Redruff 63 



minutes dumbly gazing at the place with down« 

 cast, draggled look, and then a change at the 

 thought of their helpless brood. Back to the 

 hiding-place he went, and called the well-known 

 * Kreet, kreet.* Did every grave give up its lit- 

 tle inmate at the magic word ? No, barely 

 more than half ; six little balls of down un- 

 veiled their lustrous eyes, and, rising, ran to 

 meet him, but four feathered little bodies had 

 found their graves indeed. Redruff called 

 again and again, till he was sure that all who 

 could respond had come, then led them from 

 that dreadful place, far, far away up-stream, 

 where barbed-wire fences and bramble thickets 

 were found to offer a less grateful, but more re- 

 liable, shelter. 



Here the brood grew and were trained by 

 their father just as his mother had trained him; 

 though wider knowledge and experience gave 

 him many advantages. He knew so well the 

 country round and all the feeding-grounds, and 

 how to meet the ills that harass partridge-life, 

 that the summer passed and not a chick was 

 lost. They grew and flourished, and when the 

 Gunner Moon arrived they were a fine family 

 of six grown-up grouse with Redruff, splendid 

 in his gleaming copper feathers, at their head. 

 He had ceased to drum during the summer 



