw Cuni's little white scut scurry by, his instinct
+told him that this was what he sought. He pushed past Mutch
+unceremoniously, and leaving her behind to stamp impotent signals, he
+scampered after Cuni.
+
+He found her for the second time crouching among the celandines; and
+this time he did not delay, but claimed her at once. Neither did Cuni
+play any more love games, but just nestled against him happily.
+
+Could there have been found a fairer Eden than that Copse, and could
+Adam and Eve in their innocence have been happier than were
+Fluff-Button and Cuni? Even the All-Father in Whom the woods live
+cannot make happiness more than perfect, and for a little while these
+two were perfectly happy, for the Spring desire was satisfied.
+
+If there were a tragedy in the Woods that day, perhaps it was that of
+old Mutch, who came upon the pair too late, for it was the first time
+that she had failed to win a partner for the summer, and she was
+bitterly jealous. However, grief and joy, and even life itself, are
+very transitory among the Wild Folk, and before the early evening
+closed in Mutch was grazing peacefully in the Meadow.
+
+And there, when the celandines shut, Fluff-Button and his beloved
+followed her to see the moon rise; and the wind sang among the
+swelling buds of the warm summer days to be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE INVASION OF GARRY'S HILL
+
+
+Fluff-Button and Cuni re-opened the big burrow at the top of Garry's
+Hill. Garry's Hill is a big grassy mound just outside Knockdane, with
+one stunted hawthorn growing on the top. Long ago many rabbits had
+lived here, but a mysterious epidemic had swept them all away, and the
+grass grew thickly over the entrance to the holes. Fluff-Button lay
+out in the woods all day and worked at the burrow at night. Cuni was
+never very far away from him at this time, and often made her form
+close to his; but she never allowed him to touch her or follow her
+about.
+
+By and by she dug out another tunnel further down the field, and took
+particular pains that her mate should not find out its existence. For
+more than a month she lived apart, and he only saw her occasionally;
+but one fine day she returned to the burrow with six fluffy atoms
+hopping after her. At first Fluff-Button was disposed to resent their
+intrusion on his privacy, but Cuni discreetly kept her family away
+from his own particular dormitory, and led them out to feed at a
+respectful distance.
+
+The six youngsters throve, for Garry's Hill was so exposed on all
+sides that if ever hawk, cat, fox or man came near, Mother Cuni's
+keen senses discovered him, and a smart 'thump' summoned her family
+below ground at once. Of course, as accidents will happen, not all the
+six grew up. A cunning old vixen from Knockdane came round one evening
+and hid on the brow of the hill. Cuni's eldest born grew impatient,
+and ventured out, in spite of his mother's warning 'thumps.' He was
+never seen again, and neither was his sister who fed far out in the
+field one evening and was marked down by a stoat.
+
+When the survivors of the family were grown up, Cuni opened out an old
+gallery, and lined it with grass bents and fur from her soft body. She
+grew very morose and shy at this time, and would let none of her other
+offspring venture near. A few days later a second litter appeared, but
+Cuni did not lead them out to graze with the others until July was
+well begun. During the long summer evenings the rabbits lay and basked
+in the sun, stretching themselves on the hot sand to warm their white
+waistcoats, or fed and frolicked with one another. A rabbit is the
+most humorous and cheerful creature in the world--those whose lives
+are hardest and most precarious usually are--and delights in nothing
+so much as in playing off a mild joke on his fellows. Only
+Fluff-Button fed apart, and kept his own little plot of pasture to
+himself; for he permitted no liberties, and kept strict discipline
+among his sons and daughters.
+
+Now that the rabbit family was so increased, they enlarged their
+quarters considerably. Sometimes they used the tunnels of a bygone
+generation, but more often dug them out for themselves. This is a plan
+of the burrow, and, as will be seen, it is very complicated and
+irregular. Whenever one of the rabbits felt inclined he dug a new
+passage, but as he generally left it unfinished, there were many blind
+alleys which led nowhere in particular. All the parts which are shaded
+in the plan were seldom-used 'hide-ups' and 'escapes,' but the rabbits
+knew their geography very well, and in times of danger generally had
+at least one 'bolt-hole' open.
+
+That August was very wet and cold. There was never very much grass on
+Garry's Hill, and now what there was was wet and sodden, and the wind
+drove through the lonely hawthorn bush on the summit with a roaring
+rush. Clouds of mist drifted over Knockdane, and the pigeons were
+blown about the rainy skies. The hill burrow was well drained and dry,
+but on the flat lands the holes were filled with water, and the
+rabbits lay out in the damp woods.
+
+Garry's Hill stood in a field, at the bottom of which was a blackthorn
+fence among whose roots dwelt a colony of brown rats. A stream flowed
+swiftly at the foot of the hedge, and one gusty afternoon when one of
+the rabbits crept out to nibble a little sodden grass, it was rising
+fast. The rabbit did not notice it, however, for the Fur Folk have no
+time to waste over what does not directly concern them, and even when
+she saw a big grey rat, dripping wet, run up the bank, she did not
+take the alarm.
+
+All the early part of the night the rain came down steadily until the
+upper galleries of the warren were quite wet. The burrow was pitch
+dark, and the air hot and thick, when Cuni awoke. She was blocked in
+on all sides by warm furry bodies, nevertheless she detected an
+unusual noise at the burrow's mouth--a faint scratching, and then a
+squeak. Something was creeping in. Cuni kicked the ground warningly,
+and as the others awoke, she pushed into the main passage. Something
+small and wiry beneath her paws squealed and snapped. Cuni darted up
+the passage stamping wildly--it was a rat.
+
+By this time the rest of the rabbits were awake and rushing about in a
+panic. Every now and then they collided in the darkness, and fled
+under the impression that they had run against an enemy. Rabbits are
+like sheep: let one lose his head and the rest will follow suit.
+
+Suddenly there was a sonorous 'thump,' and Fluff-Button, king of the
+burrow, came out of his dormitory, to be nearly carried off his legs
+by a pair of rabbits who jostled past him. All at once, in the
+narrowest part of the tunnel, he came upon a party of rats. They were
+all draggled and wet, and crowded into the burrow for shelter, for the
+brook had risen and drowned them out of their homes. Fluff-Button
+backed into a hide-up, and the rats crowded after him. A rabbit cannot
+fight his best in cramped quarters, but a grown buck has plenty of
+courage when pushed into a corner, and his sharp claws are weapons not
+to be despised. One rat nipped Fluff-Button's shoulder, and in an
+instant the latter buried his teeth in the aggressor's quarters. The
+rat yelled, for they cut like chisels, and his companions came on
+eagerly. Like a schooner among a fleet of herring boats, Fluff-Button
+ploughed through the band, jostling them right and left, and sprang
+into the wider chamber further on where a herd of frightened doe
+rabbits crouched. Here he had more space, and when he heard the
+invaders coming, he kicked out with his strong hind claws. The
+foremost rat rolled back limply with blood upon his snout, and
+instantly the rest threw themselves upon him with shrill cries.
+Fluff-Button took advantage of the respite to fly. He scuttled through
+the tortuous windings of the burrow, and through a bolt-hole to the
+open air. It was still raining fitfully, but there was a pale streak
+in the east where the sun would presently rise. Rabbits popped in and
+out of all the holes, for they dared not rest below ground lest the
+rats should drive them into one of the many 'hide-ups' and then attack
+them. Fluff-Button scampered over the brow of the hill, and into a
+bolt-hole on the other side, where he lay panting.
+
+There was a young rabbit of Cuni's first family, who, although the
+season was so late, had a litter in a remote chamber, just beyond
+where Fluff-Button lay. She dared not thump, lest the noise should
+betray her presence, but lay very still with four youngsters nuzzling
+at her side. By and by Fluff-Button heard something sniffing its way
+towards him, for the tunnel carried sound like a telephone. The
+anxious little mother also heard it, and sat up. Fluff-Button waited
+until he judged that the rat was within range, and then flung up a
+shower of sand with his hind feet. The rat squeaked and sat up to dust
+his whiskers. He imagined that he had come up a blind passage, and
+retraced his steps. Now there were two ways which he might have taken,
+but as luck would have it, he chose the wrong one, and blundered up
+the gallery towards Brownie's nursery. It was shaped like a bottle
+with a long winding neck, and in the narrowest part he met Brownie.
+
+As a rule a doe rabbit is the gentlest of wild things; but motherhood
+will nerve the most timid, and Brownie's whiskers twitched as she
+faced the foe who was stealing towards her in the darkness. The rat
+cried out, and was answered by three or four of his comrades, who
+crowded after him. They were hungry, and very fierce, for they had
+already tasted blood and knew that a meal awaited them if they could
+win it.
+
+In mortal terror Brownie struck out right and left with her teeth, and
+sundry squeaks told her that her snaps had taken effect. Two rats
+clung to her on either side, but hampered as she was, she kept the
+rest at bay, for while she struggled they could not press past her
+into the nest.
+
+Just now the rabbits were in desperate straits. Two of the weaklier
+youngsters had been killed, and many more were badly bitten. Gradually
+the rats were driving them out as wolves drive sheep. All alone in the
+distant nesting burrow, Brownie faced her assailants and held her body
+as a living shield to protect her little ones; but she was failing
+fast. The airless darkness around her seemed full of noise, hot
+gasping breathing, and snapping teeth.
+
+Suddenly a strong pungent odour drifted down the passage--an odour
+which every rabbit knows and fears; and Brownie made a last despairing
+struggle, for her nose told her as well as her eyes could have done
+that a stoat was loping towards the scene of the fight. The rats
+rallied their forces in alarm, and the rabbits stampeded anew, for
+both knew that their most deadly enemy was hunting through the warren.
+
+But for once in a way the stoat brought salvation to the rabbits on
+Garry's Hill, for a rash rat snapped, and his teeth met in the
+newcomer's shoulder. Instantly four stiletto points pierced his
+brain--he tottered round in a circle, sobbed and died. The stoat, with
+his appetite whetted, passed on and drove into the press of rats. They
+clung round him like leeches, but the place was very narrow and they
+could not reach his flanks. In that face-to-face combat in the
+darkness the odds were with the stoat. A rat's courage is indomitable
+and his teeth are sharp; but between them and those of the stoat there
+is all the difference between a scythe and a bayonet. Both are good
+cutting instruments, but the latter is fashioned expressly for war
+and the former is not.
+
+The stoat went into the fray joyously. He slew two and drove the
+others back. Then, for he never noticed Brownie trembling in her
+nursery, he glided off and made his way to the main dormitory, where
+he found another party of rats assembled. These fled before him into a
+'hide-up,' whither he followed them, and although he sustained two or
+three wounds himself, he mortally wounded another. The tables were now
+turned with a vengeance. The rats were in a worse plight than their
+whilom victims; for wet, starving and bewildered, they were hunted
+through a strange warren by their most implacable enemy. The rabbits
+had one and all retreated to the remotest corners which they could
+find, but the stoat heeded them not, for he killed among the
+panic-stricken rats for the sheer lust of killing. Even if by chance
+he crossed a rabbit's trail and followed it up, he invariably stumbled
+across some terrified rat who sat and jibbered in the darkness.
+
+At last he was satiated and retired to Fluff-Button's dormitory to
+sleep. Two rabbits were dead besides Brownie's litter, who had paid
+the grim penalty which is always paid by nestlings whose nursery is
+discovered. Of the rats, two had been wounded and slain by their
+fellows; the stoat had accounted for four; as many more had bolted
+from the burrow; and the survivors, some six in number, cowered in an
+old nursery as far as possible from their enemy.
+
+The stoat slept until the day was well advanced towards noon, and
+neither rat nor rabbit dared to stir lest he should wake and slay once
+more. At last he rose and glided from the burrow, and then--and not
+until then--did they venture to leave their hiding-places.
+
+So that was the end of the great invasion of Garry's Hill, but it was
+long before the rabbits settled down afterwards. As for the remnants
+of the rats, they retreated to the little-used end of the warren and
+established a system of tiny passages of their own, running among
+those of the rabbits. They lived on terms of armed neutrality with
+their unwilling hosts--never daring to attack a full-grown buck or
+doe, although not so scrupulous with regard to nestlings; and often on
+warm summer evenings, if you hide behind the brow of the hill and
+wait, you may see the rats and rabbits feeding and playing side by
+side.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE FEAR THAT WAS IN THE WAY
+
+
+Brownie was one of the first family of Fluff-Button and Cuni. It has
+already been related how she fought the rats in the Garry's Hill
+burrow, and enough has been said to show that she was a very devoted
+mother, as indeed most rabbits are. But she had been so terrified by
+that experience that she resolved to make her next nest right away
+from the warren; so she dug a hole into the hillside at about a
+hundred yards' distance.
+
+In the darkness her four babies were only known to her as a squeaking,
+naked mass, helpless and wholly beloved. She was ignorant of their
+very number, they had no individuality, nevertheless she lavished all
+her care upon them, and lay with them all day, feeding and licking
+them. Only at nightfall she crept out to feed herself, with both ears
+on the alert. But very few enemies crossed Garry's Hill at night. Now
+and then an owl hooted in Knockdane; the nightjars purred among the
+pine trees at the bottom of the hill; and from the warren came the
+distant bustle of the rabbit community--the munching of many teeth,
+the splashing of many feet in the dew, and the stamping of scores of
+signals.
+
+The fern croziers had fully uncoiled, and the lowest bells on the wild
+hyacinth carillons were fading, before the babies acquired their fur
+jackets. Under ordinary circumstances they would have remained below
+ground a few days longer, but an unfortunate accident hurried them out
+into the world.
+
+Theoretically June is the month of sunshine and flowers; actually--in
+Knockdane, at all events--there are flowers enough, but June is too
+often ushered in by pitiless soaking rain. All the new greenery of the
+woods is saturated, and the hemlocks and nettles, stimulated to ardent
+growth, begin to send up their shoots waist-high. This is what
+happened in the season of which I write, for it rained for two nights
+and a day, and all the flowers seemed drowned. There was trouble
+enough in the Garry's Hill burrows, but it was very serious indeed for
+Brownie. A nesting-hole is dug for temporary use only, and has not the
+drainage of a permanent burrow. The water soon began to filter in from
+the sides, and a very respectable trickle ran from the entrance. By
+the second morning the bedding was soaked, and the sucklings lay in a
+pool of water. For the present they were homeless, and Brownie saw
+that the only thing was to take them into the fields. Three brown
+tots, blinking painfully in the daylight, crawled on to the grass;
+but when the fourth appeared, Brownie sat up, and her nose worked as
+fast as the 'quaking grass' round, for the last little rabbit was as
+white as the hawthorns in the hedgerows. There were legends in
+Knockdane that, in the days when the beeches round the Great White
+House were saplings, there had been a race of white rabbits in the
+woods; but for many many years none had been seen there. Perhaps some
+long-gone ancestor had transmitted his singular colouring to Brownie's
+nestling, or else some trifling detail in Nature's machinery had been
+out of gear, for she had not a brown hair upon her, and out on the
+open slope was as conspicuous as a crow on a snowdrift. However, the
+Fur Folk live and work only in the present. They are guided by
+mysterious laws--the accumulated wisdom of past generations--written
+in the blood of those who went before and neglected to obey the
+code--and Brownie knew that her babies must lie out on the hillside,
+for to take them to the warren was to court disaster. She hid the
+first one in a tussock six feet away in one direction, and the second
+a few paces from him, while the third was left in some clover. The
+fourth--the white one--had to put up with a meagre root of rushes.
+When each little rabbit lay stone-still, the mother went away herself,
+for she knew that her presence would only add to their danger. When
+she looked back to judge of the success of her stratagem, the three
+brown babies were invisible in the grass, but the white one could be
+seen all over the field. Nevertheless, because of the rulings of the
+law of the Fur Folk, Brownie went her way, and left her litter to
+shift for themselves during the day.
+
+The rain had ceased at sunrise, and, although grey vapours curled
+before the clearing lift, the hillside was a very pleasant place.
+There were rosy clover clubs, and the yellow bird's foot trefoil
+beloved of blue butterflies, daisies, and the dainty milkweed, all
+growing so close together that the grass was almost crowded out. The
+fluting of the blackbirds in Knockdane only seemed the more mellow for
+the rain, and skylarks mounted up in rapturous jubilee.
+
+The sun had climbed quite high before the sparrow-hawk came swinging
+round the wood. He spied the tell-tale white ears a hundred yards
+away, and turned towards them. He slanted down at fifty miles an hour,
+glanced aside six feet from the rush-tuft, and switch-backed upwards
+again--rabbit verily, but doubtful--uncanny--_white_. Again he stooped
+and hovered. This stillness, this whiteness transcended his
+experience. It was too blatantly conspicuous--there was surely
+something in it not apparent to the eye. Perhaps it was a trap. As the
+hawk paused, his grim shadow fluttered above the youngster in the
+clover, and the latter lost his nerve. He ran a few inches and
+crouched again. The hawk saw a quarry which was normal and probably
+safe. Besides, he was hungry. He dropped on to the grass, and pitching
+lightly, struck. There was a little cry; and then flying low,
+overweighted with his burden, he skimmed across the field.
+
+That was the first, but not the last time, that danger turned aside
+from the--white rabbit I was about to say, but let us rather give her
+the dignity of capitals, a dignity ever afterwards hers in Knockdane,
+and speak of her as the White Rabbit. For the rest of the day no
+living things but larks and bumble bees came near, although once or
+twice a bullock blundered by and set the rabbits' hearts
+thit-thudding. Towards evening the mother-rabbit came up the hill to
+the nesting burrow. The babies heard her coming well enough, but
+two--the White One and a brown--were too well drilled to budge. The
+third, however, ran to her unsummoned, and was instantly punished for
+his disobedience, for she kicked him head over heels, and then
+signalled to the others that their time of waiting was over. Whether
+she noticed that one was missing I cannot say. The Fur Folk have no
+time to grieve. She gathered the three remaining ones together, and
+fed them and licked them all over tenderly with soft whisker kisses.
+
+They spent that night on the hill. When it rained the babies sheltered
+under their mother's soft coat and did not know how cold it was.
+Brownie could have told how sharp the night winds were, and how wet
+the ground, but the little bodies under her white vest were warm, and
+that was compensation enough for her.
+
+The next day they again lay out on the hill; but alas! the
+sparrow-hawk has a good memory, and where he has killed one day, he
+will come the next. Thus it happened that on the second evening only
+two answered the mother's signal--the White Rabbit and a brown
+brother.
+
+On the third day Brownie took them down the field. It was dangerous,
+for the hedge was full of enemies, but she dared not risk the hawk
+again. Even the peeps from the hill had not prepared the little ones
+for anything so immense as the world into which they came, blue sky
+overhead and grass--a perfect forest peopled with strange beasts--all
+around them. Brownie was ravenous, and the young ones, watching her
+tear off grass blades and eat them up, ventured for the first time on
+imitation. She kept her family in the ditch all day, she herself lying
+hidden close at hand with eyes and ears always alert for danger.
+Nevertheless, for all her care, the little brown rabbit strayed too
+far from her side, and being young and ignorant, he never heard the
+sniff-sniff of the stoat hunting down a runway, until it was too late.
+Then Brownie, who knew the meaning of that pitiful minor cry, very
+quickly and silently shepherded her one remaining young one over the
+fence into the next field; and the scent was cold before Keen resumed
+his hunting.
+
+So only one of the litter remained, and for three days Brownie guarded
+her jealously. On the fourth morning very early they went out to feed.
