anted a taste of carrots the whole affair was
something he didn't care to talk about.

Anyhow, it was lucky that he liked water lilies. For his mother took him
to the lake behind Blue Mountain every night, almost. And there they
splashed in the shallows and ate all they wanted.

Most of those nights were much alike. But there was one that Nimble
remembered for many a day afterward.

It was not a dark night; neither was it a light one. It was a
half-and-half sort of night. There was a moon. But it was far from full.
And it was not high in the sky. The light from it came slanting down
upon the lake, throwing the shadows of the trees far out upon the water.

Where those shadows reached out darkly Nimble and his mother stood with
the water lapping their sleek bodies. And they were eating so busily
that neither of them noticed a blurred shape that glided slowly nearer
and nearer to them, without making the slightest sound.

All at once a shaft of dazzling light swept along the shore. Nimble was
so surprised and puzzled that he stopped eating to stand still and gaze
at it.

[Illustration: Never Had Nimble Run So Fast Before.
_Page_ 42]

But only for a moment! Instantly his mother flung her tail upward, so
that the under side of it gleamed white even in the half light. And
that--as Nimble knew right well--that was the danger signal.

Almost before Nimble knew what was happening his mother made for the
shore. As she plunged through the water her tail, still aloft like a
flag, twitched from side to side.

Nimble needed no urging to follow it. Soon they scrambled, dripping, out
of the lake to dive headlong into the cover of the overhanging willows.

In those few seconds the light darted swiftly towards them. But it was
not quite quick enough. Only the ripples told where they had been
standing. Only the gently waving branches of the willows showed where
Nimble and his mother had vanished.

A noise like a thunder-clap crashed upon Nimble's ears and rolled and
tumbled in the distance, tossed from the mountain to the hills across
the lake, and back again. It frightened Nimble much more than did the
odd whistle that whined just above his head a moment before the thunder
peal.

Never had he run so fast before. Never had his mother set such a pace
for him. Usually, when startled, she stopped after going a short
distance and looked back to try to get a glimpse of whoever or whatever