74 THE GROUSE 



ageous. About an hour after midday the sounds 

 ceased altogether and there was a spell of sun- 

 shiny silence. 



"They have gone away, 11 said the heir-pre- 

 sumptive. 



"My son, 11 replied the Old Cock, "the hawks 

 are not always hovering over us, but can a grouse 

 ever say that they have gone away ? " 



They were now close to the burn which wound 

 along the valley, and in single file they ran down 

 the steep bank to drink. The rift which the 

 burn had been cutting ever since the hills were 

 made was so deep that even a man could see only 

 the sky between its soft purple walls. For a 

 grouse it was like standing in the hollow of a great 

 ravine. The brawling of a tiny waterfall drowned 

 all other sounds ; it fell into a clear, brown pool 

 where a few very juvenile trout darted for the 

 banks, and then through shining rapids and two- 

 feet deep pools the stream zigzagged past ferns 

 and rushes and heath on its way to a far-off loch. 

 All the time the high banks twisted beside it, so 

 that looking up or down the covey could see 

 nothing beyond a heathery bend. They drank 

 with the deliberate pauses of people who are 

 critical in the matter of a cellar, and then the 

 youngest daughter having discovered the most 

 irresistible bank of hill-berries, they lunched so 

 long and luxuriously that an hour or more had 

 passed before the Old Cock started up the bank 

 again. Hardly had he put his head over the top 