+The dewfall had been very heavy, and soaked them from nose tip to
+tail, and the bats wheeled overhead. The coat of the little White
+Rabbit looked weird in the gloom as she sat up and tried to comb her
+whiskers as her mother did. Of the short hot nights of June--of their
+mystery, and their majesty, and the ways of their children, what do
+men know? Nothing, but they mar much. Only the white owl had seen Jack
+Skehan go his rounds at sunset, and he, who, happy bird, lived where
+pole traps were unknown, how could he know the significance of what
+was left on the hedge bank? So it came to pass that at sunrise, when
+the larks were singing on the hill, and the whitethroats babbling in
+the brambles, Brownie, slithering through the hedge with her suckling
+behind her, slipped her head into a snare cunningly set against a
+burrow mouth, and somersaulted into the ditch, drawing the noose tight
+round her neck. At the first alarm the little one bolted and hid
+tremulously in a clump of buttercups, not daring to move for several
+minutes. Then, as all was still and the robins began to sing again,
+she ventured to peep out. Her mother stood raised on her hind legs as
+she had often seen her before when about to climb such a bank; but now
+Brownie leaned there statue-still, her hind paws just dragging on the
+ground. The White Rabbit did not understand it at all. She bit off a
+few grass blades and tried to chew them up, but they seemed hard and
+stringy to her unaccustomed teeth, and she ventured to nuzzle at her
+mother's soft coat. It was quite warm, but Brownie took no notice of
+the caress; and when the little one pushed against her, she swung ever
+so gently to and fro.
+
+The sun rose over the crest of Garry's Hill, and the
+dragon-flies--winged needles of red and blue--hawked backwards and
+forwards over the brambles. The White Rabbit did not stray very far
+from the place; she waited for her mother to go on, but Brownie gave
+no signal, nor did she stir. The little one grew uneasy, and raising
+herself on her fluffy tail licked her mother's flank to show that she
+was hungry, but even this never-failing appeal received no answer.
+Nevertheless soon afterwards, when Jack Skehan went the round of his
+snares, he found a doe rabbit hanging in the hedge bottom with her
+neck broken; and nestling at her side, tiptoeing up to reach, a little
+white rabbit was helping herself to a warm drink. Even in death
+Brownie fulfilled the first office of motherhood.
+
+How the White Rabbit knew that man was dangerous I cannot say.
+Hitherto she had innocently trusted every bird and beast; but bolt she
+did, and only just in time, as a dirty brown hand snatched at her. She
+ran up the hedge as fast as her stumpy legs could carry her, stubbing
+her nose against hemlock stalks, and tripping over bramble trailers.
+It seemed to her that she had run many miles, but as a matter of fact
+it was only ten yards before she flopped down, utterly breathless,
+with her flanks heaving. For the first time she was afraid--terribly
+afraid. Every leaf concealed an enemy, every rustle seemed a footstep.
+Fear was abroad on the hedgeside. The shadow of the man's presence
+lingered even when his footsteps had passed into the distance. A
+broody blackbird 'chinked' anxiously, and a pigeon wheeled aside with
+a '_swoof_.' A few inches from where the little rabbit lay gaped a
+bolt-hole of the hedge burrow, and her instinct bade her creep within
+into the cool, comfortable darkness.
+
+This is how the White Rabbit entered upon her life in the woods,
+orphaned, with nothing to guide her but the ancestral code which every
+rabbit knows. However, she had already learned three things, and
+important ones too--that hawks are dangerous, stoats still more so,
+and men are to be dreaded most of all.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Were I to relate all the vicissitudes which befell the White Rabbit
+during the following days, I should be accused of recounting miracles;
+for perhaps under the circumstances not one rabbit in ten would have
+survived. The ditch was full of enemies, for hedges are the Fur Folk's
+highways from field to field, and foxes, cats, and stoats patrolled it
+from hour to hour. The next evening the White Rabbit worked along to
+the demesne wall, under which a little drain ran, and crept into the
+wood. If there was vastness and mystery in the fields, how much more
+under the trees? The sanicle spread a silvery pall above the dying
+bluebells; the thick scent of the hawthorn was borne to and fro on the
+night wind; and the woodcock, playing in the dusk, 'chissicked' as
+they wheeled overhead. That night, for the first time, the White
+Rabbit ate grass and relished it. She was very hungry, and once her
+little teeth learned the knack of nibbling criss-cross up a blade, she
+found that it was pleasanter than her previous attempts had led her to
+believe. In fact, she was so intent upon her newly learned
+accomplishment that she never heard the owl swoop down with a thrum of
+soft wings, and then slant up just as the hawk had done on the hill.
+But she heard the click as he alighted on a branch overhead, and
+seeing his eyes, catlike and luminous in the gloom, she hid under a
+bush.
+
+A day or two later, the White Rabbit had one of the narrowest escapes
+of her life. Perhaps she had got over her first fright and grown
+reckless; at any rate, she came out into the grass in broad daylight.
+The field was purple with ripening grasses, and the warm wind bore the
+scent of young birch leaves--the sweetest of all summer scents. It was
+good to be alive. The White Rabbit lay down on her side, and stretched
+herself luxuriously in the hot sun. Bees hummed comfortably in the
+vetches, and the grasshoppers assiduously polished their shanks.
+Suddenly, in the sunshine-chequered hedge, she caught sight of a
+curious creature moving gently to and fro. She had never seen anything
+quite like it before. Its deliberate, rhythmical movements fascinated
+her, and she watched it dance behind a dock plant and out again, with
+an intentness which rejoiced the heart of a certain wary hunter who
+crouched behind the said dock. The White Rabbit hopped a step or two
+nearer, and stood up in order to see this wonderful thing better. At
+that moment the cat ceased to lash its tail and sprang. The rabbit
+caught a glimpse of unsheathed claws, bared gums, and dilated eyes,
+and dived into a forest of cockfoot grass. The cat, at fault, made
+short excited rushes hither and thither as he heard the rustle of the
+fugitive's steps, but the White Rabbit flung herself into a stunted
+blackthorn bush and lay gasping. By and by, when she had recovered
+sufficiently from her fright to sit up and polish the 'cuckoo froth'
+from her whiskers, she peeped out; and lo and behold in a runway, with
+his paws tucked away cosily before him, the cat sat and waited.... The
+White Rabbit very silently withdrew, and escaped by the further side
+of the bush. That was the fourth lesson she learned: Beware of the
+cat--the patient hunter.
+
+It was not until she was three parts grown that the White Doe realised
+that she was not in all respects like other rabbits. By then she had
+learned many things. She knew that the badger and the hedgehog and the
+squirrel and the shrew are quite harmless, but that the fox and the
+stoat and the cat must be avoided. She knew that the meadow-grass
+tastes better than either the cockfoot or the couch; and that the
+surest way to come to grief is to bolt into a hole without first
+finding out whether it has a back door or no. By degrees, however, she
+began to find out something more important still, namely, that the
+rest of the Fur Folk turned aside from her path. Did she hop into the
+clearing where the other rabbits came of nights to feed, or visited
+the Dark Pool among the sallies, then the circle was immediately
+broken up, and vanishing feet fired a whole volley of signals from the
+bushes. If she fed in the daytime, the squirrels overhead chattered
+and speculated until the jays took up the matter, and half the
+woodside was in a fluster. This knowledge did not come in a day. The
+pignut flowers died, and the enchanter's nightshade had sent up its
+faint spires in dark places before the White Rabbit realised her
+powers. It was the fox who opened her eyes to the fact that a certain
+magic was hers in her perilous ways. One evening after sunset she
+squatted upon a 'rabbit's table.' There is a rabbit 'table' in almost
+every glade. It is generally a moss-grown tree stump, or more seldom
+an ant-hill, upon which the rabbits love to sit for the sake of the
+expansive view (comparatively speaking) which the extra twelve inches
+affords them. It is also very often a trysting-place. The White Rabbit
+was washing herself. It was the penalty which she paid for her
+uniqueness, that she was obliged to spend no mean portion of the day
+combing her pink ears and cleansing her silky stockings. Hence she
+neither heard nor winded the fox's approach until he snapped a twig in
+the clearing itself. Then, looking up, she saw in the shadows what
+appeared to be a pair of red stars. The blood of the White Rabbit
+seemed turned to water; she was paralysed with fear; even her nose
+ceased its eternal tremolo. She could only stare back, bemused with
+terror. It must be said that the fox had not entered the glade with
+any fixed idea of hunting there, he was merely passing through it;
+hence the increased awfulness of the apparition of the ghost-rabbit on
+the moss cushion. It was nearly dark, but a shaft of light came down
+aslant between two tree-tops. In the gloom she appeared larger than
+her natural size--misty, luminous. The hair along the fox's spine
+bristled, a growl rose in his throat. It was so quiet, so light; as
+if fascinated he began to tiptoe forward. Remember that there is
+hardly anything white known in the woods, except here and there a
+flower. There is neither white bird nor beast; even the white eggs of
+the pigeon are laid where none of the Fur Folk can see them, except it
+be Koutchee the squirrel. Men--wiseacres--who would judge Nature by
+their printed books, talk grandly of the benefit of Protective
+Resemblance, and the Survival of the Fittest. They have left out of
+count the germ planted in the being of the higher Fur Folk--a germ
+which is often carried from birth to death undreamed of,
+undeveloped--but which in man, another step up the ladder,
+becomes a power which is accountable for untold cruelty and
+strife--superstition. Had all rabbits been white since the first of
+the race, then indeed the fox's hunting would be easy enough; but when
+once in ten generations a white rabbit appears, its chances of life
+are many times greater than those of its fellows, for in the eyes of
+the hunters it is compassed round with magic, a thing set apart.
+
+The fox crept to within eight feet of the mystery and cowered down,
+for there was little or no scent to enlighten him as to its nature.
+The White Rabbit's red eyes were wide with horror, but under the
+nightmare spell of the fox's proximity she could not move. Fear
+clogged her limbs, and she watched him, fascinated. She was, of
+course, entirely unaware that it was she herself who thus checked him.
+She believed herself almost invisible, and feared to move lest she
+should betray her presence, thus obeying the arbitrary law of her
+race: Lie still and he may pass you by. So they gazed eye to eye while
+one might pant half a score of times, and then a heron, sweeping by
+with a shriek which ripped the silence of the night, broke the spell.
+With a snarl the fox leaped sideways into the bushes; and the rabbit,
+ears flattened, paws twitching, crouched where she was until the rush
+of his footsteps died away. After this adventure the White Rabbit
+gradually grew bolder. She lived in some ready-made burrows in the
+corner of the wood, and fed in the field below Garry's Hill. But if a
+prowling cat or fox came by, and the rest of the community dived
+underground, the White One merely sat at the hole's mouth and waited;
+and in two cases out of three the hunter, after a stealthy glance,
+passed on. The third case was generally a cat who, more accustomed to
+the mysterious ways of men, their dependents and belongings, was not
+afraid to stalk the White Doe of Garry's Hill.
+
+By this time it was August, and the birds went to moult in the deepest
+thickets of Knockdane. Only an occasional robin sang a bar or two of
+his roundelay, or a chiff-chaff, who had forgotten the rhythm of his
+call, cried 'chaff-chaff' in the beech trees. Big spikes of purple
+loosestrife crowned the damper clearings, and missel thrushes went out
+to the fields in straggling bands. The mornings grew cooler and later,
+damp mists steamed up from the river, and the beeches began to turn
+orange and brown. One fine night the cuckoos disappeared, and the
+corn-crakes prepared to follow them, for the corn was ripe, and all
+through the hazy days the whirr of machinery was heard from the hills,
+like some gigantic grasshopper. The squirrels and oxeyes squabbled in
+the hazels, and the badgers went harvesting when the moon rose. To the
+Fur Folk the autumn was a faint echo of the spring. There was
+something in the mild, still weather, and equal hours of day and
+night, which stirred them to vague repetition of their doings early in
+the year. The rabbits wandered away from their burrows, and made
+desultory scrapings by the pathsides, and the birds, the throstle and
+pigeon, sang again half heartedly. The White Rabbit, with no idea why
+she did so, also dutifully scratched little holes in the moss, and
+followed faint trails which led nowhere in particular. However, the
+first frost put an end to all this; and after the frosts came the
+November gales, which slashed the sleet across the woods. Once or
+twice the men came to shoot in Knockdane, but the White Rabbit was
+safe enough, for she never made a 'form,' but always lay underground.
+In fact, there was little enough covert in that part of Knockdane in
+the winter, and in January, when the foxes were ravenous, the woods
+were quite bare. However, the White Rabbit passed unscathed through
+that time of peril; even the traps, which doubly decimated her
+companions, spared her. Nature, who had put a mark upon her which set
+her apart from her fellows, had in compensation gifted her with keener
+wits and judgment. As everybody knows, a rabbit track runs hop-dot
+down the hedgerow like a rosary of beads, and Paddy Magragh set his
+snares cunningly in the beads, which are the little patches from which
+the rabbits hop over the tussocks; but the White Doe went safely to
+and fro, merely skipping aside if the wicked loop struck her nose.
+Perhaps, again, it was her colour which saved her here, for many a
+bunny blundered into the noose when his fellows chased him in sport or
+anger; but the brown rabbits ignored the White Doe, and she hopped
+leisurely between her hole and the meadow unharmed. Nevertheless,
+towards the end of the winter, she, with the rest of the rabbit kind,
+suffered grievously from famine, for the weather had spoiled all the
+greenery in the woods. Here again it was the White Rabbit who first
+set the example of climbing into the boughs of a fallen thorn tree to
+gnaw a meagre sustenance from the bark of the ivy entwined in it. The
+idea became fashionable in her burrow; and, clambering clumsily among
+the branches three or four feet from the ground, the rabbits chiselled
+away at the ivy until its twigs were as white as bone.
+
+With February--the famine month--the love season began in earnest. All
+the other rabbits who lived in the outlying collection of burrows with
+the White Doe, forsook them and wandered down into the woods; while up
+on Garry's Hill the ground was dotted with the little tufts of grey
+wool, ripped from one rival by another. The White Rabbit paid no
+attention to these changes at first, but led her own contented
+spinster life. The Wild Folk concern themselves very little about the
+doings of their neighbours; and had every rabbit in Knockdane been
+suddenly wiped out of existence, the White One would not have altered
+her habits in a single particular.
+
+It was not until the woodcock began to mate that the White Rabbit
+found out that she was lonely. Then she left her burrow and went out
+into the woods, which was a dangerous thing to do in daylight. The
+robin was reciting his marriage vows to his mate under a holly bush;
+and the pigeons, recklessly bold, flapped lazily from tree to tree.
+The White Rabbit scraped enthusiastically for a few minutes, for she
+felt impelled to unaccountable energy that day, but when she had dug a
+few inches she broke off, for she could not remember what to do with
+the hole when she had finished it. Near at hand a buck rabbit stamped,
+and presently another, larger than he, came out of the bushes and
+fought him. The White Doe hopped towards them, but being stranger
+rabbits they broke off their tournament, and fled at the sight of her
+whiteness. She saw many rabbits that day, and half of them ran away,
+and the other half were indifferent. The White Rabbit had never felt
+so lonely before--not even when her mother had been taken from her.
+Presently she came upon a luckless rabbit which had been killed by a
+stoat an hour before. The White Rabbit did not know this, and went up
+to sniff at him. Here at last was something which would not run from
+her; but when she smelt the fresh blood and saw the wound behind his
+ear, she turned and galloped away. There was fear everywhere. She was
+feared by her own kind; and she again feared the blood-hunters. A wren
+caught sight of her and began to scold--it, too, was afraid. The
+White Rabbit was very sorrowful.
+
+The Love Longing was not always so strong. Sometimes for weeks at a
+time she lived alone as happily as heretofore. Then it would break out
+again, and send her into the woods; but she never found a mate,
+although young rabbits played outside the burrows, and the birds were
+all nesting. So March turned to April, and April to May, and the
+lowest bracken fronds opened like green wings before the crimped tops
+were uncurled. Then again one day the Love Longing came upon the White
+Rabbit, and she went to the Dark Pool where the Fur Folk go to drink.
+There are willow saplings all round, and the chaffinches were
+collecting the down for nest-lining, for the seeds were ripening. On
+the further side the White Doe passed a rabbit's 'registry' tree. Most
+woods have their own registry where the buck rabbits repair in spring,
+and each tries to scrape away the bark and set the imprint of his
+teeth a little higher than his fellows. Most of the rabbit duels take
+place near these trees. Sometimes it is a young sycamore, or a laurel,
+or a beech, which is chosen out from among the rest; but in this part
+of Knockdane it was a willow sapling, peeled and scored for two feet
+above the ground, and with little paths, beaten hard by rabbity feet,
+converging to it from every direction. As the White Doe passed by, she
+saw a brown buck rabbit, on his hind legs, leisurely rubbing his
+whiskers against the trunk; and hopping up quietly behind him she
+touched him with her white nose. He darted away a few paces, and sat
+rigid. The White Doe approached him beseechingly and caressed him with
+a whisker kiss; but he only stared horror-stricken at her wonderful
+pink eyes, beat his fore paws once or twice in surprise and dismay,
+and scudded out of sight.
+
+All that day the Love Longing would not be satisfied, and when the
+White Rabbit fed outside her burrow after dark, the restlessness in
+her grew so strong that she crept from the shadow of the trees to
+Garry's Hill. She had scarcely ever visited her native warren, and on
+the rare occasions on which she wandered thither, the whole burrow had
+been thrown into a panic. It was dark on the hill, for the moon was
+behind the clouds. The rabbit people were all munching busily, and the
+White Rabbit, happy in a sense of companionship, crouched near them.
+Now and then one bunny, in the sheer joy of living, skipped three feet
+into the air, and the older bucks chivied the younger ones in and out
+of the earthworks which many generations of excavators had thrown up.
+Two rabbits were playing 'tig' on the slope, dodging one another
+backwards and forwards. The White Doe watched their twinkling white
+scuts for a minute, and then, just as the moon broke from behind the
+clouds, with a hop, skip, and jump she launched herself playfully
+between the couple. They stood still for one paralysed instant, and
+then, stamping frantically, the whole community stampeded in every
+direction. The White Rabbit did not realise that she was responsible
+for this flight, but, believing it to mean cat or stoat, she bolted
+with the rest. She plunged down a burrow and scurried along
+never-ending corridors and side-ways. She could hear footsteps which
+fled before her, and all round the passages rang with muffled danger
+signals. At last she entered a hide-up, and hearing shuffling feet,
+explored it to its end. In the dark she collided with something which
+was furry and soft, and felt twitching whiskers brush her face.
+Another rabbit had taken refuge there; and surely it was--yes, it
+was--the noses of the Fur Folk are as trustworthy as our eyes--the
+same who had repulsed her in the wood that morning. But obviously he
+did not recognise her in the darkness, for he cowered to her at the
+end of the passage. There was comfort in companionship, and they
+huddled together, fearful lest something stealthy and terrible should
+sniff its way towards them. The White Rabbit thought of stoats, but
+the other dreaded nameless things--magic things, white things--which
+leaped out of the gloom. Every now and then the White Rabbit turned
+her head and nestled against the soft fur of the other's shoulder.
+Here was rabbit--normal rabbit, brown rabbit--and yet he did not
+shrink from her, for in her turn she felt a tremulous nose sniff at
+her ears....
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+An hour afterwards the business of the Garry's Hill warren went on as
+usual. The White Doe was still below ground, but after midnight she
+came out with the Brown Buck behind her. The rest of the warren
+stamped, but little recked she. If the Brown Buck was staggered at the
+sight of her in the moonlight, he did not show it. White or brown, did
+he not know the scent of her who had come to him in the burrow, and
+who perhaps had stood between him and the misty terror that had leaped
+upon him in the dark. This was rabbit--strange, it is true--but still
+rabbit and wholly lovable. He put his head under her chin that she
+might scratch his ears, and this is the greatest token of esteem among
+the rabbit kind. Thus the spell was broken, and the fear which was
+round the White Doe was gone, for she had become as other rabbits.
+She had entered into her inheritance, the inheritance of
+motherhood--the highest happiness known in the woods.
+
+They nestled side by side under the old whitethorn which, for once in
+a way, forgot to moan as the wind went down. The moon set, and the fur
+of the White Doe gleamed in the starlight. But now the rabbits around
+only munched unconcernedly. There was no more mystery about her; for,
+in the words of the greatest love song ever penned, and as true of the
+beasts as of the men for whom it was written, she was her beloved's,
+and his desire was towards her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+UNDER THE MOON
+
+
+A little band of forewandered plover flapped southwards drearily. To
+the east the mountains were still encumbered with the great snowclouds
+which had driven over Knockdane an hour before, and converted Garry's
+Hill into a white sugar loaf. Now it was evening, and as the red sun
+sank, he flushed the fields with a dream-pink, while the moon
+struggled over the stormy hills.
