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diff --git a/37127.txt b/37127.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b40cb35 --- /dev/null +++ b/37127.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5293 @@ +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. 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