24 ON THE FLOOD. 
crew were alarmed for their foothold, and 
when next they had time to look they realised 
that two things had happened. 
One was that the hedgehog was curled up 
like a ball—and therefore quite impregnable 
—hbeside the weasel, who was swearing shock- 
ingly ; and the other was that three birds had 
settled on the water beside the tree, and 
were steadily keeping pace with it. 
They were sea-gulls, and of that large and 
rascally kind called herring-gulls. 
When last seen that old tree had only the 
rat and the hedgehog left alive upon it. The 
gulls had ‘rescued’ the rest—in their own 
strange way. 
