Redruff 



fair a chance. With murderous intent to cut 

 off the hindmost straggler, he made a dash. 

 Brownie could not have seen him until too late, 

 but Redruff did. He flew for that red-haired 

 cutthroat ; his weapons were his fists, that is, 

 the knob-joints of the wings, and what a blow 

 he could strike ! At the first onset he struck 

 the squirrel square on the end of the nose, his 

 weakest spot, and sent him reeling; he stag- 

 gered and wriggled into a brush-pile, where he 

 had expected to carry the little grouse, and there 

 lay gasping with red drops trickling down his 

 wicked snout. The partridges left him lying 

 there, and what became of him they never 

 knew, but he troubled them no more. 



The family^went on toward the water, but 

 a cow had left deep tracks in the sandy loam, 

 and into one of these fell one of the chicks and 

 peeped in dire distress when he found he could 

 not get out. 



This was a fix. Neither old one seemed to 

 know what to do, but as they trampled vainly 

 round the edge, the sandy bank caved in, and, 

 running down, formed a long slope, up which 

 the young one ran and rejoined his brothers 



34i 



