rers on the countryside were not at this time
heard.

A doe hare had made her "form" hardly twenty yards from the hedgehogs'
nest, and night after night, just when the "urchins" moved down the
hedge from the old tree-root, she ambled by on her way to the
clover-field above the heath.

Once, a little before dawn, a fox, coming to drink at the brook,
detected the scent of the hedgehogs near a molehill, followed it to the
litter of leaves by the tree, and caused considerable alarm by making a
vigorous attempt to dig out the nest; but, probably because of the
dampness of the loamy soil, he failed to determine the exact whereabouts
of the hedgehog family; and, after breaking a tooth in his vain efforts
to cut through a tough, close-fibred root, he made his way along the
hedge, and soon disappeared over the crest of the moonlit hill. But the
next night, when the wind blew strong, and the rain pattered loudly on
the leafy trees, he came again to the "urchins'" haunt. The doe hare had
long since rustled by, and the hedgehogs were busy munching a cluster of
earthworms discovered in a heap of refuse not far from the gate, when
Reynard stole over the fence-bank, and sniffed at the nest. Not finding
the family at home, he followed their scent through the ditch, and soon
surprised them. To kill one of the tiny "urchins" was the work of a
moment; then, made eager by the taste of blood, the fox turned on the
mother hedgehog and tried to fix his fangs in the soft flesh beneath the
armour of her spines. But, feeling at once his warm breath, she, with a
quick contraction of the muscles, rolled herself into a prickly ball,
and remained proof against his every artifice. He was a young fox, not
yet learned in the wiles of Nature's feebler folk, and so, when he had
recovered from his astonishment, he pounced on the rigid creature, and,
thoughtlessly exerting all his strength, endeavoured to rend her in
pieces with his powerful jaws. He paid dearly for his temerity. The
prickly ball rolled over, under the pressure of his fore-paws, the sharp
points of the spines entered the bare flesh behind his pads, and as,
almost falling to the ground, he bit savagely to right and left in the
fit of anger which now possessed him, his mouth and nostrils dripped
blood from a dozen irritating wounds. Thoroughly discomfited, he leaped
back into the field, where, sick with pain, he endeavoured to gain
relief by rubbing his muzzle vigorously in the grass and ag