The Burrow 



grate upon the rigid harness; a few tumbles 

 provoked by blows of the trident: the strife 

 amounts to no more than this. When the 

 superfluous wooers are gone, the pairing 

 takes place, the household Is established; and 

 then and there bonds are contracted which 

 are remarkably enduring. 



Are these bonds never dissolved? Do 

 the husband and wife recognize each other 

 among their fellows? Are they mutually 

 faithful? Cases of connubial disloyalty are 

 very rare, are In fact unknown, on the part 

 of the mother, who has long ceased to leave 

 the house; on the other hand, they are fre- 

 quent on the part of the father, whose duties 

 often compel him to go abroad. As we 

 shall see presently, he is throughout his life 

 the purveyor of victuals, the person ap- 

 pointed to cart away the rubbish. Single- 

 handed, at different hours of the day, he 

 shoots out of doors the earth thrown up by 

 the mother's excavations; single-handed he 

 explores the surroundings of the house at 

 night, in quest of pellets whereof to knead 

 the children's loaves. 



Sometimes two burrows are side by side. 

 May not the collector of provisions, on re- 

 turning home, easily mistake the door and 

 8i 



