Redruff 



near the old log he mounted impulsively, and 

 drummed again and again. 



From that time he often drummed, while his 

 children sat around, or one who showed his 

 father's blood would mount some nearby stump 

 or stone, and beat the air in the loud tattoo. 



The black grapes and the Mad Moon now 

 came on. But Redruff's brood were of a vigor- 

 ous stock; their robust health meant robust 

 wits, and though they got the craze, it passed 

 within a week, and only three had flown away 

 for good. 



Redruff, with his remaining three, was living 

 in the glen when the snow came. It was light, 

 flaky snow, and as the weather was not very cold, 

 the family squatted for the night under the low, 

 fiat boughs of a cedar-tree. But next day the 

 storm continued, it grew colder, and the drifts 

 piled up all day. At night, the snow-fall ceased, 

 but the frost grew harder still, so Redruff, leading 

 the family to a birch-tree above a deep drift, 

 dived into the snow, and the others did the 

 same. Then into the holes the wind blew the 

 loose snow — their pure white bed-clothes, and 

 thus tucked in they slept in comfort, for the 



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