Again he would be startled out of his wits as
a large brown bird whirred and fluttered away from under his very nose.
Sitting on his tail he would watch her with comical regret and longing
till she tumbled into the tide and drifted swiftly away out of danger;
then, remembering what he came for, he would turn and follow her trail
back to the nest out of which she had stolen at his approach, and find
the eggs all warm for his breakfast. And when he had eaten all he wanted
he would take an egg in his mouth and run about uneasily here and there,
like a dog with a bone when he thinks he is watched, till he had made a
sad crisscross of his trail and found a spot where none could see him.
There he would dig a hole and bury his egg and go back for more; and on
his way would meet another cub running about with an egg in his mouth,
looking for a spot where no one would notice him.
From mice and eggs the young cubs turned to rabbits and hares; and these
were their staple food ever afterward when other game was scarce and the
wood-mice were hidden deep under the winter snows, safe at last for a
little season from all their enemies.
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