mother did not
send up a prayer for heavenly help; nor any night when she did not kneel
with her husband and implore the One who loved and blessed the babes of
Jerusalem to guard her little one and bring him back in safety.

THE EVIL ONE

[Illustration]

There was one neighbour of the family who joined in the search that had
nevertheless incurred the bitter dislike of little Harry Service. The
feeling was partly a mere baby instinct, but pointedly because of the
man's vicious cruelty to the animals, wild or tame, that came within his
power. Only a week before he had set steel traps at a den where he
chanced to find a pair of Badgers in residence. The first night he
captured the father Badger. The cruel jaws of the jag-toothed trap had
seized him by both paws, so he was held helpless. The trap was champed
and wet with blood and froth when Grogan came in the morning. Of what
use are courage and strength when one cannot reach the foe? The Badger
craved only a fair fight, but Grogan stood out of reach and used a club
till the light was gone from the brave eyes and the fighting snarl was
still.

The trap was reset in the sand and Grogan went. He carried the dead
Badger to the Service house to show his prize and get help to skin it,
after which he set off for the town and bartered the skin for what evil
indulgence it might command, and thought no more of the trap for three
days. Meanwhile the mother Badger, coming home at dawn, was caught by
one foot. Strain as she might, that deadly grip still held her; all that
night and all the next day she struggled. She had little ones to care
for. Their hungry cries from down the burrow were driving her almost
mad; but the trap was of strong steel, beyond her strength, and at last
the crying of the little ones in the den grew still. On the second day
of her torture the mother, in desperation, chewed off one of her toes
and dragged her bleeding foot from the trap.

[Illustration]

Down the burrow she went first, but it was too late; her babies were
dead. She buried them where they lay and hastened from that evil spot.

Water was her first need, next food, and then at evening she made for an
old den she had used the fall before.

THE BADGER THAT RESCUED THE BOY

And little Harry, meanwhile, where was he? That sunny afternoon in June
he had wandered away from the house, and losing sight of the familiar
building behind the long fringe of trees by the river, he had lost his
b