+
+Cuni hopped out into the cold air and shook each paw delicately, for
+the snow clung to them. Her eyes looked bigger and her ears longer
+than when we saw her last, for the cruel February weather, which
+spared neither the Fur nor the Feather Folk, had pressed the rabbits
+sorely. For weeks frost and thaw had alternated night by night, and
+slowly killed every green leaf and blade of grass. Sometimes cold rain
+fell and soaked the woods, at others snow came and covered them.
+Within five hundred yards of the warren there was not a tuft of grass
+large enough to make a 'form'; and the rabbits lay below ground in
+their damp burrows, and tried to deaden the hunger pain with sleep.
+
+Although it was scarcely an hour since the snowstorm had blown by,
+Fluff-Button had already left Garry's Hill for the woods; and a neat
+trail--two little tentative punches of the forefeet over-passed by the
+bolder impression of the hind--indicated which path he had taken. Cuni
+followed him across the field. The snow was not more than two inches
+deep and the longest grass blades peered through it.
+
+Knockdane Woods are surrounded by a mason-built stone wall six feet
+high; but in one spot the ivy, insinuating itself between the stones,
+has loosened them, and the smaller Fur Folk--the rabbits, rats, and
+stoats--have scratched a tunnel leading into the woods. Through this
+passage Cuni hopped, and passed from the bleakness of the white fields
+into an enchanted palace. Every twig and bough bore its burden of
+whiteness. The fir trees were converted into huge Christmas trees, and
+the beeches' branches were etched against a sky suffused with the
+illusive lilac reflections of the snow. There was an uncanny white
+glamour over the woods, and except for the distant roar of the
+unfrozen river rushing between its banks, a vast silence had fallen
+upon Knockdane.
+
+Not far from the wall, in a clearing, there is a pool. It is black and
+stagnant, with banks overgrown with yellow pimpernel, water flags, and
+rushes; nevertheless many of the Fur Folk depend upon it for their
+water supply. To-night it was darned across with ice needles, and the
+silver 'cat-ice' round the edge crackled under Cuni's paws. As she
+expected, Fluff-Button was seated on the other bank taking a tonic. In
+winter when the grass is sodden and tasteless, rabbits are seized with
+a burning desire for strong astringent food, and they often wander far
+from their burrows to seek rushes, or the dry bark of saplings.
+To-night Fluff-Button gnawed the knotted roots of the wild iris, and
+as their bitterness burnt his mouth and made him sneeze, his nose
+quivered with pleasure. On any other night Cuni would have kept at a
+respectful distance from her lord; but to-night, in spite of the frost
+and snow, the Love Longing was beginning to awaken among the rabbit
+kind, and instinctively she felt that he would not repulse her. She
+approached him diffidently, and, instead of chasing her away, he
+merely glanced up and coughed. She squatted at his side and chiselled
+away at the iris roots, until the moon grew bright enough to light
+snow candles on every twig and bough.
+
+[Illustration: FLUFF-BUTTON WAS SEATED ON THE OTHER BANK TAKING A
+TONIC]
+
+So busy were they that they never heard the footsteps of Garry Skehan,
+when, half an hour later, he crossed the snowy hill to Knockdane, nor
+noticed how they paused at the spot where the double trail entered
+the wood. The woodcraft of Garry Skehan was of a rough and ready sort;
+for him wild creatures were divided into two broad classes--those
+which could be trapped and those which could not--but even he could
+tell that this was a rabbit run, and he chuckled over it. By and by he
+tramped away over the crisp snow, so softly that not even the drowsy
+pigeons overhead heard him.
+
+Many of the Fur Folk passed outside the wall that night, and each one
+stopped to look at the place where Garry Skehan had knelt and scored
+the surface with his clumsy boots. First of all a rat came along,
+trailing his naked tail callously on the snow behind him. He gave one
+glance at the spot, and then hurriedly crossed the wall lower down. By
+and by a stoat passed. It is not in stoat nature to resist a hole
+wherever it may lead, and this one gingerly thrust in his nose; but at
+that moment he caught sight of something under his feet and drew back
+quietly. The mice came by and danced fairy quadrilles over the snow,
+but they also left the hole in the wall alone.
+
+As the moon rose higher the frost began to bite, and the snowflakes,
+which had hitherto dropped rhythmically from the branches, were welded
+firmly together; while every leaf upon the ground was so crisped with
+rime that it crackled under the touch. Fluff-Button and Cuni, having
+made a scanty meal of such bramble leaves and ferns as remained green,
+turned homewards. Cuni went first, for her mate dallied behind to
+scratch his whiskers against a tree trunk. She came to the hole in the
+wall and hopped inside, for among the stones and mortar was hollowed a
+little chamber. There was a thin wind blowing, which had drifted the
+snow against the opposite opening and blocked it up, but the drift was
+not thick, and crumbled away when Cuni thrust her nose against it. The
+field was a white blank, marked with inky shadows below the trees, and
+not a living thing was in sight.
+
+With one comprehensive hop Cuni alighted in the drift, and at the same
+instant something seized her hind leg. 'When in doubt, skip!' is the
+rabbit maxim, which she obeyed instantly, but she was rudely jerked
+back into the snow, and the grip on her leg tightened. She whisked
+round to see her foe, and behold there was nothing there. Cuni was
+terrified. She began to struggle desperately, but although the enemy's
+clutch tightened, there was nothing to be seen but a long strand of
+copper wire on the snow. Just then there was a rattle of stones, and
+Fluff-Button hopped through the wall. He noticed nothing amiss, and
+seeing that the snow was scraped away all round he began to munch the
+frozen grass blades. In some measure his presence reassured Cuni. She
+ceased to struggle, and in the perfect bliss of her mate's proximity
+almost forgot the mysterious enemy that held her.
+
+Meanwhile the face of the night was changed. A snowstorm came up and
+drove tiny stinging flakes over the woods. They sifted into the
+rabbits' coats until Fluff-Button hopped inside the wall, shaking his
+ears. Cuni tried to follow, and although that unknown _something_
+clutched her again, yet it permitted her to creep just inside the
+hole. Her body prevented the entrance of the driving snow, and
+Fluff-Button came and snuggled against her warm vest, while his
+twitching whiskers left soft 'butterfly kisses' on her nose. In the
+mother-instinct, which is as easily awakened in the woods as among
+men, Cuni forgot that Fluff-Button was the King-Buck whose will was
+law in the warren, and only remembered that he was cold and came to
+her for warmth. She disregarded the snow which chilled her from
+without, and licked him with her warm tongue as tenderly as if he had
+been a sleepy suckling in the nesting burrow.
+
+The snowstorm passed and the rabbits came out again. The moon sailed
+up a sky as black and mysterious as a forest pool; and drowned the
+stars, until only one great white one survived, and blinked down like
+a wicked eye. Fluff-Button hopped away evidently expecting his mate to
+follow him, and was much perplexed to find that she was unable to do
+so. He sniffed her all over carefully, beseeching her to accompany
+him. Cuni tried her best, but in vain, and lay down panting.
+Fluff-Button became seriously annoyed. He was not used to
+disobedience, and it must be told that he kicked his mate hard with
+his strong hind leg. Finding that this did no good, he became alarmed.
+Wild creatures hate and fear the unknown, and Cuni's predicament was a
+most uncanny thing to rabbit ideas. Fluff-Button hopped away and began
+to feed doubtfully on an old turnip rind some thirty yards off, and
+took no notice of his mate's signals and struggles.
+
+At last Cuni lay still and watched him. Nature is kind to her wild
+children, and after the first biting coldness of the snow sends a
+blessed lethargy which soothes away the pain. Cuni was fast drifting
+into this dreamy state when her senses suddenly returned to her and
+she sat up alertly. Silhouetted against the white field stole a lithe
+form--pads which made no noise, eyes gleaming faintly red, ears cocked
+forward towards the prey ahead of him in the snow, while the moonlight
+laid a long grotesque shadow behind. The fox was thin and weak with
+famine, and his whole attention was riveted upon Fluff-Button, who sat
+with his back turned. He began to stalk his victim as noiselessly as a
+cat, taking advantage of every ant-hill or snowdrift to screen
+himself.
+
+There are two laws which have been given to the rabbit kind in the
+hour of danger. One is, 'Squat and be still'; and the other is,
+'Scoot, if you will, but let your fellows know it.' A few rabbits obey
+the first all their lives; but the majority--Cuni among the
+number--'scoot' on an alarm, but as they run they stamp upon the
+ground that their friends may hear and do likewise. However, Cuni was
+wounded, and her wise instinct bade her lie still, and then the fox
+would pass her by. With frightened fascinated eyes she watched the
+dark form slide over the snow, clapping flat if the unconscious
+Fluff-Button chanced to move.
+
+'Lie still,' whispered Instinct, numbing her limbs with fear, 'he will
+never see you.' But the Angel who works for the good of the race, and
+who sacrifices his units that his tens may be saved, cried: 'Stamp
+aloud and warn him, no matter what it may cost.' The two impulses
+struggled together in Cuni's heart, and the fox cramped his limbs
+together for the final rush.
+
+'Thump!' It was a very feeble little sound, muffled by the soft snow.
+'Again!' cried the stronger Angel, and summoning up all her strength,
+Cuni stamped again. This time Fluff-Button heard. Without as much as a
+glance behind, he bolted for the wall, leaped over his mate, dashed
+into the tunnel, and the scurry of his steps died away.
+
+The fox checked abruptly; he knew that in the woods he had no chance
+against a cunning buck rabbit, and if Cuni had lain still perhaps all
+might have been well. Unluckily panic seized her, and, stamping again
+and again, she struggled for her freedom. The fox saw her and began to
+stalk anew, for there seemed something uncanny about this rabbit, and
+he dared not risk a rush too soon. Cuni forgot her pain, she forgot
+her fear and even that desire to live which is so firmly implanted in
+each one of the Fur Folk, in her overmastering rage at the thing which
+held her. With tooth and claw she attacked the peg round which the
+wire was twisted, but the frost had bound it firmly to the snow. Ah! a
+last spasmodic jerk wrenched it up, and trailing a broken leg, Cuni
+crept into the wall--free. Alas! just the other side she was brought
+up with a jerk. The peg was wedged between two stones, and she was as
+much a prisoner as ever, although just beyond the fox's reach. She
+heard his stealthy pads scrunch on the snow the other side of the
+wall, and then he found the hole. He lay down on his side and thrust
+his head into the opening; and when he snorted, Cuni felt his hot
+breath on her whiskers. He began to whimper eagerly, and scrape at the
+loose stones and mortar. He worked his shoulders further and further
+in, and the little chamber was filled with dust. Presently he drew
+back--his cunning wits had told him of a better way. Just here the
+wall was too high to leap, but further down it was lower, and there he
+could climb over. Cuni heard his footsteps tiptoe away, and then her
+Guardian Angel whispered that her teeth were sharp and pointed out a
+way to freedom--but not the cost. She listened to the counsel, for the
+desire to live burnt fiercely within her and her leg was twisted and
+useless now, a mere encumbrance. There was a short, sharp struggle,
+and the snare and its captive were parted indeed. Stiff and numbed,
+she crept away among the trees.
+
+Twenty yards further on there was a clearing where the snow lay soft
+and deep. Here Fluff-Button's trail could be seen plainly, and the
+wide tracks showed that he had crossed it at full gallop. Cuni set out
+to follow it, plodding along in the muffling snow, and stumbling into
+drifts at every step. The woods were dead--neither Fur nor Feather
+Folk stirred--and Fluff-Button's solitary trail alone broke the
+blankness before her; but whereas his consisted of four regular
+punctures, that which she left beside it had three only, and, in place
+of the fourth, a red stain. She dared not pause, for the twilight was
+full of a horror which was all the greater that it was nameless and
+but dimly realised--the fear of the hunted when strength fails. The
+shadows seemed full of shining eyes and crouching forms which would
+spring if she lay down, for she did not know that the fox had already
+given up the quest, and left her alone.
+
+The snow was soft and deadly cold. It clogged her limbs like so much
+clay, and the very air was so chilled that she seemed to draw her
+breath in nothingness.
+
+Still Fluff-Button's trail ran forward towards the Pine Tree burrows,
+which are warm and deep, and down which no fox can pass; and Cuni
+stumbled on blindly, for it is the instinct of the Fur Folk when
+maimed or sick to death to seek some hiding-place where not even the
+stars can spy upon them.
+
+Presently she fell into a deeper drift, and because she was too tired
+to struggle out, she lay still. It was good to rest awhile before
+setting out once more, and feel the pain and fear slip away before the
+blessed peace which stole over her. The snow now seemed so warm and
+dark that she believed herself in the Pine Tree burrows, and nestled
+down as contentedly as if she leaned against Fluff-Button's soft coat.
+Her nose ceased to quiver as her breath came more and more faintly,
+and her big brown eye closed; while her spirit drifted further and
+further away, until it silently crossed the borderland into the
+country from which there is no return.
+
+A cloud blotted out the moon and wrapped the woods from end to end in
+the vast silence of snow. Great flakes as big as pigeon's feathers
+floated down into the clearing. The double trail was covered up, and
+the drifts piled higher and higher, until not even the tip of a dark
+ear peeped out to show where little Cuni lay.
+
+
+
+
+STORIES FROM THE LIFE OF GRIMALKIN THE CAT
+
+[Illustration: STORIES FROM THE LIFE OF GRIMALKIN THE CAT]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE FIRST HUNTING
+
+
+When it was discovered that the stable-cat had a litter of kittens in
+the hayloft, sentence of death was pronounced immediately, and before
+noon three little grey corpses floated in the horse pond. The fourth
+kitten, _the_ kitten, with whom this history deals, was actually in
+the water, when the cook came by and begged for his life in order that
+he might later rid the kitchen of mice, in spite of the gardener's
+assertion that 'Thim wild cats had a divil in thim as big as an ass,
+an' would niver quit ramblin'.' However, in his early days, Grimalkin
+showed no signs of any such demoniacal possession. He was a strangely
+sedate kitten. Possibly his narrow escape had affected his spirits,
+for he spent his days in eating such scraps as came in his way, in
+sleeping, and in evading the flying feet of the cook and her
+satellites. Hence, for many days his horizon was bounded by the four
+walls of the kitchen and the square of backyard, in the corner of
+which was the ashpit--to feline ideas the Elysian Fields. The yard was
+enclosed by a high wall, and wooden doors shut it off from the outside
+world, so that at the time of which I write, Grimalkin had had but
+most fleeting glimpses of what lay beyond.
+
+In one place the wall was overhung by a laurel bush, and here the
+sparrows used to squabble and chatter all day long, except when now
+and then a sinuous black form stole along the coping and dropped into
+the yard. This was the farmyard mouser, Sir Charles, a worthy who,
+although he possessed a name befitting a Crusader, was nevertheless a
+prowler, a poacher, and a buccaneer born and bred. One half of his
+time he spent in filching stray morsels from the kitchen and in dozing
+in the sun, while the rest of his days were passed--Grimalkin did not
+know where. But Paddy Magragh, the earthstopper of Knockdane, could
+have told you how often he saw the glossy black form sneaking along
+the hedgerows, or 'lying up' beside a rabbit burrow.
+
+About the time that Grimalkin's eyes intensified from their original
+pale kitten blue to the yellow of maturer cathood, it happened that
+Sir Charles returned from a three weeks' sojourn in the woods. His
+coat was sleek and glossy, and comfortable and contented was his face,
+as of one who had lived well for some time. The early autumn evening
+was drawing in after a still, misty day. Sir Charles squatted by the
+ashpit wall; and Grimalkin from the scullery steps noted with
+admiration how he drew his supple paw behind his ears after applying
+it to his tongue, and how he scientifically smoothed his sooty
+waistcoat. Suddenly he ceased his ablutions and gazed fixedly at the
+foot of the wall, lashing his tail lightly. Grimalkin, following the
+direction of his eyes, saw a tiny grey dot moving among the
+cobblestones. The black cat made a dart--springing out and back in two
+nimble bounds--then cantered across the yard with it in his mouth. He
+dropped it on the stones and watched it scurry for covert, but before
+it could reach it he headed it off and struck it with his paw.
+Henceforth it ran round in little futile circles as though bewildered,
+and every time it scuttled out of striking distance he carried it back
+to the middle of the yard. Suddenly he caught sight of Grimalkin,
+crouched hard by with his eyes as round as a pigeon's as he watched
+this most fascinating game. The veteran breathed a low growl over his
+shoulder which made the kitten shrink hastily behind the doorpost; but
+the next minute he was peeping out again, staring with all his eyes,
+and no wonder, for, for the first time in his life, Grimalkin was
+witnessing the death-game which the cat kind play over their 'kill.'
+At last the little grey beast would run away no more, but lay still,
+gasping; and even when its captor pushed it with his paw it did not
+try to escape. The black cat stood up and yawned--the sport was over.
+Had it been a rat or a mouse he would have killed it outright and then
+feasted--but a shrew! Sir Charles was an old hunter, but since the
+long-gone day when he struck down his first rabbit, he had never
+tasted a shrew. He strolled away and left it where it lay. No sooner
+was his back turned than Grimalkin slipped across the yard and
+approached circumspectly. For him so far the animal kingdom had
+consisted of three divisions only: cats, men, and cockroaches.
+Evidently this was a fourth species, for, although not very much
+larger than a cockroach, instead of being rust coloured it was grey,
+and its coat was furry like his own.
+
+He touched it stealthily with his paw, but it did not move. Grimalkin
+was disappointed. He had liked to see it run about and struggle, and
+now it was so still; nevertheless there was something mysteriously
+alluring about it, and all unconsciously he began to leap and gambol
+round it even as the other cat had done. He gathered it up in his
+paws and flung it over his head, leaping after it and shaking it, but
+its nose only twitched feebly and it fumbled with its paws. By now it
+was nearly dark, and Cook, who had an idea that a cat of any age was
+necessarily possessed of a charm to scare away mice, came out to look
+for him. For the first time in his life Grimalkin turned and spat at
+her, lest she should intend to snatch his treasure from him. Then he
+darted with it into the kitchen, and took refuge under the dresser.
+
+'Shure, he has a mouse cot at last,' said Cook, well pleased. She
+turned down the light, raked out the fire and left the room, locking
+the door behind her. Then Grimalkin crept on to the hearth, carrying
+his mouse with him. As a rule he drowsed happily all evening, for then
+there was peace in the kitchen, and no fear of heavy felt-shod feet
+descending upon his tail. To-night, however, he did not sleep, but sat
+and watched the glow of the embers slowly fade beneath a coat of white
+ash. Presently a cinder dropped with a crash, and that was a sign for
+the cockroaches to come out. They ran to and fro in the shadows, and
+the red light turned their wing-cases to copper. Grimalkin often
+caught and ate beetles, but to-night he did not look at them, but
+wandered restlessly about the room. After one circuit of the walls he
+came back to the hearth again. The mouse lay where he had left it, and
+a bright red bead had risen among its fur. Grimalkin touched it
+stealthily with his tongue. It left a warm saline taste in his
+mouth--a taste he had never known before--the taste of fresh blood. He
+drew back licking his chops. All at once he felt afraid of this small
+still thing; but the taste of the blood mounted to his head like
+strong wine. The beetles still ran to and fro upon the hearth, but he
+did not look at them. He felt a vague indescribable yearning for
+something. He was not cold nor hungry, nor thirsty nor in pain, and
+yet he was not comfortable. Grimalkin did not know that it was the
+taste of the blood which had awakened this strange indefinable desire
+in him; nevertheless it was so, and an instinct was roused which would
+make it impossible for him to spend another night between four walls.
