Redruff 



deed. Redruff called again and again, till tie 

 was sure that all who could respond had come, 

 then led them from that dreadful place, far, far 

 away up-stream, where barb-wire fences and 

 bramble thickets were found to offer a less 

 grateful, but more reliable, shelter. 



Here the brood grew and were trained by 

 their father just as his mother had trained him; 

 though wider knowledge and experience gave 

 him many advantages. He knew so well the 

 country round and all the feeding-grounds, and 

 how to meet the ills that harass partridge-life, 

 that the summer passed and not a chick was lost. 

 They grew and flourished, and when the Gun- 

 ner Moon arrived they were a fine family of six 

 grown-up grouse with Redruff, splendid in his 

 gleaming copper feathers, at their head. He 

 had ceased to drum during the summer after the 

 loss of Brownie, but drumming is to the par- 

 tridge what singing is to the lark ; while it is his 

 love-song, it is also an expression of exuberance 

 born of health, and when the molt was over and 

 September food and weather had renewed his 

 splendid plumes and braced him up again, his 

 spirits revived, and finding himself one day 



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