very grave when
our Pricket told her about it; and that very night they set out across
the moor, pointing straight for the covert where they had hidden
themselves during the last summer.

And there they found all their old friends; for the Badger had dug
himself a new earth and was quite happy, and the Vixen had found his
old house so convenient that she had turned it into a nursery; and, as
they passed, three little Cubs poked their heads out of one of the
holes, and winked at them like so many little vulgar boys. But on the
very day after they arrived they heard loud yapping, as of a little
dog, about the earth, and crossing to the other side of the valley,
they could faintly hear men's voices and the constant clink of iron
against stones. And when night came and they ventured to come nearer,
they found the old Vixen running about like one distracted, crying for
her Cubs; for the earth was all harried and destroyed, and there could
be no doubt that the men had dug the Cubs out and taken them away. And
the wailings of the poor old Vixen were so distressing that they left
the wood and turned up again over the moor.

Soon they began to pass over strange ground, which rose higher and
higher before them. The little streams grew more plentiful, coming
down from every side in deep clefts which they had dug through the
turf to hasten their journey to the sea; the ground beneath their feet
became softer and softer, though it was never so ill-mannered as to
give way under their light step, and the water dripped incessantly
down from the ragged edges of the turf above the clefts. But they went
on higher and higher, till at last they stood on a dreary waste of
rough grass, and miry pools, and turf-pits blanched by the white
bog-flower. For they were on the great ridge whence the rivers of
Exmoor take their source and flow down on all sides to the sea; and a
wild treacherous tract it is. They passed a little bird no bigger than
a thrush, who had his beak buried so deep in the mire that he could
not speak; and the Hind said, "Good day, Master Snipe. Your wife and
family are well, I hope?" Then the little bird hastily plucked a long
bill out of the ground, though his mouth was so full of a big worm
that he was obliged to be silent for a minute or two; nevertheless at
last he gulped the worm down, washed his bill in a little pool of
water, and piped out, "Very well, thank you, my lady, half-grown or
more."

"You couldn't tell me