Rediaff 



* K-reetf' (Come, children) and instantly 

 like a fairy story, every hole gave up its little 

 baby-partridge, and the wee fellow on the chip, 

 the biggest of them all really, opened his big- /junK 



little eyes and ran to the shelter of her broad I moon J &,<% 



tail, with a sweet little l peep peep ' which an ^^^ 



enemy could not have heard three feet away, 

 but which his mother could not have missed 

 thrice as far, and all the other thimblefuls of 

 down joined in, and no doubt thought them- 

 selves dreadfully noisy, and were proportion- 

 ately happy. 



The sun was hot now. There was an open 

 space to cross on the road to the water, and, 

 after a careful lookout for enemies, the mother 

 gathered the little things under the shadow of 

 her spread fantail and kept off all danger of 

 sunstroke until they reached the brier thicket 

 by the stream. 



Here a cottontail rabbit leaped out and gave 

 them a great scare. But the flag of truce he 

 carried behind was enough. He was an old 

 friend ; and among other things the little ones 

 learned that day that Bunny always sails under 

 a flag of truce, and lives up to it too. 



311 