+
+The shutter of the window was carelessly fastened, and a sudden
+draught of air blew it in. The lower half of the casement was open,
+and the night wind bore in the rustle of the trees, and the sough of
+the breeze in the laurel bush by the wall--the laurel bush which
+formed a bridge from the yard to the woods, across which so many
+generations of cats had gone forth to their hunting.
+
+Overhead the skies were cloudy, with here and there a befogged star.
+The air swayed by the south wind was hot and heavy. Great moths and
+wheeling bats flitted by. From the ash tree the leaves fell now and
+then with a patter like a footstep. The woods came up almost to the
+doors of the house, and as Grimalkin listened, the piteous scream of a
+rabbit close at hand made his whiskers stiffen and his tail move. The
+roar of the river over the weir rose and fell, now low now loud, as
+the night wind carried it by. Grimalkin uttered an almost inaudible
+cry. The Night Longing, that mysterious power which draws all animals,
+wild and tame, gripped him. You may hear a dog howling the night-long
+by his kennel--the Night Longing which he cannot obey hangs heavy over
+his mind. When evening comes the purring tabby dozing by the fire
+rises and steals into the cold and darkness without. It is always the
+same. Man has taken them and tamed them, worked them and cherished
+them, but once in a while the woods call--the woods where their
+fathers were born and hunted and died--and they go. It is also certain
+that those among men who spend much time alone under the free sky,
+feel the Night Longing also, and obey it.
+
+The sweet clean smells of the night called to Grimalkin to come. He
+did not know what this impelling force might mean. He could not know
+that for centuries this had been the hour for his ancestors to rise
+and go forth to the night's hunting. He only knew that, come what
+might, he must leap out into the darkness, over the garden wall and
+into the woods beyond. They filled the night with that vast silence
+which is full of movement. They were his inheritance. He came from the
+hedgerows and thickets, and thither he would return. Behind him lay
+the dark kitchen where the embers threw a glow over the dead
+mouse--the spoils of his first hunting; and in front of him were the
+woods and the night. Grimalkin poised himself upon the window-sill for
+a moment, then the Night Longing called again, and he leaped.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE STEALTHY DEATH
+
+
+In September daylight and darkness are equally divided. The days are
+still and mellow, with a blue haze which clings to the shadows of the
+woods; and at night the big moon rolls over the eastern mountains, and
+turns the fog in the valleys into a silver sheet.
+
+All through the warm nights the Fur Folk come and go through Knockdane
+Woods, for the men sleep in the Great White House and no one disturbs
+them. Strange things happen at night under the trees of which humans
+have no idea; and one of the strangest of all in Knockdane is the tale
+of how Grimalkin the cat tried a fall with the Stealthy Death and
+escaped alive.
+
+For many months Grimalkin had lived a dual life, spending part of the
+day at the Great White House, but wandering back to the woods at
+night. But as time went on, and his strength and cunning increased,
+his visits to men became fewer and shorter, and his absences stretched
+into days and weeks. No cat will stay by the hearth in early summer
+when the young rabbits are out, especially when the blood of semi-wild
+ancestors runs in his veins. The keepers grew to recognise Grimalkin
+and to hate him; and, indeed, he was recognisable enough--a huge grey
+tabby, strong enough to pull down a grown rabbit, and cunning enough
+to know a keeper with a gun from a prowling poacher like himself.
+
+There are some nights on which, although they may seem eminently
+favourable to a mere human hunter, the Fur Folk do not stir abroad. On
+the other hand, there are others on which they come forth in their
+scores--the hunters and the hunted--and such nights are known in the
+woods as hunters' nights. It was such a night in Knockdane. The air
+was warm, but a little breeze was stirring, and one by one the leaves
+floated down on their fallen fellows with a rustle like a faint
+footstep. Big white moths whirred round the ivy blossoms and bats
+wheeled through the clearings. The moon rose early, and by the time
+the afterglow had faded she was high in the sky, casting long shadows
+across the Hollow Field.
+
+Grimalkin trotted quickly through the wood with the easy swing and
+depressed tail of a cat who knows where he is going. Every now and
+then he paused with uplifted paw as some twig fell with a crackle to
+the ground, or a patter of leaves told of game afoot, and the green
+light flickered in his eyes. The fence which separates the Hollow
+Field from the wood had run to waste for many years, before the
+blackthorns, each as thick as a man's arm, had been trimmed; and their
+roots had been undermined in every direction by rabbits. Inside the
+field the fence's foot was overgrown with tussocks of long grass,
+honeycombed by runways. It was easy to crouch in one of these until a
+young rabbit hopped within distance, and then a few soft steps--a
+pounce--and the kill. Grimalkin slid into the grass, which closed over
+his striped back and hid him.
+
+The moon was bright as day. Further down the fence half a dozen
+rabbits were feeding; but the other side of the field, beyond which
+lay a beech wood, was deep in shadow. Shrill threads of sound from a
+neighbouring grass tuft meant that the field mice were squabbling
+among the fallen beech nuts; but Grimalkin only cocked one ear and
+tucked his paws away neatly against his chest. It was a hunter's night
+and he awaited nobler quarry.
+
+A long hour passed. Then one of the rabbits sat up and kicked the
+ground uneasily, while the rest listened. A rabbit was cantering
+across the field towards them. She picked her way among the thistles,
+and stopped every now and then quivering. She did not seem in a hurry,
+and yet was apparently quite unaware of their presence. The other
+rabbits thumped suspiciously and scattered--there was something
+uncanny about the way this rabbit ran. She came straight towards
+Grimalkin; her eyes were wide and staring as she glanced behind her,
+and her limbs moved stiffly. Grimalkin drew himself together. As she
+lilted within a yard of him, he sprang and struck. The rabbit sobbed,
+and rolled over panting. Beautiful, lithe, cruel, Grimalkin leaped
+upon her and dealt the death blow, ere commencing the death-game which
+the cat kind always play over the stricken quarry. He stood listening
+for a moment, and a rustle in the grass made him pause. His ear caught
+the faint unmistakable sound of a hunter who hunts his quarry by
+scent, and who smells fresh blood near at hand. Down towards the
+rabbit stole a stealthy dark shape, sniffing as it came upon the line.
+Keen, the stoat, seldom misses his kill, and woe betide the beast who
+crosses his trail; he hunts for the joy of killing, and in the woods
+they call him in whispers, 'the Stealthy Death.' The stoat paused and
+saw the dead rabbit, and the cat standing over it with a wicked gleam
+in his small eyes. He squeaked once, and then--like a bent
+watch-spring loosed--flung himself upon his enemy. Had his fangs sunk
+where he intended--into the great arteries of the neck--Grimalkin
+would speedily have lain beside the rabbit; but he partially missed
+his hold, and fastening into the shoulder instead, clung there like a
+leech. Grimalkin felt the hot blood trickle down, and, wild with fear
+and wrath, he smote and bit desperately at the clinging death which
+hung upon his neck. He had never encountered an enemy who fought after
+this fashion. His claws ripped the stoat's flank. With a squeak, Keen
+shifted his hold from the shoulder to the throat, half throttling
+Grimalkin. The combat raged to and fro, the cat striking, spitting,
+writhing, and the stoat battered, torn, flung this way and that, but
+all the while burying his fangs deeper in his victim's flesh. The
+death which Keen deals is slow but very sure. The dog worries, and the
+cat tears his prey, but the stoat silently sucks the life-blood, until
+the quarry, struggle as he may, succumbs at last, with only four tiny
+wounds in the throat to show how his strength was drained away.
+
+A battle on these terms could not last. Already the great cat was
+tiring--weakened by loss of blood and the weight on his neck. He
+rolled over exhausted, and although his claws tore feebly at his
+enemy, his eyes were half closed and his tongue lolled out. Keen knew
+that his time had come. He loosened his hold for an instant,
+instinctively seeking a fresh grip upon the great blood-vessels
+behind the ear. But that instant proved his undoing. Grimalkin, roused
+from his stupor by the prick of a new wound, rose with a sudden
+convulsive effort. His enemy was off his guard, and left his side
+exposed. Instantly Grimalkin buried his teeth in it. He held on
+grimly, crushing the life out of the slender writhing form until it
+ceased to quiver and throb, and hung limp. Then he flung it aside, and
+Keen, his white chest stained scarlet, lay stretched on the grass
+beside the dead rabbit.
+
+Grimalkin did not stay to look at this, his record kill. It was no
+time to triumph. His life-blood had been drained freely, he felt weary
+and strangely weak. He crawled to the hedgerow, and sought an old lair
+of his, a deserted rabbit burrow. Dead leaves had drifted in, and it
+was dry and safe. Here Grimalkin lay and nursed his wounds, until the
+sunshine striking on the hedge side, and the singing of the flies over
+the grey and brown spots in the grass, brought home to him the fact
+that he was hungry, and must go out and hunt in the woods again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+'THE COLLARED BUCK'
+
+
+On the northern slope of Knockdane there is a little glen whose sides
+are hung with ivy and aromatic ale-hoof, and which is so deep that
+even on the longest day of the year the sun can never climb high
+enough to shine upon its southern wall. The glen is strewn with
+limestone rocks, and at its head stands a twisted crab-apple tree.
+Beneath the roots of the latter there is a dry roomy chamber into
+which dead leaves have either drifted or been carried; for the Crab
+Tree burrow has been beloved of the Fur Folk ever since the tree
+itself began to bear a yearly load of wizened fruit. Some have used it
+as a den, some as a nursery, and many more as a sanctuary. Grimalkin
+adapted it to the first of these uses, and took up his abode there at
+the end of November.
+
+Frost and snow seldom come to Knockdane before January. During the
+close of the year the weather is damp and mild; rain drips
+relentlessly upon the sodden ground; and the scarlet and orange
+agarics in the moss are the only things which flourish. One morning in
+mid-December Grimalkin went hunting among the bramble thickets of
+upper Knockdane. The whole place was traversed by an elaborate system
+of runways, the geography of which was accurately known to the rabbit
+people alone. A warm mist lay over the woods, distilling into
+great drops on every grass blade and twig ere dripping to the
+saturated ground. Indeed, it was hard to tell which was the most
+water-logged--the earth or the air. Like all his race, Grimalkin hated
+the wet, and he shook his head impatiently as the water trickled
+inside his ears. The air was so damp and heavy among the briars that
+there was little or no scent, so that when a rabbity waft came to his
+nostrils he knew that the trail must be fresh. He turned down a side
+alley, and suddenly came face to face with the most amazing rabbit
+which he had ever beheld. It was large and grey, but the strangest
+thing about it was a broad white stripe which passed completely round
+its neck and ended in a pointed gorget. The rabbit was squatting with
+its ears flattened and its eyes half closed, and in this attitude the
+strange collar stood out round its neck in so uncanny a fashion that
+Grimalkin paused doubtfully. Suddenly fear leaped into its eyes--its
+ears sprang up vertically, and just as Grimalkin cramped himself
+together for a rush, the strange rabbit wheeled round and burst out of
+the 'form.' Grimalkin pulled himself up abruptly, for he was too
+experienced a hunter to give chase; but even in that brief space he
+had time to remark that its tail was not carried in the usual jaunty
+rabbit manner, but was depressed like that of a hare.
+
+That was the first time that Grimalkin met the Collared Buck rabbit of
+upper Knockdane. The Collared Buck, like the lost Incas, was the last
+of his race. Years before, a whole colony of white-necked rabbits had
+lived in the hedgerows outside the wood, but their ornament had proved
+a fatal guide to foxes and stoats, and this winter the sole survivor
+lived in Knockdane, a hermit and a solitary. He had his headquarters
+in a burrow in the elder thicket above Grimalkin's glen; but as in
+that wet season, like many other of the holes in Knockdane, it was
+often full of water, he was obliged to 'lie up' in the woods, whether
+he liked or not. Very early in the morning, after moonset, he went out
+to feed in the sheep field by a well-worn track; but, as soon as the
+'false dawn' appeared, he returned to the wood, and made a 'form' in
+some patch of fern or bramble, where he passed the day. Grimalkin the
+cat never wasted his time over rabbits unless there was reasonable
+chance of success, and although he often crossed the Collared Buck's
+hot trail he never turned aside to follow it. Sometimes indeed he
+caught a glimpse of the Buck himself lilting across a clearing in the
+starlight, or feeding with a wary eye fixed on covert; but this
+rabbit's remarkable appearance was only equalled by his cunning, as
+indeed Grimalkin soon saw for himself.
+
+One crisp January day Grimalkin was taking a sun-bath in the fork of a
+large beech tree, when a sudden 'bang-bang' apprised him that men were
+in the wood, and that they were there with intent to slay. Grimalkin
+regarded men with more hatred and less fear than did the Fur Folk
+themselves, for his early days by the fireside had made an indelible
+impression upon him; but he was aware of the limitations of human
+discernment, and knew that if he remained where he was he would be
+reasonably safe. The reports of the guns came nearer, and presently a
+pair of jays flew overhead, squawking to all the birds within earshot
+that it was time to move on. In front of the beech tree the trees grew
+more sparsely, and the ground was encumbered with a low growth of fern
+and bramble. By and by the shooting party came out of the covert and
+advanced slowly up the glade. Grimalkin, blinking down from his coign
+of vantage, saw rabbit after rabbit bolt from its 'form' only to turn
+a somersault and collapse into a palpitating heap. Just below the
+beech tree there was a thick patch of briars, broken up by numerous
+passages and clearings. Grimalkin, unlike the men below, had a
+bird's-eye view of the place, and just before the line of beaters came
+abreast of it a rabbit hopped out of a runway. His white necklet
+proclaimed that he was the Collared Buck. He sat up upon his curious
+hare-like tail, and peered through the bushes. Just then another shot
+was fired, and a luckless rabbit close by crawled screaming through
+the fern. The Collared Buck made up his mind--he rolled over limply
+upon his back and lay still. The beaters came up and began to whack
+the bushes, but he never twitched a whisker, and he might have escaped
+notice altogether had not one man caught sight of his white gorget
+gleaming in the grass, and walked over to pick up, as he considered,
+the dead rabbit. The Collared one lay like a stone until a hand was
+put out to seize him, then he suddenly leaped sideways and ran for his
+life. Bang! bang! bang! he bolted down the whole line of guns, and
+each fired as he passed; but although the shot clipped twigs from the
+bushes all round him, he ran on unscathed. Just out of shot he paused,
+and then quietly and deliberately crept down an adjacent burrow,
+leaving the sportsmen the poorer of self-respect and cartridges.
+
+After this the weather became fine and warm, and the rabbits used to
+come out of their burrows to take sun-baths. Three times Grimalkin saw
+the Collared Buck basking outside his hole above the glen, with his
+legs sprawled on the dry leaves, and his eyes blinking blissfully in
+the heat. Three times did Grimalkin then attempt to stalk his prey,
+and three times did the Buck take alarm, and hop underground with
+insulting leisure. The desire to circumvent the Collared Buck became
+an obsession with Grimalkin. He spent hours at a stretch watching the
+burrow mouth; all in vain. He often caught a glimpse of the white
+collar, or saw the drooping scut flit into the bushes, but he never
+gave chase on these occasions, for he knew well that in a race he was
+no match for a rabbit, and that his skill in hunting depended less
+upon his legs than upon his patience. So the Collared Buck fed nightly
+in the fields, and arrogantly chiselled his mark upon the old willow
+tree which is the trysting place of the buck rabbits in spring, and
+upon which each sets the imprint of his teeth.
+
+Earlier in the autumn Grimalkin had lived principally upon the
+squirrels who squabbled among the beech-mast, but as the season
+advanced, Koutchee, who, though a noisy meddlesome fellow, is no fool,
+grew wary, and the suspicion of a barred tabby tail twitching in
+covert was sufficient to send him scuttling up a tree. Henceforth
+Grimalkin lived chiefly upon thrushes. The ripening of the haws
+brought in hordes of missel-thrushes, redwings, and blackbirds, who
+tore at the crimson berries and littered them over the countryside
+with the wasteful profusion of the Feather Folk who take no thought
+for the morrow, and then came, full cropped and drowsy, to roost in
+Knockdane. At dark Grimalkin used to creep beneath the bushes which
+were weighted down with the sleepy birds, and took his toll. The
+redwings were his favourite game, for it was possible to strike one
+down silently; whereas no sooner did he miss a spring at throstle or
+blackbird than the whole wood knew of the occurrence. Creeping in the
+darkness among the locked laurel stems, Grimalkin often knew that he
+was not the only hunter abroad. Sometimes as a cloud came over the
+moon, a blackbird 'spinked' agonizedly, and then all at once the whole
+hillside seemed to spring into rushing whirring life as every bird
+within earshot dashed out. There would be dire confusion for a few
+minutes until the flock settled in another thicket, and then the
+patter of pads tiptoeing away told that the fox was also hunting that
+way that night.
+
+One evening Grimalkin was prowling on such an excursion along the
+edge of the wood. Just in front of him a deep drain, cut straight
+through the hedgebank, opened into the field. This cutting was a
+favourite path of all the Fur Folk, and its muddy bottom was trampled
+by many feet, from the splay pugs of the badger to the fairy spoors of
+the rats. It was for the latter that Grimalkin waited, under a fern
+stub. Famine had gripped the rats with the rest of the Wood People,
+and drove them out to feed on the rotting beech-mast far from their
+holes. The blackbirds were arguing together loudly as they settled
+down in the laurels for the night; nevertheless through all the din
+Grimalkin detected a distant scurry and patter of feet. His practised
+ear soon recognised that the oncoming steps belonged to a running
+rabbit, and just behind he caught the galloping rustle of some
+pursuer. Grimalkin the cat feared neither fox nor dog, and he knew
+that the smaller folk all feared him and turned aside from his path;
+so that, with a glance to locate a convenient tree in case of
+emergency, he remained where he was. The bushes suddenly parted and
+out sprang the Collared Buck. His ears were laid down and his eyes
+showed the whites as he glanced behind him. He came straight as an
+arrow for the drain; not until he was almost upon it did he catch
+sight of Grimalkin, and at that moment Redpad the fox came leaping
+upon his trail. The Collared Buck saw that he was in a trap. He was
+yet three yards from the bank when he jumped, but the force of his
+rush was with him and carried him into the drain. At the same instant
+the cat's claws tore his flank, but the smart merely spurred him to
+further efforts. He changed feet nimbly, and shot through the hedge
+far out into the field beyond. Grimalkin alighted on the ditch bottom
+in a smother of dead leaves, not three feet from the fox's nose. He
+put his back against the bank, and his eyes looked ugly as he breathed
+a menace. The fox stopped dead, and they glared eye to eye while one
+might pant a score of times. Then the fox dropped his eyes uneasily.
+He dared not face the great cat's scimitar claws in the narrow path,
+and he slid cautiously back in his tracks out of striking distance
+before leaping into the bushes.
+
+Grimalkin caught a rat and a bird that night, and at dawn went back to
+his lair. He licked his muddy coat dry, and being full fed and
+comfortable for the first time for many days, he sang a low song to
+himself, which made the little mice, among the ivy at the cave's
+mouth, cower and hide. But by and by the purring ceased, and
+Grimalkin, thoughtfully watching the dim light on the floor, growled
+softly at the recollection of the baulked spring in the hedge bottom;
+and in his dreams that night--for the Fur Folk often dream--his claws
+worked softly as though he had struck them into the kill.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After that Grimalkin watched the hedge bottom for two nights, but the
+Collared Buck was wary, and went out to feed by another way. On the
+third evening he came again, but a breath of wind warned him in time
+of his enemy's presence. This happened once or twice, and then
+Grimalkin grew tired of a fruitless vigil in the damp ditch and laid
+other plans.
+
+One January night Grimalkin came out of his cave, and stealing across
+the glen, climbed the opposite wall. It was dark under the trees, but
+a white blur in the shadows guided him to the mouth of the burrow in
+the elders. Very very cautiously he sniffed at the place. All was
+well. The Buck had not yet gone out. Grimalkin squatted down within
+striking distance, tucked his paws away cosily in front of him, and
+waited.
