glances? Brush was so frightened, that
he absolutely allowed three remarkably fine nuts to fall out of his
mouth upon the ground, and at last he gave the note of alarm. "Fly all
of you," cried he, "the enemy is close at hand!" Then he recovered
sufficient presence of mind to remember how he had himself escaped from
his pursuer in the oak, and he desired his family to retreat to the
small outer branches of the trees, where they would but just support
their weight, for he knew that the young ones were too small and weak
to make their escape by flight.

But this clever plan did not succeed so well in these low nut-trees as
among the lofty branches of the oak, where a tumble to the ground would
most likely have broken some of the adversary's bones. The cunning
beast appeared to understand the difference between the two situations,
but for a minute or two she remained motionless, as if she were
planning the best way of making her attack. At last, with a single
bound she was in the tree. She fearlessly dashed at one of the young
squirrels, who sat trembling at the farther end of a branch,
overhanging the pathway; it gave way beneath her weight, and both
animals fell to the ground below. But while the poor little squirrel
was so shaken by the fall that he could only crawl slowly away, the
cat, like all animals of her kind, pitched unhurt upon her feet,[10]
and was just upon the point of seizing her prey in her terrible hooked
claws, when bang!--the report of a gun from the adjoining thicket.

[10] It is well known that cats have the power of turning
themselves over in the air, so as to bring their legs undermost,
when they fall, or are thrown, from a height; but how this
desirable change of position is brought about or maintained, it
is not very easy to explain. One would have supposed that the
centre of gravity would have brought the _back_ undermost. To
prove that these animals _do_ possess the power of turning over
in the air, take a cat, or a kitten, and hold her by her four
feet, two in each of your hands, with her back downwards, at
about the height of the table from the ground. Now if you open
both your hands suddenly, your assistant in the experiment will
change her position almost as quickly as a shuttlecock turns
round when struck by the battledore, and will alight safely on
her feet. But if you hold her at a _very short_ distance f