THE SANCTUARY 63 



trees that cast deep shadows on the turf. In the 

 herbage of the hollow only their backs showed, 

 but every hair was exposed when they breasted 

 the opposite slope, over whose crest the land dips 

 abruptly to a fishpond. At a headlong pace they 

 dashed between the stems of the pines to the 

 edge of the water, into which they glided as 

 noiselessly as voles. So swift were their move- 

 ments that almost before their presence was 

 known each otter had seized a white trout and 

 risen to the surface. One came up near the 

 boathouse, another in the shadow of an hydrangea, 

 the third near the only bit of moonlit bank by 

 the overflow ; and all three swam towards the 

 island, where they lay under the plumes of the 

 pampas-grass and devoured their take. They 

 ate three or four fish apiece before their hunger 

 was satisfied, and then began chasing one another 

 over the rocks, from which the sea stretched like 

 a plain of beaten silver. Soon they returned 

 along the overflow to the pond, where they gam- 

 bolled as fearlessly as they had done in the creek 

 and other lone spots in their wanderings. 



To the surprise of the cubs, the taint of man 

 on the path caused their mother no disquietude ; 

 not once did she stop her play to listen or peer 

 into the bosky gloom about her. Strange dis- 



