CHAPTER III 
THE LARCH HILL * EARTH ' 
ON the sunny side of the wood where the larches 
spindle up tall and thin, each trying to outstrip 
the rest in the race for free air and sunshine, is the 
' earth ' which Stubbs and Grunter dug, as has 
been already related. It had originally been an old 
rabbit burrow, but no rabbits had used it for many 
years, although it was well drained, warm, and dry. 
nlnz 
MOM darnutory 
It consisted of one long main tunnel, with other side 
chambers communicating with it, and of a smaller 
gallery running parallel to the first. The ' earth ' 
had only one main entrance, although there was a 
rabbit-hole some distance off which opened into the 
upper of the two principal galleries ; but its roof 
was so low that a badger could hardly have crept 
along it. 
As a spider sits in the centre of his web, so the 
badgers lay in the middle hall of their abode. Long, 
grey and sprawling, they snored noisily in their 
sleep like pigs, with their pied snouts nestled together 