+
+An hour passed--there was a stir in the burrow, and the Collared Buck
+crept out, his white throat a beacon in the starlight. So swiftly that
+it seemed as but one movement, Grimalkin took half a dozen quick
+steps and leaped, but even as he did so the big rabbit stamped a
+sudden alarm. They rolled over together, Grimalkin bearing down his
+prey as a tiger will a deer, but the latter was frenzied with fear,
+and in his agony launched a desperate kick which caught Grimalkin upon
+the point of the nose. As he staggered back he felt the rabbit slip
+from between his claws. The Collared Buck bounded away among the
+elders, stamping an alarm at every stride, until his dancing white
+collar disappeared among the bushes. Grimalkin sat up and wiped the
+blood from his face. He realised that another point had been scored
+against him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+An hour later as Grimalkin was passing the well-worn track to the
+Sheep Field, dawn was breaking, and a fine rain began to fall. He
+followed a path among the furze bushes, and on turning a corner caught
+sight of a rabbit in the grass. He stalked it scientifically, and from
+nearer covert looked at it again. There was no doubt but that it was
+the Collared Buck. He was lying prone upon his chest as though for a
+sun-bath, and apparently had noticed nothing amiss. But why should he
+bask when rain was falling? Grimalkin was uneasy. The Fur Folk fear
+what is unusual; nevertheless because he was hungry, and his enemy so
+close, he sprang. His claws sank deep into the white collar, but the
+Collared Buck neither moved nor gasped. His body was warm and limp,
+and round his neck, although Grimalkin never noticed it, was twisted a
+wicked strand of brass wire. It never occurred to Grimalkin to
+question how his long-sought quarry had died. He drew himself up and
+his tail swayed with triumph. The Collared Buck lay beneath his claws
+and old scores were repaid. He began to play the death-game which the
+cat kind always play over the kill. First of all he touched the rabbit
+with his paw, daring it to rise up and run from him; then, as though
+to make surety doubly sure, he leaped upon it and struck again. While
+there is life in bird or beast they will struggle from the death-play
+blindly, but the Collared Buck lay placidly still with the rain
+draggling his fur and his eyes staring. Even his sensitive nose never
+quivered; for, although Grimalkin did not know it, the wire round his
+neck had long ago choked the breath in his throat. Next Grimalkin
+rolled upon the ground, and drawing the limp form towards him, licked
+its fur and caressed it, while he sang a song praising its strength
+and cunning, and vaunting his own superior skill as a hunter. The
+wrens in the furze scolded and flew away, for few of the lesser folk
+are bold enough to stand by while Grimalkin plays after the kill. He
+gambolled to and fro like a kitten for the joy of feeling the strong
+muscles swell in his limbs; and growling, he dared any of the Wood
+People to snatch his prey from him. So absorbed was he in his game
+that he never heard a step on the close turf, and only when a
+blackbird chuckled an alarm did he look up to see Paddy Magragh
+standing watching him, with a bundle of rabbit snares in his hand.
+Then all make-believe was at an end. Should he, Grimalkin, Cat-King of
+Knockdane, give up his kill? He growled menacingly, and dragged at the
+body, until the peg round which the wire was twisted, already loosened
+by the rabbit's death-struggles, was pulled out of the ground.
+
+'Drop it, ye thafe,' shouted Paddy Magragh, flinging his stick at the
+cat. It missed its mark, and Grimalkin merely glared as he dragged his
+kill towards the bushes a few yards away. Magragh had lost his cudgel,
+but he strode up to kick his antagonist aside with his heavy boots.
+However, Grimalkin turned upon him with such a ferocious snarl that he
+drew back, for no leather would have been proof against those teeth.
+By the time he had fetched his stick, Grimalkin, tripping over his
+burden, had almost gained the bushes. He gave chase instantly, but
+Grimalkin had never yet abandoned his prey, and only trotted the
+faster. They reached the bushes simultaneously. The earthstopper
+struck out brutally with his stick and knocked aside Grimalkin, who
+rolled over and over half stunned; but then Magragh lost his
+advantage, for he rashly stooped and laid hold of the rabbit. In an
+instant, with a strangled yell, Grimalkin's teeth met in his wrist. He
+sprang back with an oath as the blood trickled down.
+
+'Begob! there's something not right wid that cat,' he muttered
+fearfully, stepping aside. 'And the rabbit is a quare one. 'Tis a drop
+o' holy wather, not a stick, ye'd want for the likes o' him, I'm
+thinking.'
+
+So without further interference Grimalkin returned to the limp body of
+the Collared Buck and dragged it laboriously into the bushes. Once
+protected by the kindly furze thorns he crouched down panting, lest
+another attack should be meditated, but it did not come; and presently
+he heard the earthstopper's heavy tread on the turf as he walked away.
+
+Then indeed Grimalkin's triumph was complete. He had even outwitted
+man himself, and robbed him of his kill. He turned to the rabbit once
+more, and played out the death-game to an end before returning to his
+lair.
+
+[Illustration: GRIMALKIN]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+ZOE
+
+
+The day on which the first swallow came was marked with white in
+Grimalkin's calendar. He was looking for chaffinches' nests in the big
+whitethorn hedge at the back of Ballymore Rectory, when he suddenly
+spied a rat. The rat was sitting up eating a snail, and every now and
+then it cast a beady glance around; but Grimalkin slid through the
+grass like a snake, and it did not see him. He had cramped his limbs
+together for a spring when all at once something fell like a miniature
+thunderbolt from a neighbouring crab-tree, and alighted just six
+inches behind the rat, who dropped his supper and vanished in a
+twinkling.
+
+Grimalkin was astonished. It was a cat--but what a cat! She was small,
+but such was the length of her fur that she appeared much larger than
+she really was. She had a foam-white vest and socks, but the rest of
+her coat was deep mouse colour, and a wide ruffle stood out on either
+side of her face. Had it been a tom-cat who had leaped at his game,
+Grimalkin's paw would speedily have buffeted his ears. As it was, he
+crept forward humbly and tried to attract her attention. Zoe's back
+gradually rose to a semicircle, and when he touched her she struck
+him smartly across the face. Certainly love can work miracles, or else
+Grimalkin, King-Cat of Knockdane, would never have suffered such a
+blow quietly; but as it was he only passed his tongue deprecatingly
+over his whiskers. Zoe eyed him to see whether he took his punishment
+with due humility, and then sat down to wipe her ears with her fluffy
+white paw. Presently Grimalkin rolled over on to his back, rubbing his
+tabby ears. A deep rumbling purr vibrated his throat: 'Prr-r-eaow!'
+cried Grimalkin, with that subtle inflection which cats understand to
+mean: 'You are altogether desirable.' Zoe crept forward, and
+Grimalkin, rearing up his tabby length, rubbed his whiskers vigorously
+against her cheek. She too began to purr, but very softly and evenly;
+and by and by when she trotted away, she glanced back to intimate to
+him that he might follow if he wished.
+
+After that they often met. Zoe was the cherished pet of the Rectory,
+and was consequently shut up every night; nevertheless she often
+eluded her mistress and stole down the whitethorn hedge where
+Grimalkin caught cockchafers--a trick learned from the blackbeetles of
+his kitchen days. At first she was reluctant to remain out for long
+together. After a little excursion she would pause and turn back.
+Instantly Grimalkin would be at her side imploring her with all
+feline caresses to accompany him. He could not understand the ties of
+custom which bound her to her human friends. He had broken them long
+ago when a kitten, and was now as truly wild as any of the Fur Folk in
+Knockdane. But Zoe and her parents before her had lived by the
+fireside and eaten men's food, and it was more difficult for them to
+hear the call of the woods.
+
+Once for three days she stayed at home; but on the third evening she
+looked down the field, and saw Grimalkin waiting. A little cry rose in
+her throat; she dropped out of the window and ran to him.
+
+They hunted together until the long sunbeams were cut off by the hill,
+and the dew began to fall. A score of blackbirds piped in Knockdane,
+and a corncrake rasped in the meadow. The darkness fell, and the night
+peoples--the badgers, bats, and owls--came out. When the night was
+half gone, Zoe's instinct to return to her human friends awoke, but
+she was tired, and Grimalkin's presence was very dear to her. She felt
+drawn two ways. Instinct bade her remain in the woods; custom, parent
+of instinct, commanded her to return home. The shadows under the oak
+trees were full of the mysterious sights and sounds of the night. A
+skylark on the hill believed that he saw the false dawn, and rose
+singing to meet it; and a cuckoo in the valley awoke and fluted
+drowsily. Out in the woods the ways of men seem very small and far
+away. Grimalkin looked round. 'Prr-r-eaow!' he cried, which being
+interpreted is: 'O my love, the desirable one'; and the cuckoo's voice
+mingled with the murmur of the river. Zoe's doubts fled. She forgot
+her former life, and all the kindness which she had always received
+from man. Grimalkin was calling and her heart went out to
+him--Knockdane was calling and she obeyed it. She followed her mate to
+his lair.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the beginning of July Zoe left Grimalkin altogether. Now and then
+he caught a glimpse of her, but she always fled from him as though he
+had been some dangerous thing, and for many nights he hunted alone.
+
+Years before, a south-westerly gale had driven in from the Atlantic,
+and ploughed a deep furrow through the fir grove at the top of
+Knockdane, piling the snapped trunks on one another. Nobody moved
+them, and they lay there in rotting heaps; but their fall let in the
+sunshine and rain to the earth, and the next summer a multitude of
+plants grew up where previously had been nothing but gloomy firs.
+Briars ran riot over the decaying branches, grass grew rank and long,
+and alders pushed a way to the air and light. These were woven into a
+jungle so dense that only the rabbits thoroughly knew their way about
+in it; but the foxes and cats followed their runways and often hunted
+them on their own ground.
+
+Early one morning Grimalkin went to the 'Jungle.' No dew had fallen
+for many days, and the sun rose up a cloudless sky. Grimalkin glided
+down a rabbit track, and so into a little clearing surrounded by walls
+of thorn and wild rose. Here lay a tree trunk which had been uprooted
+by the storm. Under its roots was a little cavern half hidden by ivy
+and broken branches. Grimalkin jumped upon the trunk, and squatted
+down to watch for rabbits and enjoy the morning sunshine. Presently a
+bough snapped behind him, and he turned his head very slightly. His
+muscles were tense to spring, when a soft voice of infinite
+motherliness thrilled him. 'Purr-r-utchuck!' it said, which in cat
+language means: 'Thy mother loves thee, little love!' Trotting towards
+the tree came Zoe. She was thin and her coat looked rough, but her
+eyes had a tender glow. Grimalkin watched her glide into the lair
+under the ivy, and then he leaped after her. Carefully concealed from
+curious eyes was a little chamber lined with grass bents. On the
+ground squeaked and squirmed a heap of grey and white fur, and
+encircling it proudly with her body lay Zoe. She purred softly to her
+brood, and licked the tiny round heads thrust forward so eagerly for a
+meal. She never noticed Grimalkin until his shadow darkened the
+doorway, and then she sprang up--a very fierce mother--with back
+arched. In the woods motherhood for a time swamps all other feelings;
+and Zoe now looked upon her former lover as she would have done upon
+any other creature who threatened her kittens.
+
+However, Grimalkin had no evil intentions. He thrust his head into the
+nursery and touched Zoe's whiskers; and, although her claws were drawn
+back to strike, she suffered the caress. One of the kittens, mewing
+plaintively, crawled to Grimalkin, and thrust its minute pink nose
+into his side. Grimalkin stood frozen with horror for a moment,
+glaring at his son, then with a hiss of indignation he leaped into the
+bushes and fled. Henceforth he avoided the old fir tree, although he
+often met Zoe elsewhere.
+
+That summer was long remembered in the countryside as 'The year of the
+great drought.' No dew or rain fell, and the whole land leaped and
+quivered in the heat all day long. The pools and brooks dwindled,
+leaving cracked patches of mud to show where they had been. Brooding
+birds upon the nest gaped with thirst, but dared not leave their eggs
+to seek the distant river. For the Fur Folk in Knockdane there was
+only one little trickle of tepid water left; and all day long it was
+crowded with thirsty birds who struggled with one another for room to
+drink and bathe. It was hard work for Zoe in these days, for she had
+to hunt for five besides herself. She grew very thin; but as the
+kittens throve she did not spare herself, for that is the way of
+mothers, human and furred.
+
+One blazing noon she left her family for a little while, and was
+sitting with Grimalkin in a hawthorn some little way from the
+'Jungle.' Their attention was attracted by the thud of footsteps, and
+they saw Paddy Magragh the earthstopper. He had paused to draw his
+pipe from his pocket and light it. The cats watched intently lest he
+should discover them, but he threw away the match and passed on.
+
+By and by Grimalkin looked down the path and saw what looked like a
+row of orange crocus flowers, which grew up in a moment and died down,
+leaving the ground black behind them. The cats came down from the
+tree, and at the first whiff of the burnt grass Zoe's back rose. She
+knew that smell better than did Grimalkin, for she was more
+accustomed to the ways of men, and had sat by the fireside; but there
+the flames had been caged behind iron bars--here in the free woods
+they had it all their own way. Grimalkin growled, and then,
+stealthily, as though he had sighted a rabbit snare, he slipped into
+the bushes and glided away. Zoe stood there longer, for although she
+hated and feared the fire, yet it was less strange to her than to her
+mate.
+
+The flames crept along until they came to a large tuft of grass, as
+dry as tinder. There was a sudden flare and the grass was gone; but
+the topmost tongue licked a bramble bush, and in an instant it was in
+a blaze. At night a fire puts on a certain majesty with which to cloak
+its terrors; but by day it has nothing to redeem its native
+fierceness. The brushwood was parched with the drought and the flames
+roared up the dry stems.
+
+Did some kind angel stoop and whisper a word of warning to Zoe? She
+suddenly turned and ran to the 'Jungle,' which was not very far away.
+The kittens were hungry and begged a meal, but she disregarded them,
+and, picking up the youngest, set off at a steady pace across
+Knockdane. The woods were quite silent but for the song of the birds.
+Close to the nursery an old blackbird was feeding a brood of
+fledglings, and a hedgehog nosed along the path. Above the tree tops a
+faint smoke rose, quivering in the sunshine.
+
+Zoe trotted away with her head up, carrying the kitten very carefully
+lest her teeth should lacerate its tender skin. She crossed Knockdane
+and sought the open country, for she mistrusted every tree and thicket
+since she knew what she had left in the woods behind. She found an
+empty rabbit hole, laid the kitten inside, and cantered back to
+Knockdane; but it was more than half a mile away, and by the time she
+reached it, little white ashes were floating over the 'Jungle' like
+snowflakes, and the fire was singing merrily to itself. Nevertheless a
+wide path separated it from where the kittens lay, and so far the
+danger did not seem so very pressing.
+
+Zoe picked up a second youngster and carried it off. As she set her
+face towards Knockdane for the second time she saw that a thick smoke
+was rolling up and reddening the sun. The country lay still in the
+heat haze. As yet no one seemed to have noticed anything unusual on
+the hill, for the valley was sparsely populated, and most people were
+enjoying a siesta. When Zoe reached the 'Jungle' she saw a frightened
+rabbit scudding away. The fire was raging in the saplings near and
+licking away the brushwood with a fierce hiss. A charred space,
+littered with red embers, lay in a circle of fire which was
+encroaching ever further and further into the wood. The laurels
+crackled as the heat changed them to molten gold and ruby before
+dropping them into the flames. There was no time to be lost. Already
+blazing fragments were dropping from the tree into the dead grass at
+the edge of the 'Jungle,' and the brushwood burned like tinder when
+kindled.
+
+Zoe took up her third kitten, and this time she ran faster than
+before. The old blackbird was croaking to her brood, beseeching them
+to use their wings to escape, but they only gaped foolishly for more
+worms. The hedgehog was waddling through the grass as fast as his
+short legs would permit. Zoe easily overtook and passed him, but the
+kittens were heavy and the day very hot. The sun came through the
+leaves, and cast chequered patterns on the path. The woods were very
+still, but for the rush and crackle of the fire.
+
+For the third time Zoe toiled back up the hill. The air seemed hotter
+and heavier than ever, and smoke hung among the trees. Suddenly she
+came upon the vanguard of the fire. It had leaped the path and was
+creeping into the 'Jungle' with a roar. Alder, fir branch, and briar
+in turn flared up and fell before it, and the yellow flames streamed
+skywards, dissolving into sparks and smoke. Behind lay utter
+desolation. The charred tree-trunks stood up among the surrounding
+blackness, and the leaves which the fire could not reach hung
+blistered from their twigs. The fire was not two hundred yards away
+from the fir tree. It was to be a race--Zoe against the flames; but
+the former had a mile to travel, and a kitten to carry into the
+bargain.
+
+Her eyes smarted from the smoke and she was dizzy with fatigue, but
+she gallantly took up her fourth baby, and ran for its life. She
+caught a glimpse of some men hastening up the hill, but did not heed
+them. She laid her kitten with the rest of the litter, and made the
+best of her way back to Knockdane.
+
+The 'Jungle' was crowned with flames. Everything was thickly peppered
+with ashes and the sun shone luridly through the smoke. For a moment
+Zoe was utterly at a loss--then she limped up the accustomed path
+towards the fir tree. Once or twice she trod on a burning cinder, and
+the heat made her whiskers shrivel; but she kept on bravely for the
+sake of the baby in the pine-tree nursery.
+
+She darted to the nest. There was just half a minute to spare before
+the fire would sweep up to the tree. The earth was burning hot, and
+already the ivy leaves were blistering. She plunged into the hole and
+groped desperately for her treasure. The moments flew by--she could
+not find it. Her eyes were accustomed to see in the gloom, but this
+darkness was impenetrable. Ah! at last she touched the mewing kitten,
+and gripping it turned to fly. Outside she shrank back, for she was
+met by a veritable wall of flame. The fir tree was surrounded by fire,
+for the grass was blazing, and the bushes were kindling in every
+direction. There was only one place through which escape could be
+made--where the burning zone was narrowest. Zoe gripped the kitten
+tighter, laid back her ears, closed her eyes, and leaped. For one
+fierce moment the fire actually licked her body, and then she dropped
+safely on the ashes beyond. Her whiskers were gone, her beautiful
+ruffle had shrivelled away, her coat was black with ashes; but the
+kitten for whom she had dared so much was safe. She crawled wearily
+away, dragging it after her, while the fire leaped and danced round
+the old fir tree.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At sunset, as Grimalkin prowled through the fields at the back of the
+church (for he avoided the woods while that mysterious bright power
+hunted there) he saw Zoe, again carrying a singed kitten. In the hour
+of danger old ties had reasserted themselves. She was going back to
+man, for with all his ignorance he had treated her better than the
+wild had done, and already four of the kittens lay in the Rectory
+hayloft.
+
+She put up her back when she saw Grimalkin, but he made no attempt to
+stop her, and only trotted behind with a puzzled air. They came to the
+gate of the Rectory yard, and Zoe crawled underneath; but Grimalkin
+heard the scorched woods calling to him, and he could not follow, for
+he hated the abodes of men. 'Meaow!' he cried, but Zoe took no notice.
+At that moment a girl came into the yard, and stopped short in
+surprise: 'Why, Zoe, my pet!' she cried joyfully. Zoe, trained in
+caution by weeks of woodland life, climbed into the hayloft. The girl
+knew better than to follow her there, but presently she came back
+bearing a saucer of milk for the parched throat, and laid it down
+outside. Grimalkin turned and crept away.
+
+That night the drought broke, and a thunderstorm burst over Knockdane.
+The rain poured in torrents and doused out the fire completely. But
+for many months there was a wide black clearing where the 'Jungle' had
+been; and a charred log in the middle was all that was left of Zoe's
+nursery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+WHERE THE BATTLE IS TO THE STRONG
+
+
+In March the nights are long and winds are cold; food is scarce, yet
+hunters must live.
+
+Grimalkin passed down the palings at the woodside, and stole on
+noiseless feet among the grass-tufts under the stormy dawn.
