THE CULTIVATED LOWLAND 35 



the outlying spur where the cultivated lowland 

 lay before them. It looked like a sombre, 

 blurred plain unrelieved by water, until the 

 moon rode clear of the clouds and revealed the 

 winding reaches of the tidal creek for which 

 they were bound. Their destination was yet a 

 good way off, but as the going was now very 

 easy the tireless creatures covered the fields at a 

 swinging pace. The pastures seemed strange to 

 the cubs ; stranger still the sheep and cattle, 

 asleep at such an hour without a bush to hide 

 them ; but leaving them lying there, the otters 

 kept straight on. A homestead rose almost 

 across their trail ; the trail, however, had been 

 traced ages before the buildings were raised or 

 even the land was broken, and though disturbed 

 by spade and plough a thousand times, it was still 

 the otters' way, so mother and cubs kept to it 

 faithfully, past the snow-white hawthorns and 

 into the rickyard, where they stayed to roll and 

 dry their coats, wet from the mowing-grass. The 

 stamping of a horse's feet sent them off before 

 they had finished ; but what alarmed them much 

 more was a scarecrow in a top-hat standing 

 amongst the growing corn. The suspicious 

 creatures gave a wide berth to this horror, and 

 kept looking back to see whether it was follow- 



5—2 



