ON THE FLOOD. 23 
Then, at about two o'clock, to them came 
the hedgehog. 
Came he, swimming grandly, a_ bristly 
something bobbing on the little waves, and 
he hit the root-end first. 
He was met by a view—from the underside 
—of the vile, yellow, wedge-shaped teeth of 
the old buck-rat, and would soon have felt, 
as well as seen, them, had he not promptly 
dropped off and been wise enough to offer his 
spiny back to the tusks of the enemy. 
For a minute or so there was a pause, whilst 
all that crew, listening, could plainly hear the 
spikes on the hedgehog’s back scraping per- 
sistently along the side. 
Then suddenly his insolent, upturned snout 
appeared over the side, almost on top of the 
squirrel and the water-vole. 
The squirrel bit at him with extraordinary 
quickness, because he had nowhere to leap to 
get out of the way, and the water-vole took to 
the flood with a splash that apparently caused 
the hedgehog to think that he was going to 
be attacked in the rear, for he dropped back 
again. 
The old tree softly rammed into a floating 
bit of thatch, smashed it to many pieces, 
turned round, and swung away again, root 
first this time. For a moment the tree’s furry 