+
+Four summers have passed over Grimalkin's head since we saw him last;
+four years of uninterrupted supremacy in the woods. His own kind
+feared him; the lesser Fur Folk fled from him; the gamekeeper hated
+him. He was the patriarch of his race, a Prince among his people. But
+these four years, while raising Grimalkin to the height of his fame,
+had taken their toll. His coat already showed a suspicion of grey
+along the spine and jowl; his eyes were keen as ever, but many kills
+had blunted the mighty claws and teeth; and his whiskers had fallen
+in. Nevertheless the Spring Longing danced as gladsomely in his blood
+as when he had been a kitten.
+
+March mornings are stormy. The wind woke at daybreak and sighed up the
+valley. The trees of Knockdane swept a stately arpeggio in answer as
+the steely south-easter roared louder through the organ pipe of the
+woods, and bent the tasselled larch on which the storm-cock chanted
+to the celandines.
+
+The sunrise was pale and watery, fitful gusts shook the bushes.
+Grimalkin's thoughts ran on rabbits--the rabbits always come out on
+the Long Bank first of all. He squatted under a briar brake, tucked
+his paws away cosily before him, and watched.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A rustle among the brambles, a stir on the dead leaves. Grimalkin's
+muscles stiffened, and his whiskers twitched. He crouched flat, then
+slid forward sinuously, paw after paw. Never yet had he failed in his
+spring on a March rabbit. His eye dilated and his muscles swelled with
+the thought of victory. Then came the rub. The quarry, nervously
+nibbling at the open grass, was outside striking distance. A young cat
+might have risked a spring and failure. Grimalkin was too old a
+hunter, and sat down to wait.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Again the grasses stirred, and green eyes, keen and deadly, were
+framed in the waving stems. The hunter knew them well. A reproduction
+of his own, they belonged to his great-grandson, a worthy whose
+well-groomed face betrayed all feline vices.
+
+The newcomer licked his lips, his face took a smug complacent
+expression. He also scrutinised the rabbit--he also would wait. If
+there should be a battle, well and good--let the strongest win.
+Grimalkin made no sign save that he bared his teeth in a silent snarl
+of concentrated hate; but hot anger boiled within him, for it is one
+of the laws of the Fur Folk, that if one beast hunts the quarry of
+another of the same kind, the latter may kill him if he will. But
+never before had another cat dared to stalk Grimalkin's game, or beard
+him to his face. It was intolerable, and he half turned, and in so
+doing betrayed himself. The rabbit is the wariest of Wood Folk. If he
+were not so he would have died out centuries ago. He sat up with alert
+ears, and lilted suspiciously to a distance. The hunters saw that
+their game had disappointed them, but they scarcely heeded it. They
+watched one another for a minute with slowly undulating tail-tips.
+Then very evenly and softly from the patriarch's throat rose the
+challenge of Clan Cattus: 'mi-ee-awl.' His grandson answered, flinging
+back the cry loudly and defiantly, interlarding it with those insults
+of which a tom-cat is such an unrivalled master.
+
+The heroes circled round one another, and then closed, striking out
+tufts of fur until the ground was sprinkled with them. They buffeted
+one another until they were utterly exhausted, and then drew back to
+recover before renewing the attack. Grimalkin strained every sinew to
+teach this upstart the respect due to his position and years, but--try
+as he would--not a blow went home. Feint, counterfeint, undercut and
+smashing downward stroke, all were parried, and Grimalkin sank down
+breathless after every round with blood trickling from his ears. A new
+sensation assailed him--his limbs seemed numb and feeble. He was
+weary. It was not now revenge for which he sought--he was struggling
+despairingly for the right to live. His blows grew more feeble, and
+foam hung on his jaws. Now was the time for the superiority of young
+blood to tell. Down came the iron paw, armed with the strong curved
+claws, upon the veteran's skull. Grimalkin yelled and leaped back as a
+hot red curtain fell before his sight. Baffled and half stunned, he
+crept away, cowed, into the bramble covert.
+
+The victor sat up and licked his wounds. Henceforth there was a new
+king for the cat-folk in Knockdane.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The day was well begun. Why did the throstle pipe overhead? Why did
+the daffodils dance in the breeze? Why was the Spring Longing so
+insolently apparent in every bud and bough, and why did they flaunt it
+so heartlessly in his face? Could they restore a darkened eye, or
+rejuvenate weakened limbs? Thus might have mused Grimalkin of
+Knockdane, who was king there no more. It had come at last, a cold
+hand which grips man and beast alike, certain and irremediable. _Old
+Age_ was stealing fast behind him. And old age means more to the Fur
+Folk than to human beings. When their strength once declines ever so
+slightly, they must go to the wall to make room for stronger hunters.
+They are the lawful prey of any who can take them. If by any chance
+they escape death by their fellows, nothing remains but Starvation--a
+slower agony.
+
+Grimalkin could not look into the future and see what Fate had in
+store for him, but perhaps he was all the happier for it. Mortified
+and baffled as he was at his defeat, he did not realise that a day
+would come when he must pass by the full-grown buck rabbit for the
+young and sickly, or later on prey on grass-mice which he now
+disdained. But this day was still far off. Loud called the March wind
+overhead. Grimalkin rose, and ceased to try and tear the darkness from
+his blinded eye. He was hungry, and his hunter's skill still remained
+to him. What he lacked in strength and endurance must be compensated
+for by cunning. He crept from his hiding-place, and stole silently
+down the path to his hunting grounds.
+
+So passes Grimalkin from this tale, through the grey trees, into the
+depths of the mysterious woods, where the race is only to the swift
+and the battle to the strong, and about which man can know nothing
+certainly.
+
+
+
+
+THE BIOGRAPHY OF STUBBS THE BADGER
+
+[Illustration: THE BIOGRAPHY OF STUBBS THE BADGER]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE TWILIGHT HUNTERS
+
+
+The spoor was impressed deeply in the muddy ground where a stream ran
+by the path. The broad toes were well defined, and the punctures of
+the great digging claws had cut the clay. 'There's badgers in the auld
+earth again,' said Paddy Magragh, standing up.
+
+It was a mild evening in March, with a grey sky streaked with faint
+reflections of the unseen sunset. Paddy turned to the right, up a
+track used more often by the Fur Folk than by man. There was a shallow
+pit here, and under the brim opened the mouth of a big burrow.
+Generations of persevering diggers had lived and died there, and each
+had added his quota to the mound outside the hole, and excavated yet
+another chamber among the honeycomb of galleries tunnelled into the
+hill. However, for some years, the 'earth' had been empty, and the
+dead leaves had drifted thickly against the entrance. The rabbits had
+dug burrows about the place; and after a hard-pressed fox had taken
+refuge there, two winters before, Magragh himself had built up the
+'set' with stones and earth, so strongly that fox-pads could not open
+it. Now, however, the barricade was scraped away, and leaves and grass
+littered the mound outside. Magragh looked up at the fading sky and
+turned homewards, but after a few steps he returned. Had Fate set him
+in another sphere, he might have been a great naturalist. As it was,
+although he had a profound knowledge of those of the Wild Folk who
+furnished 'shpoort' for himself and his fellow men, of the lesser
+breeds he was almost entirely ignorant. Nevertheless, the spirit of
+the true naturalist slept in him, unsuspected, and to-night, for once
+in a way, it awoke. He would not admit to himself that he desired to
+see the inmates of this burrow without chance of 'shpoort' or
+slaughter, but muttered shamefacedly: 'Shure, I'll watch a bit see
+would the craythurs come out to-night.' Those who spend much time
+alone under the free sky acquire this habit of soliloquy; indeed,
+after a while, each finds himself his own best company.
+
+Paddy Magragh sat down under a tree, and watched the light fade from
+the surrounding bushes. The bats hawked to and fro, and a blackbird
+'chink-chinked' in notes like the dripping of water. A rabbit came out
+of a hole hard by with his scut buttoned down, and slid away to feed,
+so softly that his footsteps never stirred the leaves; but he did not
+see Paddy Magragh, who, in his tattered coat and broken boots, looked
+as shapeless and as knotted as the old stump against which he leaned.
+The woods were quite quiet but for the trickling of the little stream
+near at hand, and even the nibbling of the rabbit in the brambles was
+plainly audible.
+
+When it was so dark that the shrews could only be located by their
+voices as they squabbled in the dead leaves, there came a rustle at
+the 'earth' mouth, and a striped snout was poked out. After the snout
+slid a long grey body--a shadow among the shadows--humped and clumsy,
+yet so silent that not a twig snapped under the heavy pads. Magragh
+sat with his hands clasped over his 'ash-plant.' The badger snuffed
+suspiciously, then waddled off by a little, well-worn path. A minute
+or two afterwards, from the stream, could be heard the sound of water
+lapped down a thirsty throat. Paddy was wise. He sat for another ten
+minutes. The silence grew more tense and the darkness deeper. Then,
+without any warning, a badger, larger than the last, scurried across
+the pit so quickly that Magragh's old eyes had barely caught sight of
+him before he vanished in the shadows.
+
+'A pair o' thim,' said the old man, hobbling homewards.
+
+A week later he waited there again; waited until the woodcock had
+settled down to feed, and the light was almost gone, leaving the pit
+so dark that his eyes saw nothing when his ears caught the rustle of a
+single hunter turning up the hill from the 'earth.'
+
+'There's cubs wid'in,' opined Paddy Magragh.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tunnelled ten yards into the hillside, up a narrow gallery to the
+right, and then down another, dug at right angles to avoid a rock
+proof against even a badger's claws, was the nursery; and here the
+cubs were born at the end of March. If Mother Badger had been wary
+before, she now increased her caution to an unheard-of degree. Even
+the distant shuffle of her mate's footsteps, as he went out to feed,
+was sufficient to rouse her to a rumbling growl. She herself never
+stirred outside the 'earth' until after midnight, and, even then, the
+'wick-wick' of a wakeful throstle set her heart thudding.
+
+It was the middle of April before Mother Badger took her cubs into
+the woods. She chose a starlit night--the badgers love the stars
+better than the moon--and led them to the burrow mouth. They crawled
+up the mound outside, and then flopped down to rest; for their longest
+journey hitherto had been across their nursery, and their short legs
+soon grew weary. Although the alternate tracts of their pied snouts
+were well defined, the black was washed over with chocolate colour;
+otherwise they were exact replicas of their parents.
+
+Mother Badger did not dare to lead them far afield that night. As it
+was, once or twice she took alarm and hustled them underground.
+However, the cubs did not trouble about the limitations of their
+bounds. The sand at the burrow mouth was light and dry, and they
+delightedly thrust their paws into it and scattered it about, just as
+children at the seaside dabble their feet in the water. The biggest
+cub found a rabbit scrape, and, thrusting in his nose, dug lustily.
+Presently one of his sisters came pushing up and they fought
+viciously, rolling over and over to the bottom of the mound, with
+locked claws. This roused Mother Badger, who lay above the 'earth'
+with one eye on her cubs and the other upon the woods. She waddled
+down and cuffed them; then brought them back, and licked and fed them
+tenderly. Long before dawn she took them below ground again; even
+before Father Badger had returned home, grunting, to his solitary
+dormitory.
+
+[Illustration: HOMEWARD BOUND]
+
+The next night, however, they went as far as the Hollow Field. Mother
+went first, and the cubs, their eyes fixed upon her shaggy, bumping
+quarters, followed her closely in single file. Her feet made no sound;
+but now and then one of the little ones, less used to tread where the
+least rustle aroused the whole woodside, snapped a twig. That was
+their first real hunting. Last night by the 'earth' had merely been
+play, but now they learned the science of smells, for a badger relies
+very greatly upon his nose. They learned that, as the night wore on,
+the scent grew stronger or fainter according to the dew-fall and the
+wind and the state of the ground, and to what different smells
+belonged. A strong taint blew aslant the hedge--that was fox. Mother
+Badger sampled it scientifically, and the cubs dutifully followed her
+example. The rabbit trails intersected one another in a labyrinth, but
+the badger has no dealings with grown rabbits, and they passed these
+by. Every tree and herb and bird and beast has its own particular
+odour, and, as there is no directory of scent in the woods but that
+which each of the Fur Folk compiles for himself, the little badgers
+had to learn each separately.
+
+Thus, follow-my-leader-wise, they entered the Hollow Field, and Mother
+Badger sought a likely spot where the babies might receive a first
+lesson in beetle-hunting. She dug up the turf, and grunted for her
+family to turn over the scrapings. He who nosed deepest obtained the
+morsel--a dor-beetle, well-flavoured, and devoured with gusto with the
+condiment of Nature's providing.
+
+Presently, the Mother Badger craned her long neck, and her little eyes
+twinkled. She had winded something else which would afford a very good
+object-lesson, besides supper, for the cubs. Each little one tiptoed
+up and sniffed in turn: it was an unknown smell, but good--decidedly
+good. 'Hunt it!' grunted Mother Badger, as plainly as grunt could
+speak. Listening, they heard needlets of sound, and the ghost of a
+rustle, as though some tiny thing thrust the grass-blades aside. The
+eldest cub went first. He located it, as he thought exactly, and
+snapped gingerly. He caught a mouthful of grass only, and the rest had
+no better fortune. Mother Badger saw that she must assist, or else her
+pupils would go supperless. She thrust in her snout, drew out a mouse,
+and dropped it before them. The cubs rushed in helter-skelter, and
+the eldest presently pushed his way out of the scrimmage with the
+rest of his brothers and sisters tugging and snatching at the mouse
+which dangled from his mouth. He tore it to pieces, growling, and the
+others kept at a safe distance, for he was the biggest and strongest
+of the litter. After this they turned down the field to the pool in
+the middle, and here Mother Badger showed them another game. On the
+bank the meadow-sweet grew rankly, and hearing the familiar
+'plop-plop' of a frog in the dew-soaked herbage, she set the example
+of chasing it. The cubs grew eager, and hunted with little squeaks and
+snorts of excitement. Frog was better than mouse, for it could not run
+from them so silently. Now and then there was a splash as some
+amphibian, more lucky than his fellows, dived through the crowfoots
+into the pond. When this occurred the cubs were puzzled--water was a
+mystery to them--but another frog was soon afoot, and the chase began
+again.
+
+Thus, night by night, they learned field-craft, and gradually grew to
+know the geography of the woods, with every pool and thicket and
+pathway.
+
+At the top of Knockdane there are three or four acres, which are so
+rock-encumbered, and so overgrown with heather and bracken, that an
+occasional broken-topped fir or oak sapling is the only tree which
+will grow there. Here and there a narrow path twists through the fern,
+and the industrious rabbit people, who live among the rocks, keep the
+grass on those spots close and green. Above this, the hill grows
+steeper till it meets a grey crag which drops sheer down from the fir
+wood, whose brow, shaggy with gorse and ling, overhangs the place. The
+Fur Folk all visit this wilderness. The rabbits and squirrels love it,
+because the grass and fir-cones there are good, and the blood-hunters
+follow them thither. There the badgers went one evening at sunset, and
+feasted on the great worms which were tempted out by the coolness of
+the night, and on the pignuts in the clearings. After their surfeit
+the cubs could scarcely waddle among the bracken, for their tight
+little bodies brushed the stems on either side. Under the crag they
+stopped to drink, where the water dripped from the height above; and
+as five badgers guzzling in the mud made much commotion and splashing,
+Mother Badger never heard the thud of approaching feet until they were
+almost on the top of her party. She grunted of danger, imminent and
+serious, and gathered her cubs together. Dinny Purcell had made a
+short-cut through Knockdane, on his way home from a meeting of the
+local branch of the Gaelic League at Whelan's 'public'; and, as the
+proceedings had terminated agreeably with some toasts to the success
+of the League, Dinny felt valiant enough to defy any number of ghosts.
+Mother Badger stood on the other side of the little marsh, and growled
+thunderously; but Dinny did not hear, and stumbling and cursing,
+knee-deep in mud, came on. The cubs glided into the fern, but the old
+badger stood her ground. She had never met her match where strength
+was concerned, therefore she did not trouble to use her teeth, but set
+her snout against the intruder's legs and shoved.
+
+'Holy Mother--it's the divil,' hiccoughed Dinny Purcell, crossing
+himself; and he tried to run faster, but Mother Badger growled and
+thrust again.
+
+'Give over,' muttered Dinny, fuddled with drink, and striking out
+timorously with his stick, he thwacked Mother Badger's shaggy coat,
+and thereby incited her to charge again. Dinny would gladly have taken
+to his heels, but as his feet were stuck fast in the mud it was
+impossible; and sobered by superstitious fears, he remembered his
+match-box, and fumbled for it. Mother Badger was normally placid and
+slow to wrath, but this man's presence so near to her cubs angered
+her. She caught the top of his boot--it was well for Dinny that her
+fangs missed his leg--and bit it. Just then he found his matches, and
+struck one. It was hot--bright--pungent, such as she had never winded
+before. She backed hastily, but as what a badger has seized that will
+he hold as long as there is breath in him, she ripped the boot from
+top to sole. Dinny yelled, and dropping the match, which fell
+sputtering into a puddle, he swung himself on to an adjacent rock and
+tucked up his legs. 'It's the divil, an' he runnin' like a pig,' he
+groaned.
+
+But Mother Badger had no mind to fight for fighting's sake. Had she
+not feared for her cubs, she would have fled at once from a creature
+who could summon that hot, bright mystery at will. She withdrew
+cautiously in her tracks, and one by one her cubs followed her from
+rock or heather tuft where each lay. Once in the darkness, beyond the
+reek of whisky and the dreaded voice of man, they breathed more
+freely; and they bumped along in single file down to the beech and
+bramble woods which lie by the Hollow Field, and which from bud-time
+to leaf-fall are seldom visited by men.
+
+But, from that day to this, Dinny Purcell swears that the devil met
+him that night in Knockdane, in token of which he shows his split
+boot-leather; and for every time of telling, the devil increases so
+much in size and ferocity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Towards the end of May the cubs were weaned, and henceforth they
+hunted less with their parents, and more often alone, or in couples.
+In this litter of four there were two sows and two boars, of which one
+was the little badger who has hitherto been referred to as the 'eldest
+cub,' but because his legs and likewise his snout were short and
+stumpy, even for a badger, he was afterwards known in Knockdane as
+Stubbs. It is he with whom this history deals.
+
+The young ones opened the other galleries of the old 'earth,' and
+slept in dormitories away from the nursery. But in June, when the
+nights were short, and the badgers sometimes went hunting before the
+sun was well set, and stayed out until the dawn had broken over the
+hills, now and then it happened that morning overtook one of the
+family far from home, and, blinded by the early sunshine, he was
+obliged to seek some hide-up for the day.
+
+By August, Stubbs was almost full-grown, and his knowledge of
+field-craft was profound. He could detect a nest of young rabbits
+hidden any distance underground, and once he had located the place, no
+power on earth could hinder him from digging them out. He would work
+all night, dislodging stones and shovelling earth, if at the end there
+was a chance of a meal of rabbits. If, during his task, the
+unfortunate doe-rabbit came home, he paid no attention to her. She
+might stamp as much as she pleased at the stumpy tail protruding from
+her nursery--nothing would turn Stubbs aside from his purpose. He
+could also locate truffles six inches underground--the big knobby ones
+which grow under oak trees, and the little potato-like ones which
+smell so strong, and are found under laurels in Knockdane. Besides
+this, he could wind a man a quarter of a mile away, and he knew every
+'shore' and rock and tree in Knockdane.
+
+The badger's daily round is more monotonous than those of most of the
+Fur Folk. He is too large greatly to fear any other beast, and he is
+so wary that he seldom comes in collision with man. Year in, year out,
+from spring to autumn, autumn to spring, his comings and goings follow
+the set rules of his ancestors. Now and again, however, a badger is
+born to a more stirring career, and such a one was Stubbs.
+
+In September the badgers lived well, and their sides grew sleek and
+round. They dug up the bykes of the orange-bellied bumble-bees,
+regardless of their stings, and guzzled over the sticky sweetness of
+the honeycomb. Later they visited the crab-trees, and spent many a
+blissful hour scrunching the sour pippins, and dropping the pieces
+about the grass, for the badger is an untidy feeder.
