2i8 NEIGHBOURS UNKNOWN 



the eating edges of the tides, gave them a 

 perfect shelter, and was exactly suited to the 

 driving of their tunnels. Food was abund- 

 ant, because they could subsist very well on 

 the nutritious root-stalks of the grass. And 

 none of their enemies could get at them 

 except when they chose to seek the upper 

 air. In the day-time they kept to the glim- 

 mering blue light of the tunnels, but at 

 night they would slip forth and play about 

 the firm surface of the snow. It was then 

 that they suffered, for though the hawks 

 were gone, and the crows asleep, the icy 

 winter night was alive with owls ; and foxes, 

 weasels and minks would come prowling 

 hungrily down from the uplands. The owls 

 were the worst peril by far marsh-owls, 

 barn-owls, the darting little Acadian owls, 

 swift as the sparrow-hawk, and now and then 

 the terror of the winter wilds, the giant snowy 

 owl of the North, driven down by storm and 

 famine from his bleak Arctic wastes. The 

 revels of the mouse-folk over their dim-lit 

 playgrounds were varied with incessant 

 tragedy. But the memories of the little people, 

 fortunately, were short. Their perilous diver- 

 sions went on unchecked, while their furry 

 battalions thinned amazingly. 

 But through all these dangers the brown 



