THEY TURN TO THE LAND 125 



as she was, her lot was preferable to that of the 

 otter, with cubs wholly dependent on her ; for it 

 seemed impossible to support them unless the 

 frost should soon relent. 



Shut off from the mere and the stream that 

 fed it, the night after the closing of the ice the 

 otters turned to the land and quested wherever 

 cover afforded prospect of finding prey. They 

 threaded the reeds and furze-brake, they drew 

 the two osier-beds and tussocky ground between 

 them, but met with nothing save a few dead 

 starlings, from whose sorry skeletons they turned 

 away, hungry though they were. On the next 

 night the hard-set creatures made their way 

 along the stream until they came to the solitary 

 homestead in the heart of the western moor. 

 There they left the ice, clambered up the high 

 bank, and climbed the farmyard wall to the 

 cart-shed, where, standing on their hind-legs, they 

 examined the crannies in the wall for snails, but 

 found none. Coming out, they skirted the pig- 

 sty, passed between an alder-tree and the lighted 

 window, and just as they rounded the corner of 

 the house, found themselves almost face to face 

 with a white cat. Savage torn though he was, 

 he never thought of fighting. In a twinkling he 

 was in full retreat, with both otters at his heels. 



