before, but heavy and clumsy and
coarse. He seemed to be in low spirits and half ashamed of himself,
but he was as courteous as ever. "Allow me to present you to my wife,"
he said, "though I am afraid that she is hardly fit to entertain
visitors just at present."

Then the other Fish made a gentle, graceful movement with her tail,
but she looked very ill and weak, and though she had no great beak
like her mate she seemed, like him, to be all head and no body.

"But, my Lord Salmon," said the Stag, "what has driven you so far up
the water?"

"Well, you see," said the Salmon in a low voice, "that my wife is very
particular about her nursery; nothing but the finest gravel will suit
her to lay her eggs on. So we came up and up, and I am bound to say
that we have found a charming gravel-bed, and that the eggs are doing
as well as possible; but unfortunately the water has fallen low with
this frost, and we cannot get down again till the rain comes. Only
yesterday a man came by and tried to spear me and my wife with a
pitchfork, but luckily he slipped on the frozen ground and fell into
the water himself, so that we escaped. But she was very much
frightened, and till the frost breaks we shall still be in danger. Do
not stay here, for it is not safe; and besides I am ashamed to see
visitors when we are in such a state."

"But what about the eggs, my Lord Salmon?" said the Stag.

"The stream will take care of them; and if a few are lost, what is
that among ten thousand?" said the Salmon proudly. "But let me beg you
not to wait."

So the Deer went down the valley again, hoping that the West wind
might soon come and drive away the frost, for the Salmon's sake as
well as for their own. And a few days later they were surprised to
meet the old Cock-Pheasant from Bremridge Wood, who came running
towards them, very gorgeous in his very best winter plumage, but
rather nervous and flurried.

"Why, Sir Phasianus," said the Stag, "what brings you so far from
home?"

"Well, the fact is," said the Pheasant, "that I did not quite like the
look of things this morning. Some men came round early while I was
feeding in my favourite stubble, and began beating the hedges to drive
me and all my companions back into my wood. Most of those foolish
Chinese birds flew back as the men wanted them, but I have not lived
all these years for nothing, so I flew up the valley and have been
running on ever since. Hark! I thought that I was right."