ld
badgers; and, since the time of the spring "running" was over, they
wandered no further afield than in the cold winter nights. Filled with
the joy of the life-giving season, they often romped together in the
twilight for half an hour at a time, chasing one another in and out of
the entrances to the "set," or kicking up the soil as if they suddenly
recollected that their claws needed to be filed and sharpened, or
standing on their hind-feet and rubbing their cheeks delightedly against
a favourite tree--grunting loudly in their fun the while, and in general
behaving like droll, ungainly little pigs just escaped from a stye. At
last, their frolic being ended, they "bumped" away into the bushes, and,
meeting on the trail beyond, proceeded soberly towards the outskirts of
the wood.

As in the previous spring, the big burrow was soon the scene of family
affairs other than those of the badgers. By the end of February, there
were cubs in the vixen's den, and both the wood-mice and the rabbits
were diligently preparing for important family events. Brock's
companion, unlike himself was not accustomed to a house inhabited by
other tenants. None but members of her own family had dwelt in the
"earth" near the moor; and, being somewhat exclusive in her ideas, she
strongly resented the presence of the vixen in any quarter of her new
abode. A little spiteful in her disposition, she lurked about the
passages, and by the mound outside the entrance, intending to give her
neighbour "a bit of her mind" at the first opportunity. But since she
did not for the present care to enter the vixen's den, that opportunity
never came till her own family arrangements claimed her undivided
attention, and effectually prevented her from following the course of
action she had planned.

In the first week of April, the badger's spring-cleaning began in
downright earnest. The old bedding of fern, and hay, and leaves was
cleared entirely from the winter "oven," and, after a few windy but
rainless days and nights, when the refuse of Nature's woodland garden
was dry, new materials for a cosy couch were carried to the lair, and
arranged on the floor of the roomy chamber where Brock's mother had
brought him into the world. The badgers' methods of conveying the
required litter were quaintly characteristic, for the animals possessed
the power of moving backward almost as easily and quickly as forward.
They collected a pile of leaves, and, grasping it between th