MOBBED BY A MAGPIE 33 



them were touched by the risen sun. To add to 

 their troubles a magpie espied them, and though 

 they were strange to him as to the terrier, he 

 knew they were nightlings with no right to be 

 abroad after sunrise, and mobbed them as he 

 would have mobbed a leash of foxes. Under 

 the brambles and osmunda ferns they were 

 hidden from the pest, but in the open he had 

 them at his mercy and, now fluttering just 

 beyond their reach, now hopping from branch 

 to branch of rowan or alder or wild-cherry, 

 he annoyed them with impunity. At last they 

 came to the foot of the slope at the head of the 

 ravine threaded the furze as fast as their pads 

 could carry them, reached the pile of rocks, and 

 one by one disappeared through the narrow 

 crevice near its base. The magpie, however, 

 instead of flying off, perched on the pinnacle of 

 the cairn and, with his head knowingly cocked 

 on one side, watched for their reappearance. 

 Long, long he waited, but as the creatures made 

 no sign, he tired, took wing, flew down the 

 ravine past the precipice where the ravens had 

 their nest, and regained the wood of which he 

 was so vigilant a sentinel. 



The persecuted beasts soon forgot the magpie, 

 but the terrier had left a deeper memory, and all 



