Redruff 



down to minutes, and one day at last she never 

 came at all. Nor the next, nor the next, and 

 Redruff, wild, careered on lightning wing and 

 drummed on the old log, then away up-stream 

 on another log, and skimmed the hill to another 

 ravine to drum and drum. But on the fourth 

 day, when he came and loudly called her, as of 

 old, at their earliest tryst, he heard a sound in 

 the bushes, as at first, and there was his miss- 

 ing Brownie bride with ten little peeping par- 

 tridges following after. 



Redruff skimmed to her side, terribly frighten- 

 ing the bright-eyed downlings, and was just a 

 little dashed to find the brood with claims far 

 stronger than his own. But he soon accepted 

 the change, and thenceforth joined himself to 

 the brood, caring for them as his father never 

 had for him. 



VI 



Good fathers are rare in the grouse world. 

 The mother-grouse builds her nest and hatches 

 out her young without help. She even hides 

 the place of the nest from the father and meets 



337 