+
+At the end of the month the 'earth' was littered down in preparation
+for the winter's Big Sleep. The whole family were still living under
+one roof, so to speak, but as they mostly occupied galleries far
+apart, it was almost more like a hotel. More than half a badger's life
+is spent in sleep--profound, blissful sleep, in a world of great
+silences and deep shadows. In October came a night with frost nip in
+the air, and a damp mist. Stubbs felt the chill in his bones as he
+crept to the entrance of the 'earth'; nevertheless, because he was
+hungry, he went out. Shortly afterwards his brother came up, snuffed
+the wind, stretched himself and yawned--then, because he was sleepy,
+and the night undesirable, he waddled back again and slept the clock
+round. The next night the rest did likewise--why hunt when they were
+not hungry? There are few winter nights in Knockdane that are not
+either cold or wet, and such nights the badgers eschewed. Now and
+again they went out for a few hours, but in the small hours when the
+morning frost set the grass in the meadows crackling with rime, they
+grunted disgustedly and returned to bed.
+
+The whole family--parents and young ones--slept through December
+without ever stirring out, for snow was on the ground most of the
+month; but in January I know not what mysterious influence, creeping
+underground, knocked at the closed doors of the badgers' brains, and
+told them that the frost was gone and the night was warm. Stubbs woke
+first, and groped his way out. The air was mild and damp, and the roar
+of the river was borne to him as, rain-laden, it plunged over the
+weir. The dead leaves were moist and limp, and overhead a foggy moon
+peered through the bare trees. He trotted stiffly down the woods and
+visited his old haunts, but, go where he would, he could find nothing
+to eat but a few sodden mushrooms. An hour later he returned, wet and
+chilled, and lay down in his dormitory to suck his paws meditatively,
+until sleep overtook him again. His head dropped on his forepads, and,
+with a sigh, he fell into a slumber which lasted, with few waking
+hours, until the Spring Longing came to the woods, and roused him with
+the rest of the Fur Folk.
+
+Spring nights are stormy with driving rain-showers, but under the
+trees the Fur Folk are sheltered from the blustering winds, and come
+and go from dusk to dawn; for the day on which the first throstle
+sings is the beginning of the new year in the woods.
+
+The badgers came out with the rest, but they were lean with long
+fasting, and their toes were tender with much drowsy sucking. Stubbs
+went through the elder trees, whose buds were growing big and purple,
+and he dug up and ate the wild arum tubers. They were very bitter and
+burning to taste, but a badger's palate is not a delicate one, and he
+devoured them greedily. Besides, there was nothing else left to eat in
+the woods, for, during the recent famine time, they had been patrolled
+up and down by bird and beast.
+
+In March, Mother Badger had another litter of cubs in the old nursery,
+but there were fewer grown badgers in the 'earth' at this time, for
+the younger boar cub of the previous season had been 'stopped' out one
+February night, and had never come home again--perhaps the Carkenny
+hounds knew why. Stubbs lived a bachelor life by himself at one end of
+the 'earth.' Even now he was scarcely thoroughly awake after his long
+sleep, and on any cold or wet night he lay abed. By April, however, he
+felt better, and put on flesh; and it was then that he finally broke
+with his family. One night he went round by the Heronry where grew
+Father Badger's 'Claw-Clapping' tree, a young wych-elm. Father Badger
+used to resort thither to polish his long digging claws and to scratch
+himself, and his feet had patted down a little track round the roots.
+Stubbs went up to the sapling, and began, with great satisfaction, to
+chisel off strips of bark, for he was proud of his claws. He grunted
+contentedly, and rubbed his shaggy sides up and down--and, the next
+minute, heavy as he was, he was sent flying head over heels; for
+Father Badger had come along, and was wroth to find his place usurped.
+For the first time he realised that, during the Big Sleep, the cub had
+become a full-grown badger almost as strong as himself. Therefore he
+challenged; and it was a sign that Stubbs had arrived at adult badger
+estate that he accepted his father's challenge. They ran at one
+another, growling ferociously, but they did not use their teeth, only
+thrust with their snouts; for it is the law of the Fur Folk that two
+of a kind shall not fight to the death, and it is a law that is not
+often broken. However, Father Badger was the older and the heavier,
+and, although a year later Stubbs would have been fully his match, he
+drove his son away. After that Stubbs did not return to the 'earth'
+among the elder trees, but led a nomadic life in the woods for some
+weeks, sleeping in a dry drain or old rabbit-hole, and at night
+wandering miles abroad over the countryside. In those days there was a
+drouth in Knockdane, and the streams dried up. It was serious for the
+badger people, for they were often obliged to search very far afield
+for water. Sometimes a shower fell, but never enough to fill the
+springs. At such times the badgers resorted to a hollow in a path,
+along which horses had passed in winter when the mud was deep. Now,
+after a shower, each hoof-mark was a clay goblet of water, and the
+badgers' thirsty red tongues used to lick out the contents gratefully.
+
+One close night in May, Stubbs went down to the Great White House,
+where the men live. The Great White House stands on a little oasis of
+open grass, but the woods come up close round, and the rabbits
+trespass under the very windows. In the field round, the men have
+planted roots which are new to badger palates, and some of them are
+very good. Stubbs sampled them all. Some were narcissus and hyacinth,
+evil-tasting and slimy, and he threw them aside. Others, the crocus
+and tulip, were better; but best of all were the snowdrops, which were
+sweet and nutty, and of these Stubbs ate all he could find. At last he
+ventured quite close to the walls of the house. Faint notes of music
+beat from one of the windows, and these made Stubbs raise his head
+suspiciously. All at once it seemed that eyes were watching him from
+the shadow to his leeward side--mysterious eyes, eager yet timid. He
+grunted, and dug up another bulb, but the sensation of being watched
+grew stronger. Instinctively he knew that it was not an enemy who
+spied upon him thus--rather the contrary. He could neither see, hear,
+nor wind anything unusual, but that mysterious sense which is perhaps
+the parent, not the outcome, of the other senses, told him that the
+watcher was hidden under the oak tree to his right, and that he would
+do well to pursue it thither. Suddenly the shutters of a window were
+thrown open, and a golden beam of light was flung across the darkness.
+It lit up the rough bark of the oak tree on the lawn, and at the foot
+of the latter, blinking resentfully in the light, Stubbs saw the owner
+of the watching eyes. In a second or two the light was shut off, and
+the music grew muffled again; but Stubbs thought no more of bulbs, for
+he heard the patter of feet which scampered back to the wood, and gave
+chase.
+
+Perhaps she did not run very fast, at all events he soon came up with
+her. In size she was less than himself, but judged by badger standards
+her charms were surpassing. Also she did not repulse him, for she came
+from the Ballinakill 'earth' outside Knockdane, and had dwelt mateless
+for many days.
+
+So Stubbs and Grunter hunted together that night; that is, Grunter set
+the pace and chose the paths, and Stubbs followed. They went by the
+main badger path, and crossed the lane which runs across Knockdane,
+slithering down a five-foot drop which is scored in every direction by
+deep claw-prints, and entered the Big Meadow together. The cattle
+slept in the dewy grass, and, stealing in among them, the badgers
+hunted every inch of ground for beetles. Every now and then a
+'bum-clock' boomed overhead, and then fell 'splotch' to earth. Small
+chance had it when the badgers' noses probed for it in the grass: but
+Grunter took the lion's share, for in the wood there is a law that,
+during the days of courtship, the female may take what she will and
+her mate shall not gainsay her.
+
+Henceforward they hunted together night after night. Sometimes they
+sought for partridges' eggs--eggs are a badger tit-bit, when he can
+find them, which is not often--and these went down, shell and all,
+'crunch-squolch.' Sometimes they beat a way through the standing
+meadow grass, leaving a track behind which two days' sun would not
+eradicate, or searched for wasps' nests in the hedge-banks. These were
+honeymoon nights, and, sweet though they were, they could not last for
+ever. It was the weather which first stimulated the pair to find a
+permanent 'set.' It was showery, with now a cool wet evening which
+made the badgers think of the comfort of a deep burrow in preference
+to a makeshift rabbit-hole or drain; and then again came a hot starlit
+night, a hunter's night, when Stubbs filed his claws on a tree-trunk
+because of the wasted digger's energy within him.
+
+On the second such night they went to Larch Hill. The soil there is
+dry and sandy, and it is a pleasant place--cool in summer and warm in
+winter--and, wherever the wind stirs, the supple larches bend before
+it, and nod and whisper mysteriously among themselves. Here there was
+an empty rabbit burrow, and Stubbs poked in his nose, and snuffled.
+Grunter shouldered him aside and crawled in until only her shaggy
+hind-quarters appeared. Then she began to dig, and a continuous shower
+of sand spurted out between her hind-legs. When the heap bid fair to
+block her in altogether, she backed awkwardly, shovelling it out as
+she came. This was Stubbs' chance. He lumbered into the cavity, and
+scraped likewise until his coat was full of dust. Grunter tried to
+press in after him, but a well-directed kick sent her sprawling upon
+her broad back, and she was obliged to wait outside until her mate was
+tired. So they worked alternately, until a most respectable tunnel had
+been driven under the larch trees.
+
+Meanwhile, however, the herons flew in from the bogs, full cropped
+after the night's fishing, and the morning wind was heavy with the
+scent of elder flowers. The caverns of shadow around began to resolve
+themselves into cool green arcades, and the woodcock croaked during
+their aerial rompings overhead. The larks sang up on the hill, and the
+wood birds answered with a blast of song. The badgers were tired and
+dusty and sleepy. Grunter crept into the half-completed 'earth'; and
+Stubbs, after pausing to lick his sore pads, followed her. They lay
+down with grunts of content, snout to snout, stomachs upwards, and in
+two minutes were snoring comfortably. That was their house-warming.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+BORRIGAN'S BAITING
+
+
+'Get out, ye baste!' growled Marky Borrigan, shaking the sack he
+carried over the mouth of a barrel. There was a stifled grunt, a
+struggle, and a grey bundle fell into the cask with a thud.
+
+'Shure, we have him all safe,' said Borrigan, with a grin.
+
+'Begob, that was a good night's work,' said Micksey Bolger, henchman
+and confederate of the said Mark. 'Where had ye him cot?'
+
+''Twas over in Knockdane. I was there at two o'clock this morning and
+up at the "earth." I had the sack wid a bit o' cord run round the
+mouth, an' I put it down the hole wid just the mouth set open, an' the
+twine fast to a three-thrunk. I sent the dog huntin' down the wood,
+and by and by I heard this felly cantherin' up as it might be a pig.
+He stopped just fernent me, and bedam, he cut a look on me as wicked
+as a Christian, an' I t'rew the stick at him an' druve him into the
+sack in the hole. But, indade, whin I come to pick it up he was
+fightin' inside like the divil an' all his childher, and a terrible
+job I had to git him here, six mile in the ass-cair.'
+
+'He's a gran' big felly,' said Bolger, peering into the cask. 'I'm
+told Andy Grace'll bring his tarrier, an' there are two boys from
+Ballyoughter wid a dog that won the coorsin' there at the New Year,
+and two three more. This chap is fresh an' in fine condition. Bedam,
+he'll put up a great fight this evening!'
+
+'Put him, barrel an' all, into the ould barn,' said Borrigan. 'The
+flure there is concrate, an' he'll not get away on us.'
+
+They carried the barrel into the barn, and went away, and the yard was
+left quiet.
+
+All Stubbs' preconceived notions of life had been rudely shaken, when
+he had darted into his burrow, only to find it changed into a
+treacherous cul-de-sac; and they had been still more overset when he
+found himself thus unceremoniously imprisoned in the barrel. At first
+he was bewildered into quietude, but as, in spite of his stolid ways,
+a badger is as plucky a beast as hunts the woods, he soon began to
+revolve plans of escape. When all had been quiet for an hour and a
+half (a badger's wits are like his legs, slow but serviceable), Stubbs
+stood up and upset the barrel. The barn was lighted by a single
+loophole, and was quite empty. The floor was of concrete and
+undiggable, but the walls were plaster, and Stubbs' claws--the
+strongest in the woods--stripped them bare quickly. Alas! underneath
+were bricks, bricks--nothing but bricks: not a chink or cranny to give
+purchase to his claws. In fear and trembling he hid in the cask again,
+where the mild light of the summer morning could not filter; and
+there, ostrich-like, he believed himself safe.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That day was a holiday, and therefore it was arranged that, in the
+afternoon, the cur dogs of the neighbourhood should have an
+opportunity of trying their mettle against Stubbs' formidable teeth
+and claws. It was very hot, and the badger, accustomed to the fresh
+mildness of the hours of darkness and the cool of the burrows, gasped
+in the stuffy barn. There had been a pan of water in the place, but in
+his first terrified scamper he had upset this, and it had not been
+refilled. He panted, and watched a dusty streak of sunlight creep from
+west to east along the wall. Every time that he heard a louder voice
+or step outside, he fled into the barrel; for hitherto he had known
+nothing but the silence and shadows of the woods at night, and noise
+and light were both terrible to him.
+
+At last he heard footsteps clatter up to the barn. The door was flung
+open, and a flood of sunlight poured in.
+
+'All right! he's in the tub,' said Borrigan, looking inside. Stubbs
+felt himself lifted up and carried out. There was much clamour of
+voices and shuffling of feet.
+
+'Take two to one on Grace's tarrier.' ... 'Not weight enough. Shure,
+none o' them dogs could pull him down.' ... 'A shilling on Comerford's
+sheep-dog!' and so on.
+
+The barrel was turned upon its side, and Stubbs, half blinded by the
+glare, and wholly terrified, saw many men peering at him. The cluster
+of grinning faces all seemed to be part of one awful monster; and he
+slunk back, growling, with bared teeth.
+
+'Begob, he'll put up a fight,' said Micksey Bolger. 'Let the dogs come
+at him wan be wan, at first.'
+
+The first was a medium-sized dog, with prick ears, and a woolly yellow
+coat. He evinced a decided desire to fly at the throats of the rest of
+his kind, but this being checked, he advanced truculently to the
+barrel, with his scruff standing up. Some one kicked the tub and
+shouted: 'Git up, ye divil'; and there was a chorus of yells from the
+bystanders. Stubbs bundled out in a hurry, and at the same moment the
+dog flew at his throat. The unprovoked assault restored his wits to
+the badger. At any rate here was a definite enemy, who fought, not
+with sacking and rope, but by recognised methods. He struck out,
+scoring his assailant's shoulder, and then backed hastily into the
+barrel, until only his striped snout could be seen. A badger realises
+that his weakness lies in his lack of agility, and by preference he
+fights with his back to a tree, that he may not be taken in the rear.
+Three times the dog charged the barrel; and each time, strong and
+vigilant, the badger drove him back, amid the shouts of the men and
+the yells of the surrounding dogs. For the fourth time the dog--the
+blood trickling down his muzzle--rushed in. His temper was up, he was
+utterly reckless, and he left his shoulder unguarded. Like lightning
+Stubbs' claws fell--and under that stroke the dog's ribs were laid
+bare. His owner came forward and carried him out of the ring, and the
+next dog was brought out.
+
+Of the fight which Stubbs fought for the next hour I shall say little
+more, for it is neither good to read about nor to write of. It will be
+sufficient to say that of the five dogs which at last were set upon
+him at once, four bear scars to this day, and the fifth never moved
+again. Although Stubbs still crouched victoriously in the barrel, he
+had sustained three or four wounds. His eyes were red, for he was very
+angry, and he growled continuously; but he was very tired. However,
+there was no dog left to match him.
+
+The men stood round undecidedly, when suddenly a voice in the group
+said: 'Shure, ye should set Kinchella's dog agin him!'
+
+'Me dog's too good for this sort of job,' returned Kinchella. But his
+voice was none of the steadiest, for, in addition to the farm and a
+flourishing poaching business, Borrigan showed the match-box in the
+window.[4]
+
+[4] In some parts of Ireland a box of matches in a cottage window is a
+secret sign that the place is a 'shebeen,' or house where drink is
+distilled, or sold without a licence.
+
+'Ah, now, what hurt to him,' said Mark in honeyed tones, for he was in
+no hurry for his customers to depart. 'Shure, he is twice the size o'
+that little baste there, and he'd have him pulled down aisy.'
+
+'Pull him down, is it?' broke in another. 'Begob, that badger would
+skkin anny dog between this an' the say, let alone that bit of a
+sheep-dog o' Kinchella's.'
+
+'He'd pull him down fast enough,' retorted Kinchella sharply, 'but
+I've no mind to have him kilt on me, an' that lad's claws cut like a
+mower!'
+
+'Bring him, an' let us see it!' shouted another. 'Didn't me little
+tarrier ate the face off him lasht week, an' him runnin' from him like
+a rabbit.'
+
+Kinchella turned round scowling. 'Bedam, but I'll fetch him,' he said
+thickly; 'an' whin he has this baste aten, ye'll alther ye singin'.'
+And he strode heavily away.
+
+Now James Kinchella's dog, Moss, was well known. He was a big grey
+sheep-dog with a wall eye; and although he counted a collie among his
+immediate ancestors, the rest of his pedigree was buried in oblivion.
+However, he was reckoned the best cattle dog in the country; and
+besides, had the name for killing a dog (let alone a fox) in half the
+time taken by his peers. He was the apple of his master's eye, and in
+a cooler moment Kinchella would sooner have tackled the badger
+himself, bare handed; but as it was, he presently reappeared with the
+dog in a leash.
+
+Stubbs was exhausted, for, besides the strain of his imprisonment, he
+had been fighting for his life for more than an hour; nevertheless,
+when some one kicked the barrel and shouted at him, he prepared for
+battle again. But it was a hot evening, and the dog was not inclined
+to fight. He sat down and yawned. To his master's orders he merely
+whined apologetically and wagged his tail. 'More power to ye,' shouted
+Grace sarcastically. Kinchella had been drinking, and his eyes were
+hot and angry. He dealt his dog an unaccustomed kick, and urged him
+savagely towards the barrel. Moss rose, hurt and puzzled; then
+catching sight of Stubbs, he instantly associated him with the
+outrage, and flew at his throat. The badger snapped back again, and
+they grappled together. In many respects they were evenly matched, for
+although the dog was the larger and more active of the two, the badger
+was heavy, and furthermore was protected by the barrel. However, Moss
+was too clever to be rash. He knew the power of Stubbs' paw, so he
+circled round just out of reach, endeavouring to tempt his opponent
+into the open that he might take him in the flank. But the badger was
+also very wary. He knew the strength of his position, and refused to
+budge. These feinting tactics went on for some minutes, and then the
+men began to jeer: 'He should have him cot by now' ... 'Indeed, he is
+a great lad on his pins' ... 'Not so handy wid his teeth'....
+
+'Damn it,' shouted Kinchella, 'what chance has the dog wid ye dirthy
+barrels?' And striding forward, in his drunken rage he tipped up the
+cask, and tumbled the badger into the open yard, just as the dog
+rushed in.
+
+They met in a smother of dust, and whirled round. Now and then white
+fangs snapped, and once--twice the great claws of the badger fell and
+rose again, stained crimson. It was a fight to the death, and no man
+there dared interfere; not even James Kinchella, who looked on, half
+sobered by the result of what he had done. Gradually the dust cleared,
+and the combatants, locked together, heaved this way and that in their
+struggle. The dog had seized the badger behind the left ear and
+shoulder, and again and again in his frenzy he almost lifted his
+antagonist from the ground; but the latter had a lower hold, and
+slowly and surely he was seeking his way to his enemy's throat. The
+dog felt the relentless fangs closing more and more tightly, and he
+fought madly for breath; but however torn, battered, beaten a badger
+may be, he never quits his hold, even in death. Gradually his teeth
+met ... the dog's struggles grew weaker ... his head lolled back.
+
+'Pull off your divil, Borrigan!' yelled Kinchella, breaking into the
+ring; but he was powerless to loosen Stubbs' jaws--those terrible jaws
+that are designed for such work as this.
