t flattened back her ears, growled, and stood
her ground till he was within a foot of her. Then, with an angry
'_pf-f-f_' she turned tail and fled. The stranger was so calmly sure of
himself that she concluded he must be some new kind of skunk--and her
respect for all skunks was something tremendous.

"Having finished the milk and the carrot, Young Grumpy felt a pressing
need of sleep. Turning his back on the Boy and the dog as if they were
not worth noticing, he ambled off along the garden fence, looking for a
convenient hole. The one-eyed gander, who had been watching him with
disfavor from the distance, saw that he was now no longer under the
protection of the white dog, and came stalking up from the other end of
the yard to have it out with him--thief of eggs and murderer of goslings
as the bird mistook him to be! But Young Grumpy, having found a
cool-looking hole under the fence, had whisked into it and vanished.

"As matters stood now, Young Grumpy felt himself quite master of the
situation. His heartless mother was forgotten. Farmyard, clover-field,
and cool green garden were all his. Had he not routed all presumptuous
enemies but the Boy? And the latter seemed very harmless. But a few
days the garden occupied all his attention--when he was not busy
enlarging and deepening his hole under the fence and digging a second
entrance to it. He noticed that the Boy had a foolish habit of standing
and watching him; but to this he had no serious objection, the more so as
he found that the Boy's presence was often accompanied by a saucer of
milk.

"It was not till after several days of garden life that, lured by the
memory of the carrot, he again visited the barnyard. At first it seemed
to be quite deserted. And there was no sign of a carrot anywhere. Then
he caught sight of the yellow cat, and scurried toward her, thinking
perhaps it was her fault there were no carrots. She fluffed her tail,
gave a yowl of indignation, and raced into the barn. Neither the white
dog, nor the Boy, nor the one-eyed gander was anywhere in sight.

"Young Grumpy decided that it was a poor place, the barnyard. He was on
the point of turning back to the green abundance of the garden, when a
curious clucking sound attracted his attention. At the other side of the
yard he saw a red hen in a coop. A lot of very young chickens, little
yellow balls of down, were running about outside the coop. Young Grumpy
strolled over. The chi