arrived at the "set." I had
planned an early visit, so that my friend might have an opportunity of
examining the much frequented track-ways, the footprints of the badgers
on the soft earth of the mound, and the scratches on the tree-trunk
where the badgers had sharpened their claws and incidentally measured
themselves. These numerous claw-marks were especially interesting, and,
on a certain tree by the "set," they formed irregular lines extending
from a foot above the ground to a height of three feet or rather more.
The lowest scratches had been made by the cubs seated on their haunches
and facing the tree; a little higher, the marks were those of the parent
animals while in a similar position; after a space in which a few
abrasions occurred, the marks showed how the cubs had gradually grown
till they could reach within a few inches of the clear, deep furrows
scratched by the old male badger as he measured his full length against
the tree.

[Illustration: "AS HE MEASURED HIS FULL LENGTH AGAINST THE TREE." (_See_
p. 419).]

After making observations with the utmost wariness, we hurried away, so
that, before dusk, our scent might evaporate, and become almost
imperceptible in the vicinity of the principal entrance to the lonely
burrow.

After a second ramble by the riverside, we returned in the face of the
wind, and at twilight began our silent watch. A robin sang plaintively
from the hawthorns on the outskirts of the wood; the rooks sailed slowly
above us, and then, gossiping loudly of the day's events, congregated
around their nests in the great elms dimly outlined against the pearly
southern sky; the wood-pigeons dropped one by one into the beech-trees
near us; and a jay, uttering his harsh alarm, hopped in and out of some
young hazels fringing the glade beyond the "set." Presently, a brown
owl, in a group of tall pines near the little rill that made faint music
in the woods, began to mutter and complain, in those low, peculiar notes
that are often heard before she leaves her daytime resting place. Then
no sound disturbed the stillness but the far-off cawing of the rooks,
and the only creatures visible were some rabbits playing in the moonlit
glade, and a glow-worm shining with her soft green light on a bramble
spray within my reach.

Nearly half an hour passed by, and no sign of life came from the
badgers' home. Then the familiar white and black striped head, framed in
the darkness beneath the gnarled tree-root, s