THE STORY OF A GROUSE. 



I WAS born in the swamp at the foot of this hill, 

 under the laurel ; and as soon as I broke through 

 the shell, I ran off over the dry leaves with my brothers 

 and sisters. 



There were ten of us, and from June, when we 

 were born, till August we kept close to our mother. 

 The whole family wandered here and there through 

 the swamp, and though we children sometimes ran off 

 too far, we found each other again by peeping and by 

 listening for our mother's cluck. 



Once a man and two children came upon us sud- 

 denly and we all hurried off among the leaves, where 

 we squatted down and kept as quiet as we could. 

 Our mother, however, ran out in front of the man, 

 trailing her wings close to the ground, and keeping 

 his attention till she felt sure we were well hidden. 

 Then she ran off through the bushes. Presently we 

 heard her cluck and each of us answered with a faint 

 peep and one after another we came out from our hid- 

 ing places. Then our mother took us quickly off 

 into the deep bushes to a place of safety. 



We found enough to eat all summer ; berries were 

 plentiful and we became skilful in catching the spi- 



