Wee Timrous Beasties | Page 8

with difficulty he lifted his head;
the dark mass lay silent alongside of him, and the faint movements had
ceased. He could trace the creature's hind foot, it was rigid and cold.
Then the truth burst upon him. He had nothing to fear--the owner of the
foot was dead.
Still, he could scarcely move his limbs, for the soil lay thick and heavy
around him. After a prolonged effort he disengaged his fore feet, and
started to scratch himself free. On one side of him lay the dead body; he
worked vigorously along it. He was checked, however, by an obstacle
beyond his strength. The body was enclosed by a tight-fitting ring, and
on this he could make no impression.
Fastening his tiny fingers in the fur on one side, and scraping with his
free fore-paw on the other, he forced his way upwards. The soil grew

lighter above him, and in a few minutes he had reached the upper air,
and lay panting on the surface.
He then tried to pick up his position. The mole-run had brought him
some two hundred yards, nearly to the edge of the marshland. Across
the boundary rose a small plantation. Here he determined to seek
shelter. He had but fifty yards to go, and started to glide stealthily from
tuft to tuft.
On all sides the ground was alive with tiny insects. The larger kinds
seemed mostly to be sleeping. He ran full tilt against a drowsy butterfly,
sweeping its close-folded wings through half a circle, as he passed.
They sprang back with a jerk, but the insect itself remained motionless.
Grasshoppers clung to every other grass-stem; their eyes were dead and
staring. Here and there he saw a spider gripping its support and waiting
for the sunrise.
[Illustration: HE TRIED TO PICK UP HIS POSITION.]
Once he found himself confronted by a bloated toad. The amphibian
surveyed him solemnly, but never moved. A low hiss whistled through
the grass. He crouched in terror while four feet of grass-snake
undulated by. A shrewmouse broke cover in front of him, followed by
its mate. The air resounded with shrill defiant squeaks as the two
bunchy velvet balls rolled over one another out of sight.
So he worked his way along towards the boundary; pausing at intervals
to gnaw at the growing plant-stems, or to sit on his haunches and nibble
some fallen seed which took his fancy.
[Illustration: VOLE-LIKE THIS LATTER WAS, YET HE WAS NO
ORDINARY VOLE.]
It was close to the plantation that a familiar movement in the grass
seemed to betray the presence of a near relation. Hastening towards it
he found himself confronted by a total stranger. Vole-like this latter
undoubtedly was, yet he was no ordinary vole. Delicate chestnut fur,
brilliant white feet, a whitish waistcoat, and a paste-coloured two-inch

tail proclaimed the red vole at once.
[Illustration: THEY SAT GAZING AT ONE ANOTHER.]
In size there was little to choose between them, and they sat gazing at
each other for some moments stolid and undismayed. Yet, despite the
equality of fighting weight, he felt himself somehow the inferior
creature. His thoughts ran on the old legend of the field-vole who
mated with a wood-mouse of high degree, and whose descendants to
this day bear the marks of their noble origin. So, when the stranger
turned and leapt lightly into the undergrowth that fringed the wood, he
humbly tried to follow.
That was no easy matter, for, where the other jumped, he could only
scramble, and on the flat he felt himself hopelessly outclassed. Still,
once beyond the outskirts of the wood, the tangled thickets gave way to
something less luxuriant, and he could sight his leader more frequently.
All at once he checked himself, and, with a sudden access of natural
caution, flattened himself to earth. He had blundered into the red-vole
community.
[Illustration: A WOOD-MOUSE OF HIGH DEGREE.]
Five small active forms were gliding hither and thither among the
fallen leaves. They were too busy to notice him, and were evidently
working with some method, for, at intervals, one or the other would
make his way slowly to a definite spot, and then return light-footed to
his task. He edged a little closer to observe them. Then the meaning of
it flashed upon him. They were nut-hunting.
[Illustration: SO, WHEN THE STRANGER LEAPT LIGHTLY INTO
THE UNDERGROWTH.]
Sometimes the nut was carried in their mouths, sometimes rolled along
the ground, sometimes wedged between the chin and fore-paws, but,
when they reached their goal, it seemed to vanish.
Of this there could be but one solution. The nuts were being taken to a

burrow-entrance. Curiosity overcame him, and, seizing a quiet moment,
he slipped down the burrow. It plunged abruptly for about a foot,
passed under a curving root, squeezed