BIRDS IN A VILLAGE 9 



the person who had acted as spokesman before, 

 said, " Perhaps you'll tell the gentleman if there 

 are any badgers here." 



At that the rough man looked at me very sharply 

 and answered stiffly, " Not as I know of/' 



A few weeks later at a small town in the neigh- 

 bourhood I got into conversation with a hotel- 

 keeper, an intelligent man who gave me a good deal 

 of information about the country* He asked me 

 where I was staying, and, on my telling him, said, 

 " Ah, I know it well that village in a hole, and a 

 very nasty hole to get in, too ; at any rate it was so 

 formerly. They are getting a bit civilized now, but 

 I remember the time when a stranger couldn't 

 show himself in the place without being jeered at 

 and insulted. Yes, they were a rough lot down in 

 that hole the Badgers they were called, and that's 

 what they are called still." 



The pity of it was that I didn't know this before 

 I went among them ! But it was not remembered 

 against me that I had wounded their susceptibilities. 

 They soon found that I was nothing but a harmless 

 field naturalist, and I had friendly relations with 

 many of them. 



At the extremity of the straggling village was the 

 beginning of an extensive common, where it was 

 always possible to spend an hour or two without 

 seeing a human creature. A few sheep grazed and 



