young ones answer and, one by one, come hurry- 

 ing to her out of the dusk, and murmuring. 

 Some of them do not hear. They have been 

 frightened far away. Louder now she whistles : 

 Whir-rl-le, wJiir-r-rl-le, whir-r-r-rl-le ! But there 

 is only the faint purr of the falling snow, only 

 darkness and the silent ghostly fields. 



Like little children, the covey will sometimes 

 dream or be disturbed by some sound half 

 heard in their sleep. I have been near when 

 the mother soothed them. A covey lived down 

 the bushy hillside, just beneath the house. 

 Coming up from the meadow one September 

 night, I passed close to their roost, and stopped 

 in the moonlight just beyond. Off across the 

 meadow the hounds were baying on the trail of 

 a fox. They were coming fast toward me. As 

 they broke into the open on the hills beyond the 

 meadow, I heard a movement among the quails, 

 then a low murmuring. The cry of the hounds 

 was disturbing the brood ; they were uneasy 

 and restless : and the mother was stilling their 

 fears, murmuring something low and soft to re- 

 assure them. 



They quieted at once ; and it was well. A 

 [259] 



