THE HEDGEHOG 



was nothing to that I had when I tried to get 

 a picture of an old hedgehog and four young ones. 

 They were perfect little demons ! They would 

 not stop still for a second, and as fast as you 

 brought one back the other ran off, and when 

 all four were in front of the camera their 

 parent was tightly rolled up, and there is one 

 thing you cannot do, and that is make a 

 hedgehog which does not choose to unroll. 



To go back to the hedgehog that had two 

 little ones I felt that she treated me really 

 very badly, for she would only poke her nose 

 out at those moments when I was fetching 

 back her runaway babies. At last I got every- 

 thing right, and the old one appeared to be 

 about to look up. Having put in the dark 

 slide, I was just going to squeeze the bulb and 

 release the shutter, when she briskly uncurled, 

 toddled off, made straight for a pond which 

 was but a few steps away, and took to the 

 water before I could stop her, swimming boldly 

 for the other side. 



As a matter of fact, hedgehogs are remark- 

 ably good swimmers, and take readily to the 

 water, not floating very high in it, but with 

 back, head, and nose above the surface. I 

 have several times seen them wade in and 



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