f the porcupine's
teeth; and oftenest of all the pleasant rustling and whispering of the
trees, for by this time the sun and the south wind had come back and
done their work, and the voice of the leaves was heard in the land. All
these noises of the woods, and many others besides, came to them from
outside the walls of the tree, from a vast, mysterious region of which
as yet they knew nothing except that their mother often went there. She
was beginning to think that they were big enough and old enough to learn
something more about it, and so one day she led them out of the hole,
and they saw the sunshine, and the blue of the sky, and the green of
the trees, and the whiteness of the sailing clouds, and the beauty of
the Glimmerglass. But I don't think they appreciated the wonder and the
glory of it all, or paid as much attention to it as they ought. They
were too much interested in making their legs work properly, for their
knees were still rather weak, and were apt to give out all of a sudden,
and to let a fellow sit down when he didn't want to. And the dry leaves
and little sticks kept sliding around under one's feet so that one never
knew what was going to happen next. It was very different from the
hollow tree, and they were glad when their mother picked them up one at
a time by the back of the neck, carried them home, gave them their
supper, and told them to lie still and take a nap while she went after
another rabbit.

But they had really done very well, considering that it was their first
day out. One of them in particular was very smart and precocious, and
she had taken much pleasure in watching the independent way in which he
went staggering about, looking for impressions. And the other was not
far behind him. Her long hours of still-hunting had brought their rich
reward, and her babies were all that she could ask.

She was in the habit of occasionally bringing something home for them to
play with--a wood-mouse, perhaps, or a squirrel, or a partridge, or even
a larger animal; and they played with it with a vengeance, shaking and
worrying it, and spitting and growling and snarling over it in the most
approved fashion. And you should have seen them the first time they saw
their mother catch a rabbit. They did not try to help her, for she had
told them not to, but they watched her as if it was a matter of life and
death--as, indeed, it was, but not to them. The rabbit was nibbling some
tender young sprouts. The ol