FROM CREEK TO ESTUARY 49 



out its greetings to the sun, they gained their 

 sanctuary beyond the reach of danger. 



Thus day followed day and week succeeded 

 week, until they had got to know the creek as 

 they knew the morass. By the beginning of 

 August there was not an inlet left unexplored 

 nor a stream unvisited. The biggest of the 

 streams they followed to its source among the 

 hills, within easy reach of the sea, and laid up 

 there, but partly retraced their steps the next 

 night, and curled up at dawn beneath the roots 

 of a sycamore that overhung a mill-pool. That 

 day very heavy rain fell, and continued till a 

 late hour, soaking the country-side and causing 

 even the cave to drip, to the discomfort of the 

 otters, who repaired there on the morrow. This 

 decided the otter to make without further delay 

 for the sea, and that night, after a big feast on 

 the mussels, she led the cubs along the widening 

 reaches to the estuary and couched on an island 

 at the meeting of the waters. A barge drifted 

 by at sunrise ; later a peel leaped within a few 

 feet of them ; but the otters heeded neither the 

 one nor the other, nor, indeed, did they raise their 

 heads until a boy, blowing a penny may-horn, 

 came to fetch the geese from the moor opposite, 

 and startled them not a little. But by this 



7 



