'twas terrible sure
enough; 'twas more than my poor nose could stand. And the old Fox he
looketh out and saith, 'Tis wonderful kind of you, Brocky,' he saith,
'to give me your house. Mrs. Vicky liketh it wonderful, she doth. Ah!
I wish I could dig like you, Brocky,' he saith. And he's taken my
house, and here I be. 'Tisn't right; 'tisn't rasonable."

And he waddled away growling out, "'Tisn't rasonable," for, being a
Devonshire Badger, he was of course fond of long words, though he
might not always understand their meaning. And the Calf could hardly
help laughing as he saw the poor, stupid old fellow blundering on his
way.

But if he fared ill, the Vixen and her Cubs fared well enough. The
Cubs grew so fast that they began to look after themselves, and they
were often to be seen wandering about the wood, grubbing after beetles
and gobbling up the fallen berries. And the Calf grew also, for he was
now four months old, you must remember; and of all the months in his
life, those first four were, I suspect, the happiest.

CHAPTER IV

Early one morning, it must have been almost the last week in
September, the peace of the oak-coppice was disturbed by a terrible
clamour. It began with a single deep "Ough, ough, ough!" then another
voice chimed in with rather a shriller note, and then another and then
another, and then a whole score more joined them in one thundering
chorus. And the Hind started to her feet in alarm, and led the Calf
out of the wooded valley to the open moor above. There they stood
listening; while the whole valley was filled with the tumult, as if a
hundred demons had been let loose into it. Now and again it ceased for
a moment, and all was still; then it began again with "Ough, ough,
ough!"; and it was hard to say exactly where the sound came from, for
one side of the valley said it would hold it no longer, and tossed it
over to the other, and the other said it wouldn't hold it either and
tossed it back, so that the noise kept hovering between the two in
the most bewildering way. But after a short time the clamour drew
nearer to the Hind and Calf, and presently out came one of the
Fox-cubs, with his tongue lolling and his back crooked, looking
desperately weary and woe-begone. He went on for a little distance, as
if to go away over the moor, but soon stopped and flung back with
desperation into the covert. And the Hind trotted gently away, anxious
but not alarmed. "They are not after us, my son