Redruff 43 



for two of them. The weakest, by inexorable 

 law, dropped out. Enfeebled by the disease, 

 the remedy was too severe for them. They 

 drank and drank by the stream, and next 

 morning did not move when the others fol- 

 lowed the mother. Strange vengeance was 

 theirs now, for a skunk, the same that could 

 have told where Runtie went, found and de- 

 voured their bodies and died of the poison 

 they had eaten. 



Seven little partridges now obeyed the 

 mother's call. Their individual characters 

 were early shown and now developed fast. 

 The weaklings were gone, but there was still 

 a fool and a lazy one. The mother could not 

 help caring for some more than for others, and 

 her favorite was the biggest, he who once sat 

 on the yellow chip for concealment. He was 

 not only the biggest, strongest, and hand- 

 somest of the brood, the best of all, the most 

 obedient. His mother's warning ' rrrrr ' (dan- 

 ger) did not always keep the others from a 

 risky path or a doubtful food, but obedience 

 seemed natural to him, and he never failed to 

 respond to her soft ' K-reet' (Come), and of 

 this obedience he reaped the reward, for his 

 days were longest in the land. 



August, the Molting Moon, went by; the 



