by the wild-cat than starved." So one fine morning the whole party
set off to the hazel-copse.

Now this reminds me of the happy hours I have myself passed in the
woods, when I have joined a merry party of my young friends on one of
those most joyful occasions, a _nutting expedition_. How can a day be
passed more pleasantly? Oh! the delight of gathering the lovely brown
clusters of five or six, or even sometimes seven or eight together!
Then the dinner by the side of the clear stream, whose pure waters
furnish not the least grateful part of the repast! and the notes of
unrestrained merriment and joy, filling the woods with the echoes of
sweet young voices! Even the torn frocks, and scratched hands and arms,
are disregarded; and they are such common attendants upon these joyous
expeditions, that to return from them with perfectly whole garments and
_skins_, would imply that the bag of nuts might have been heavier, if
the party had been less fearful of the brambles and thorns. Now for the
squirrels again.

The nuts were exactly in that state in which I like to find them--quite
full and brown, and _almost_ ready to fall out of their husks. But not
_quite_ ripe enough to do this, for then a great many are shaken out
upon the ground, and lost. But the nuts were in perfection, and our
party were employed the whole day in journeying backwards and forwards,
between the hazel-copse and their storehouses in the old oak. No
wild-cat or other enemy appeared, and the young squirrels began to
think that their parents' continual cautions to be on the look out for
this animal were unnecessary.

The next day the party were again hard at work, and even the old
squirrels were so busily employed in filling their own mouths, and in
teaching their children how to select the ripest and soundest nuts,
that they seemed almost to have forgotten that they had a single enemy
in the world. They had already made several journeys, and were now
eagerly engaged in some large old hazel-trees, close to a wide pathway,
which had been cut through the wood for the convenience of the
sportsmen. Suddenly Brush perceived, partly concealed among the thick
underwood, a dark, fearful-looking object, which--_could_ it be the
dreaded foe, or was it only the brown trunk of a tree? He was not long
in doubt, for now the head of the monster appeared from among the
leaves, and then those savage eyes! having once seen them how could he
possibly mistake their terrible