222 NEIGHBOURS UNKNOWN 



bits of lily-root, tiny clams, water-snails, 

 half-torpid beetles, and many kinds of larvae. 

 As the stream had been high at the time of 

 freezing, and had afterwards shrunken in 

 its channel, letting the ice down with it, 

 there were many air-chambers along the 

 brink, between ice-roof and water-surface ; 

 and slanting downward to the nearest of 

 these he had dug himself a tunnel from the 

 roots of his thicket. Even here, to be sure, 

 there were perils for him. There was one 

 big mink which loved to hunt along these 

 secret and dim-lit air-chambers, taking long 

 swims beneath the ice. But he was an 

 autocrat, and kept all rival minks away from 

 his range ; so the wise brown mouse knew 

 that as long as he kept a sharp enough look- 

 out against that foe, he was secure in the air- 

 chambers. Then, in the stream itself, there 

 was always the peril of the great pike, which 

 had its lair at the bottom of the deep pool 

 down by the abat-d'eaux. The brown mouse 

 had seen him but once a long, straight, 

 grey-green, shadowy shape in the distance 

 but that one sight gave him counsels of 

 caution. He never forgot, when in the 

 water, to keep watch for that great darting 

 shadow. 



One day, when the brown mouse had swum 



