The Way of the Wild

word with

f she had remained asleep upon Miss Somebody's arm-chair, instead of squatting, still as marble, out in a damp field on a damp night, watching a rabbits' "stop"-which is vernacular for a bunnies' nursery-and thinking how nice raw, pink baby-rabbit wo

d at picking out the still form. Neither could they hear her, for she said nothing; neither did she purr. They must have smelt her, though. Anyway, she seemed to be a little island in the mist-the faint, faint, ethereal dew-mist-where nobody walked. You could hear them-a rustle here, a squeak there, a thud s

ts came out to be fed-or to feed the cat either. "Stops" are secrets, kept from the rest of rabbitdom by the wise mothers, and, they hope, from other inquisit

e away, and returned secretly later, or, anyway, not persisted in crouching there; for those thuds were a signal, and they meant that the game was up. In other words, some wily old mother circling the approach, or some wandering back-eddy of wind, had given the cat away; she had been scented, and rabbi

neither lying down nor sitting up, for some time longer-for another twenty minutes, to be precise; and all

d claws, and yawned a bored feline yawn. And even as she did so she was aware of a sudden final flourish of thuds, and then dead-silence. Next m

such rash ones as make the experiment, and they seldom live long enough to pass their folly on. Only the mighty can afford not to walk circumspectly, and they

Anyway, she looked surprised as

g before he comes; how he must snuffle, and grunt, and poke dead leaves, and snort, and tread on things, and snore. Very good. So it was here; and these things did this new-comer, who approached through the mist-only all in a dwarfed way, as if they were done by a tiny grown-u

s, and had never met any of the wild-folk gone mad; yet it seemed that one must have done so now, and that one-to her growing uneasiness-was coming str

ed all over with prickles, like a Rugby ball into which tin tacks had been driven head first, the sharp ends pointing outwards and backwards. Its head was the small end, and much lower than its back. Its eyes, little and pig-like, set in a black cowl, gleamed red

had killed a shrew once, and spat it out for tasting abominably and smelling worse; and shrews are cousins of the

y the whiskers and talons!-the fool exposed his back-turned his back openly, a thing no wild beast in its senses would do, unless running away. And that, for a cat who had waited close on two hours for baby business that

ecause she had hitherto bounded upon wild-folk who contrived mostly not to be there. This one contrived nothing, except to stop stil

no longer egg-shaped, but rolled up into himself like a ball, so to speak, and utterly quiescent. (I wonder if she remembered the little wood-lice that she had so often amused herself playing with in idle hours. They rolled themselves up just like that. Perhaps she though

hich he presented to the world were points, a cheval-de-frise, a coiled ball of barbed wire, a living Gibraltar, what you will, but, anyway, practically impregnable;

that hurt her worse than ever. Then she began growling, low and beastily-for all the cat tribe have a horrible growl; you may have noticed it. Perhaps the hedgehog smiled. I don't know. He knew that growl, an

y coming shock, more tightly than ever. Followed the pause a short warning hiss, jerked out almost in fright, it seemed-that cat's hiss that is only a b

t last he risked it, and took a furtive peep out of a chink in himself, as it were. And what he saw might have amazed him, if he had not been a hedgehog and scarcely ever amazed at anything. He just got a snapshot view of the cat's fine ringed tail whirling round and round as she balanced

wild-folk, there may be easier rough handfuls to tackle than old doe-rabbits with young. This one had simply streaked out of the night from nowhere-and behind-and knocked the cat flying before she knew. Then, ere ever the feline could gather her wits, the old doe had descended upon her with an avalanche of blows-punches they were with the forefeet, all over the head and the

had simply streaked out o

er, guessed that the time to unroll was not yet. He knew that it would hurt any one to attack him; the cat knew it; all rabbit

nd went in. She remained there some time, during which a fox came by and sniffed at the hedgehog, but was quite wise as to the foolishness of doing more;

nd death in the former case, and battle and blood in the latter, perhaps. But no matter, they passed on their unlawful

