146 THE FIDDLER^S RUSH 



half the size of her mate — who at first kept at 

 his brush, had come more and more forward till 

 her mask was side by side with his. Did she 

 by whisper or sign of eye or lip banish his 

 scruples, goad him into action ? We do not 

 know. But the next instant he launched him- 

 self towards chanticleer, who saw him coming 

 and raised cries so penetrating that they caused 

 the hind and the fiddler to drop knife and 

 fork and rush to the yard. Grey Fox had just 

 seized the cock when the fiddler burst out, and 

 making the most of his long legs, succeeded in 

 heading him from the passage that led to the 

 moor. The fox refused to drop his prey, though 

 the huge wings kept flapping in his face and 

 hindering him in the race with the fiddler, who 

 pursued him over the dung-heap and around the 

 yard, to the amusement of the rest of the party 

 crowding the gateway. As he ran, the fiddler 

 trod on the polecat, whose sudden appearance so 

 startled the fox that he dropped the cock, crossed 

 the wall to the rickyard, and rejoined his mate, 

 who had hurried away to the moor at the first 

 shout of the fiddler. 



Merry as the party was before, it was twice 

 as merry now, yet there was not a child, nay, 

 nor a grown-up around that festive board, who 

 would not have been sorry to know that in 



