flowers by the roots and dig, so that worms and grubs might be
found, and finally flitted away.

Then all at once there was the pattering of feet, and half-a-dozen
deer came into sight, with soft dappled coats, and one of them with
large flat pointed horns; but at the first movement Robin made they
dashed off among the trees in a series of bounds.

Then there was another long pause, and Robin was thinking how
hungry he was, when something dropped close to him with a loud rap,
and looking up sharply, he caught sight of a little keen-eyed
bushy-tailed animal, looking down from a great branch as if in
search of something it had let fall.

"Squirrel!" said Robin aloud, and the animal heard and saw him at
the same moment, showing its annoyance at the presence of an
intruder directly. For it began to switch its tail and scold after
its fashion, loudly, its utterances seeming like a repetition of
the word "chop" more or less quickly made.

Finding its scolding to be in vain, and that the boy would not go,
the squirrel did the next best thing--bounded along from bough to
bough; while, after waiting wearily in the hope of seeing David,
the boy began to look round this tree and the next, and finally
made his way some little distance farther into the forest, to be
startled at last by a harsh cry which was answered from first one
place and then another by the noisy party of jays that had been
disturbed in their happy solitude.

To Robin it was just as if the first one had cried "Hoi! I say,
here's a boy." And weary with waiting, and hungry as he was, the
constant harsh shouting irritated the little fellow so that he
hurried away followed by quite a burst of what seemed to be mocking
cries, with the intention of finding the track leading across the
forest; but he had not gone far before he found himself in an open
glade, dotted with beautiful great oak trees, and nearly covered
with the broad leaves of the bracken, which were agitated by
something passing through and beneath, giving forth a grunting
sound. Directly after he caught sight of a long black back, then
of others, and he saw that he was close to a drove of small black
pigs, hunting for acorns. One of the pigs found him at the same
moment and saluted him with a sharp, barking sound wonderfully like
that of a dog.

This was taken up directly by the other members of the drove, who
with a great deal of barking and grunting came on to the attack,
for they did not c