, too-of himself, and-well

ies; and when he came out again, his little pig's eyes gleaming red under their spined cowl, it was with the same snuffling, softly grunting deliberation

n undertone, as if talking to himself, he departed, rustling through the grass, leaving an irregul

oast-crusts.) He continued, always wandering devious, always very busy and ant-like, always snorting loudly; grabbed another beetle, and then a worm-all by scent, apparently-and reached the hedge-ditch, where, in the pitch-darkness, he could still be heard snorting and scrunching hapless insects, slugs, and worms at scarcely more than one-minute intervals. And he never stopped. He seemed to have been appointed by Nature as a sort of machine, a spiked "tank," to sniff tirelessly about, reduc

ll for ten minutes; and once when he came upon a low, long, sinister, big, and grunting shadow, which again, if I be allowed the term, he did not see, though quite close, till he heard it grunt, when he instantly jerked himself into a ball on the spot and in the open

is badger, at any rate, seemed to know nothing of books and men. He was delving for roots when the hedgehog cast up out of the night and jumped him to "attention" by his loud sniffs-much like a big dog's, I said. Thereafter, however, when o

te his way-one can call it nothing else-to the hedge. Here he came upon a wounded mouse, complaining into the night in a little, thin voice, because its back was broken, and it could not return to its hole. It was a harvest mouse, rejoicing in the enormous weight of 4.7 grains and a lengt

fear the hedgehog slew far less adroitly than the owl, and not nearly so scient

s a direction, just as an ant has, heading his way down-ditch to a farm,

e in their paws, and most of them know it. Far, far safer would it be to remain in woo

wild, and, wild or tame, are hated with that cordiality that only fear can impose. I don't know that our hedgehog was given to fearing anything very much. He came of a brave race, and one cursed, moreover, with a vile, quick tem

h men-in the warm seasons-their fancy turns to thoughts of love. Prickles's fancy had so turned, not lightly, for he was of an ancient and antediluvian race, heavy in thought, but certainly to love. And love, I want you to realize, in the wild, or anywhere else, for the

per undoubtedly, and beautiful-all loves are beautiful in imagination-had passed that way. Why that unhealthful way, Heaven knew; but, allowing for the capric

e-and blue-black bridal-path, arched with scented swords, strewn with pink and rose and cream and white confetti of blossom. But he o

silence of the wonderful, tranquil night, the pale moon half-light, the furtive rustling shadows that stopped rustling, the wonderful breathing pulse of growing vegetation.

was a cry of extreme distress, a final, despairing S.O.S., flung out to the

er as well as pain; nor a cat's, for that thrills with hate; nor an owl's, for that is ghostly; nor a fox's, for Reynard is dumb then; nor a rat's, for that is gibbering and devilish; nor a mouse's, for that is weak and helpless. Then what? And why had it touched up Pr

arm, and Heaven know what it portended! Perhaps, too, Prickles could tell a lady hedgehog's S.O.S. fr

ld shift some when hustled. He did. It looked like suddenly releasing a clockwork toy wound up to breaking-point. His short legs gave this impression, and his next-to-no-neck, giving him a look of rigidity, assisted it. He did not run so much as

ed to follow his going as one slide follows another on a screen. One would never have believed such quickness of him; nor, as a matte

hedgehog standards, but was now pretty by none, and five rats, frankly beastly, very busy indeed with that same hedgehog. They must have caught that young lady of the spikes "napping"-a rare thing. Yet, allowing for the fact that she was in love-with love and not

meet the jabs of five pairs of gnawing, cold-chisel, incisor, yellow-rats' teeth at once. To time, apparently, she had not been su

tilt into the midst of the mêlée like-well, like a clockwork toy still, that couldn't stop. Only he did stop, against the biggest rat of all, ducking his head, an

wn created opportunity to roll up almost more completely, and-well, they were rolled up into two balls, you see, and there is nothing more to be said about them. The rats did that, but it was all they did, except hurt their noses presently, and delicate, pink, hand-like fore-paws, and make 'em bleed on prickles. They were very angry indeed