I 9 4 
STUBBS THE BADGER 
which will grow there. Here and there a narrow 
path twists through the fern, and the industrious 
rabbit people, who live among the rocks, keep the 
grass on those spots close and green. Above this, 
the hill grows steeper till it meets a grey crag which 
drops sheer down from the fir wood, whose brow, 
shaggy with gorse and ling, overhangs the place. 
The Fur Folk all visit this wilderness. The rabbits 
and squirrels love it, because the grass and fir-cones 
there are good, and the blood-hunters follow them 
thither. There the badgers went one evening at 
sunset, and feasted on the great worms which were 
tempted out by the coolness of the night, and on the 
pignuts in the clearings. After their surfeit the cubs 
could scarcely waddle among the bracken, for their 
tight little bodies brushed the stems on either side. 
Under the crag they stopped to drink, where the 
water dripped from the height above ; and as five 
badgers guzzling in the mud made much com- 
motion and splashing, Mother Badger never heard the 
thud of approaching feet until they were almost 
on the top of her party. She grunted of danger, 
imminent and serious, and gathered her cubs 
together. Dinny Purcell had made a short-cut 
through Knockdane, on his way home from a 
meeting of the local branch of the Gaelic League 
at Whelan's ' public ' ; and, as the proceedings had 
