THE WATER-HEN 
Cearc-uise found that if it had been difficult to 
keep the chicks together in the water, it was 
infinitely harder on land ; for each ran his own 
way after slug or fly, and as the ivy-leaves 
which carpeted the ground could each cover a 
chick, she was constantly losing one or other of 
them. However, she marshalled them safely up 
the dried watercourse where she had first met 
Karruck, but when they came to the clearing 
where the path to Ballin crosses the stream, the 
chicks ran riot altogether. The place was a 
jungle of dock-leaves and nettles, and swarmed 
with flies which the chicks chased ardently, and 
although Cearc-uise could hear them calling all 
round her, the tangle was too thick for her to 
see them. She found the youngest crying by 
himself because he could not cross a fallen 
branch which lay in his way. She coaxed him 
to follow her round it, and then left him while 
she searched for his brothers. After a time she 
found two of them squabbling over a worm 
and conducted them back, but by this time the 
first had disappeared. Just then she 
heard a regular thud-thud approach- 
ing quickly. She ran out of the 
nettle-bed, and came face to face 
with the man. There is a 
time to fight and a time to fly. 
Cearc-uise knew that it was 
27 < 
