Redruff 



away most of the hawks and owls, and made 

 it impossible for his four-footed enemies to 

 approach unseen, so that things were nearly 

 balanced. 



His flight in search of food had daily led him 

 farther on, till he had discovered and explored the 

 Rosedale Creek, with its banks of silver-birch, 

 and Castle Frank, with its grapes and rowan 

 berries, as well as Chester woods, where amel- 

 anchier and Virginia-creeper swung their fruit- 

 bunches, and checkerberries glowed beneath 

 the snow. 



He soon found out that for some strange rea- 

 son men with guns did not go within the high 

 fence of Castle Frank. So among these scenes 

 he lived his life, learning new places, new foods, 

 and grew wiser and more beautiful every day. 



He was quite alone so far as kindred were 

 concerned, but that scarcely seemed a hardship. 

 Wherever he went he could see the jolly chick- 

 adees scrambling merrily about, and he remem- 

 bered the time when they had seemed such 

 big, important creatures. They were the most 

 absurdly cheerful things in the woods. Before 

 the autumn was fairly over they had begun to 



33i 