+
+'Shure, he has him kilt!' said Bolger.
+
+It was many minutes before the two could be separated, for the badger
+clung to his dying adversary with a tenacity which defied them all.
+Then the dog lay limp and still, and Stubbs himself was in little
+better plight.
+
+James Kinchella, completely sobered, picked up the body of his dog and
+walked in silence to the gate. The men made way for him to pass, and
+there were no more jeers nor laughter. 'Ye should put a bullet into
+that felly's head, Borrigan,' growled the owner of the other dead dog.
+
+But Borrigan knew that the publican at Rathmore would pay well for the
+loan of the badger, and, without heeding the openly expressed anger of
+the men, he drove Stubbs back to the barn, and locked the door.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Some hours later the last drunken shouts had died away, and the yard
+was quiet once more. Stubbs had been hiding in a corner under a wisp
+of straw, but now that the daylight--the hateful daylight--and the
+noise were gone, he ventured to creep out. He was very tired, and his
+wounds were stiff and sore; nevertheless he was determined to escape.
+He shuffled round the place, testing every brick in the walls.
+Presently one pale moon-beam filtered through the keyhole. The moon
+was rising just as he had seen her rise night after night, behind the
+larches in front of the badger earth, miles away in Knockdane. There
+was only one crack, and that a very little one; nevertheless he
+worked his claws into the interstice and dug. Some minutes' hard
+labour, and then the loosened brick fell out. Inside, the mortar had
+crumbled a little, and broke away in cakes; nevertheless the bricks
+were sound, and now and then one jammed obliquely across the opening,
+and it gave him much trouble to dislodge it. At the end of two hours
+he had made quite a creditable breach in the masonry; but the wall was
+far more strongly built than that of most Irish barns, and he seemed
+as far as ever from the fresh air. Time after time he drew back
+panting, his tongue dry with dust; but nothing in the woods is stouter
+than a badger's claws except a badger's heart, and he always fell to
+work again. By and by he came to a place where the bricks had broken,
+and he tore them away more easily, scraping them out behind him with
+his sturdy hind-legs. Once a shrewd kick sent one flying across the
+barn with a clatter, and Stubbs scurried into the straw, in terror
+lest the men should be upon him again; but luckily Borrigan slept
+soundly, and never dreamed of how his captive was employing the night.
+
+The moonlight began to fade, and the breeze which heralds the dawn
+sighed around the farm. Stubbs knew instinctively that morning was
+not far away, and that were he not free by then his chances of escape
+would be poor indeed. But surely a fresher draught blew through the
+stones? He stuck in his claws and scraped again, and five minutes
+later a brick fell--not inside the barn, but outwards with a thud into
+the field behind. He had made an opening at last. It was child's play
+to enlarge the hole that his head might enter; and where a badger's
+head and shoulders can go the rest of him can follow. He wormed his
+way between the bricks, and tumbled head over heels into the nettle
+bed below the wall.
+
+No one saw him canter across the fields. The grass was soaked with
+dew, and the moon, red and luminous in the haze, looked at him like a
+friendly eye. He pattered along at his best pace, for the east was
+growing bright, and he feared lest daylight should find him in the
+open. He knew the country immediately round Knockdane as he knew the
+passage of his own burrow, but these fields were strange to him.
+However, he picked his way with that unerring instinct which is the
+peculiar heritage of the Wild Folk, and of men who live as the Wild
+Folk live. He turned northwards, and, fording the trout stream where
+he paused to drink deeply and cool his sore feet, entered the
+low-lying fields which lie between Coolgraney and Knockdane. The
+grass was all but hidden under a blue blur of scabious, and the
+cobwebs in the hedges were elaborately studded with dew-drops. In some
+places the corn was already ripening, and the sparrows harvested there
+before the farmer was astir. A kestrel patrolled the fields for
+breakfast, and a hare lilted back to her form. Lazy pigeons flapped
+over the barley fields, and the rabbits kicked up their scuts and
+bolted into the hedges as the badger trudged past.
+
+As he climbed the long slopes at the back of Knockdane, the early
+beams of the August sunrise shot over the hill. A cock-pheasant,
+gobbling blackberries, ran away at his approach, and boomed, crowing,
+over the hedge. Something must indeed be amiss that the badger was
+astir after sunrise. Stubbs had never seen the sun so high in all his
+life, and to his eyes the whole world was bathed in perplexing
+glare--green, blue, and golden. He climbed painfully over the boundary
+wall and into the grateful shadows of the wood, where the mists, as
+though entangled in the tree-trunks, were long in lifting.
+
+He turned down the well-known track, and presently, like the gates of
+a city of refuge, the mouth of the 'earth' opened before him. Not a
+leaf stirred, but scent lay long on the warm air, and his nose told
+him that Grunter was down there before him. He slid underground, and
+limped through the comfortable darkness to the dormitory. There she
+slept with her limbs extended awkwardly. She did not awaken; and
+Stubbs, flinging himself down with his head between her fore-paws,
+closed his eyes with a sigh of content. Two minutes later he was
+completely oblivious to light or darkness, man or beast, as he sank
+into a blessed sleep which bade fair to last far into the succeeding
+night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE LARCH HILL 'EARTH'
+
+
+On the sunny side of the wood where the larches spindle up tall and
+thin, each trying to outstrip the rest in the race for free air and
+sunshine, is the 'earth' which Stubbs and Grunter dug, as has been
+already related. It had originally been an old rabbit burrow, but no
+rabbits had used it for many years, although it was well drained,
+warm, and dry. It consisted of one long main tunnel, with other side
+chambers communicating with it, and of a smaller gallery running
+parallel to the first. The 'earth' had only one main entrance,
+although there was a rabbit-hole some distance off which opened into
+the upper of the two principal galleries; but its roof was so low that
+a badger could hardly have crept along it.
+
+As a spider sits in the centre of his web, so the badgers lay in the
+middle hall of their abode. Long, grey and sprawling, they snored
+noisily in their sleep like pigs, with their pied snouts nestled
+together in the stuffy darkness. At moonrise, however, Grunter woke,
+punctual as an alarum clock. She rose from the warm bed of moss, and
+stretched herself so vigorously that she woke her lord, who smote his
+head against the roof and growled. She glided past him down the
+passage, and came to the main entrance, where the fresh night air blew
+in. Grunter was hungry. The last two nights it had rained, and the
+badgers had lain a-bed, but to-night was fine and mild again. She
+thrust her long snout right and left, and sampled all the strong damp
+odours of the night before she ventured to trust herself to the woods;
+but all was still, and she pattered away. Five minutes later Stubbs
+stole out. By that mysterious telepathy which is the secret of the Fur
+Folk, he knew whither she had gone, and followed her down the main
+highroad of the badgers of Knockdane, under the wet bushes to the
+fields by the river bank.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Greybrush came along about two hours later, and snuffed thoughtfully
+at the hole. Greybrush was a Ballymore fox. He had been born in a
+hedgerow during the spring, and now that autumn was coming on, he
+sought winter quarters in Knockdane. There were certainly many
+desirable points about this 'set.' He sat down and sucked his pads,
+for they were wet with dew, shook his brush plumy again, and
+meditated. The upshot of his meditations was that he presently entered
+the 'earth.'
+
+Before the autumn sun had struggled through the mist, the badgers came
+home, grunting with comfort begotten of a raided bees' byke and
+truffles. But when Stubbs poked his snout into the burrow he drew it
+out again smartly, and his grunt said plainly and indignantly: 'Fox!'
+Then more cautiously they proceeded to investigate. Stubbs crept in
+first, and Grunter followed exactly two feet behind, in approved
+badger fashion. The passage wound downwards, and the air inside being
+hot and still, the scent was very strong. Suddenly the silence was
+broken by a low snarl--the snarl of a full-fed fox awakened from his
+sleep. Stubbs backed precipitately, for the sound was just under his
+paws, and in so doing collided with his mate. For a few seconds there
+was a scrimmage as they jammed shoulder to shoulder in the narrow
+passage. Then Stubbs struggled free, and they fled to discuss the
+situation from a safe distance. A fox is no match for a badger in open
+fight, but in this case the advantage of position decidedly lay with
+the intruder. As they deliberated, the ringing snarl sounded again.
+That settled it. Sleep is a necessity to a badger, and it was already
+long past bed-time. Stubbs was wet, full-fed, drowsy, and in no
+fighting trim. They retired to the draughty main tunnel, and slept
+there on the bare ground.
+
+The next evening the fox went out hunting, and when the badgers woke
+and gingerly investigated the dormitory, they found it empty. They
+immediately took possession again, and sniffing fastidiously, dragged
+out the deep comfortable bedding which they had prepared against the
+winter; for Stubbs hates anything which a fox has tainted.
+
+On his return Greybrush found the passage littered with moss and
+leaves, while porcine snoring resounded throughout the earth. The fox
+was too cunning to assail the badgers in their lair. He dug a hollow
+in the rabbit burrow and slept there, for he was not particular, and
+only desired some place to protect him from the weather; but he had no
+intention of making an 'earth' for himself if he could find one
+already made.
+
+But it certainly was annoying for the badgers, for Greybrush's ideas
+of cleanliness did not coincide with theirs. To find a rabbit's head
+or other refuse lying about, distressed them terribly, and night after
+night Stubbs delayed his hunting that he might scavenge the gallery
+where the fox slept. It is also one of the laws of the badger code
+that the nest shall be spring-cleaned twice a year: in March before
+the cubs are born, and in September, in preparation for the winter's
+sleep. The last-named clearance had only just been effected, and the
+dormitory was in apple-pie order before the fox's intrusion. However,
+the badger is nothing if not persevering, and Stubbs and Grunter
+decided to make one last effort to oust the invader. They entered the
+other gallery one night, prepared to turn their unwelcome lodger out
+of doors; but the fox had opened up the ancient rabbit burrow to serve
+as his back door in case of emergency, and when the indignant badgers
+arrived, they found him 'not at home.' They congratulated themselves
+on having ousted him so easily, and began to refurnish their chamber.
+There happened to be a spell of warm dry weather just then, and the
+fox lay out in the woods without once returning to Larch Hill, so that
+they met with no hindrance. There is a clearing about two hundred
+yards from the mouth of the 'earth,' overgrown with dead grass. Here
+the badgers repaired for their harvesting. They tore up quantities of
+dry grass and moss, and twisted them into long wisps deftly enough. By
+the time Stubbs had made a selection of what he considered the finest
+and driest bedding, the clearing looked as though a herd of pigs had
+been rooting there. The path to the 'earth' was littered with balls of
+grass and moss. Several times Grunter started home with a heavy load,
+but by the time she had reached the burrow she had dropped all but
+one little wisp, which, however, she carried underground, and
+deposited with as much care as if she had housed the whole collection.
+At this rate the badgers' progress was naturally slow, and it was
+nearly a week before all was arranged to their satisfaction.
+
+Alas! the first wet night found the evicted lodger back in his former
+quarters, and the badgers, seriously perturbed, prepared to give
+battle. They found the smaller gallery empty, but a snarl from the
+passage beyond told them where the intruder had ensconced himself, and
+they had perforce to retire baffled. This happened not once but many
+times. Stubbs never came to close grips with his enemy; the fox was
+too clever to be caught napping, and at the sound of shuffling pads in
+the gallery, he used to back hastily into the old rabbit burrow, which
+was too small for the badger's comfort.
+
+So matters dragged on for more than a month, and then the hounds came
+to Knockdane, and precipitated the crisis.
+
+One night the fox went out betimes, but it was damp and raw, and the
+badgers slept longer than usual, for their winter slothfulness was
+creeping over them. The weather also accounted for the fact that Paddy
+Magragh, the earthstopper, went his rounds before moonrise that he
+might return the sooner to his warm cabin. It was only eight o'clock
+when he came by the Larch Hill earth, and examined the marks outside.
+He saw Stubbs' broad spoor (Stubbs' spoor was a spoor to be wondered
+at--two and a half inches in width), and he chuckled, for he had heard
+of Borrigan's 'baitin'' and its sequel. Then he set to work with such
+right good-will that when Grunter wished to go out, an hour later, she
+found a firm barricade of earth and branches piled against the
+burrow's mouth. Grunter was very wary. The hated taint of man hung
+about the place, mingled with the smell of wet earth. What might not
+be lurking outside? She crept back to the entrance to the fox's
+quarters, and picked her way delicately to Greybrush's back door,
+which was so small that it had even escaped the keen eye of Paddy
+Magragh. Then she buttoned down her stumpy tail, and waddled off
+truffle-hunting.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The morning was grey and misty, with a cold nip in the air. Scent lay
+strong in covert--every rabbit which hopped across the path left a
+trail which lingered on the wet leaves. The tits aloft in the bare
+branches chatted together in little splinters of song, and the
+woodpigeons squabbled over clusters of unripe ivy berries. It was as
+though the day was reluctant to come; and at noon, save for a pale
+sun spot in the mist overhead, it was as still and damp as at
+daybreak.
+
+The jays, scolding in the Fir Plantation at the top of the wood, saw
+Greybrush running hard from Carigaboola with seven couple of hounds
+behind him. His tongue was out and his brush was down, and he thought
+gratefully of the 'earth' on Larch Hill as he tore through the
+brambles, and stubbed his nose against tree-roots, as fast as
+his stiff legs would carry him. All the chaffinches cried:
+'Spink--spink--see the fox! 'ware fox!' but as the hounds did not
+understand finch language it did not matter much. He dived in through
+his back door just as the foremost hound burst out of the covert. The
+latter marked the place, and bayed there, with his comrades round him,
+until the men rode up. The huntsman crashed through the bushes and
+looked at the hole, and then he ordered a terrier to be brought and
+put in, that it might bolt the fox. But Paddy Magragh came down the
+path, and although he knew that he ought to have found and stopped
+this hole, yet his love of the hunt was greater than his pride in his
+woodcraft, and he said: 'Bedam, Captain, if ye put a terrier down
+there ye'll niver see the tail of him again. This burra' goes into the
+"earth" below, and there's badgers in it. Shure, they'd ate him.'
+
+But the master, who was young and very foolish, said: 'This is too far
+away to join the big "earth."'
+
+'Them badgers would dig down to hell itself,' said Magragh. But the
+master would have none of it, and called again for a dog.
+
+Now Rip, the kennel terrier of the Carkenny pack, was as game and eke
+as disreputable a little cur as ever ran with hounds. His rough coat
+was pepper and salt, and his right ear was pricked, but the left had
+drooped down ever since it had been torn in a great fight which he had
+with an old dog-fox in Kiltorkan rocks. But he was a bold little
+terrier and went straight into the 'earth' after Greybrush.
+
+Stubbs was awakened by a smell of fox. Smells do not awaken human
+beings as a rule, but a badger's nose is exquisite, and is always
+alert, even when its owner is asleep. Since the fox had come to the
+'earth' this was not an uncommon occurrence; as a rule Stubbs growled
+in his dreams and lay still, but to-day his ear caught the sound of
+scuffling close at hand, and he stood up. The burrow was pitch dark,
+and the narrow passages carried sound like a telephone, but overhead
+Stubbs heard--or rather felt--mysterious thuds. Grunter, quick to take
+alarm, cowered down at the back of the chamber with the moss heaped
+over her back, but the hair along Stubbs' spine rose, and he went out
+to investigate. Now, as we have said, the Larch Hill 'earth' consists
+of two main tunnels connected by a side passage. As Stubbs listened he
+heard something moving along the other gallery, and knew that the fox
+had bolted home in a hurry. Suddenly he whisked round. He was standing
+at the spot where the passages crossed, and something had glided
+behind him into his dormitory. He growled, and waddled back, for he
+guessed what it was. Greybrush was thoroughly frightened, and not
+daring to lie up in his own quarters, he had sought refuge in those of
+the badgers. Stubbs began a systematic search of the chamber. It was
+not large, but it was pitch dark, and so close that his nose could not
+guide him. Halfway round he bumped into Grunter, who had also taken
+the alarm, and for a minute or two there was a wild scuffle before
+they could establish one another's identity. Greybrush, too terrified
+to move, lay still in the middle, which was perhaps the best thing he
+could have done, for the two badgers groped round the walls and thus
+missed him.
+
+But presently another smell was wafted down the gallery. Stubbs' nose
+disentangled it from the scent of fox and damp earth around; and then
+his little pig's-eyes grew red and angry, for he had not forgotten the
+smell of dog which he had learned in Borrigan's yard that summer. The
+terrier was groping his way awkwardly, for the dust in his nose made
+him sneeze, and his eyes were as yet scarcely used to the darkness.
+However, when he discovered which way the fox had gone he gave an
+excited yelp, and came on. Stubbs rumbled threateningly. A badger does
+not fight willingly, and always gives notice when his patience is
+growing short. Rip instantly snarled and rushed in--fox or badger,
+either was a legitimate adversary. In the dark he partially missed his
+hold and seized Stubbs under the ear. Stubbs grunted, and flung his
+head back, but Rip hung on gamely. Then the badger bored forward and
+crushed him against the side of the passage, and he let go for an
+instant; but the next moment he sprang in again, and his teeth met in
+the other's shoulder. What little air there was in the burrow was
+thick with dust, and both the combatants choked for breath. Stubbs cut
+at the terrier with his digging claws, but the space was too confined,
+and only a grunting gasp and momentary tightening of the teeth in his
+neck told that his blows took effect. Rip then shifted his hold again,
+and tugged and dragged at the badger's thick hair, with all four legs
+widely extended. Stubbs lunged forward in vain--his enemy merely
+retreated backwards as he felt the strain on his jaws slackening.
+Suddenly the grip of the terrier's teeth gave way, and he staggered
+back with his mouth full of grey hair. The badger ran forward and in
+the darkness stumbled right on the top of the dog. Something hairy
+brushed his mouth, and his jaws closed like a trap upon the terrier's
+leg. It was well for Rip that it was his leg and not his body which
+those teeth seized, or else all the life would have been squeezed out
+of him very quickly; but as it was, as he fell he twisted himself
+round and snapped at Stubbs' jaw. The badger grunted and let go, and
+the terrier crawled backwards, dragging his broken leg and sobbing in
+his breathing.
+
+But as long as there was life in Rip's shaggy body there was pluck. He
+rested for a few seconds, and then turned to the attack again. The
+badger heard the muffled yelping close at hand, and knew that to win
+his way to the open air he must face the snapping fury in front of
+him. He resolved upon another plan. Grunting and gasping in the
+stifling atmosphere he turned round, and plunging his pads into the
+light soil, he began to throw up a barricade. He dug with his long
+fore-claws, and shovelled the earth with his hind-legs until the pile
+nearly filled the passage. He could hear the terrier whimpering and
+scuffling on the other side as he attempted to climb the barrier, and
+dug the deeper. Only when he had put two feet of earth between
+himself and his assailant did he slink to the bottom of the burrow to
+lick his wounds.
+
+Rip climbed the barricade time after time. Then, when he was finally
+convinced that it was useless, he dragged himself to the light of day
+once more, tattered and torn, with his eyes and nose full of sand. But
+they could see that he had fought a great fight, and Dennis the Whip
+vowed that he should never go underground any more. Indeed, he never
+could do so, but limped on one leg to the end of his days.
+
+How Greybrush ultimately escaped from the badgers I do not know, but
+he was not seen abroad in Knockdane for several days. However, after
+the battle the badgers ceased to try and evict him. Instead, they dug
+a new and deeper gallery at right angles to their former one, and
+dwelt there. So that if you go to Knockdane and ask Paddy Magragh, he
+will show you the Larch Hill 'earth,' and tell you that foxes live in
+the upper tunnels and badgers in the lower. And if you could creep
+down, where even Paddy Magragh cannot go, you might hear the rumbling
+snores of Stubbs from a side dormitory; and in the deepest chamber of
+all, well lined and cosy, the maternal snorts of Grunter, and the
+squeals of her new-born cubs.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lives of the Fur Folk, by M. D. Haviland
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #37127 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37127)