empts to teach the vole how to hunt
for insects among the pebbles.

If Brighteye had been at all inclined to vary his diet, he would at that
moment have yielded to temptation. Everywhere around him the trout were
exhibiting great eagerness, snapping up the delicacies as they drew
near, and then moving forward on the scent in the direction of the
"redd." The shrew joined in the quest; and Brighteye, full of curiosity,
swam beside his playmate in the wake of the hungry trout. The vole found
quite a shoal of fish collected near the reeds; and for a few moments he
frolicked about the edge of the shallow. He could see nothing of the old
male salmon, though he caught a glimpse of the female busy with her
maternal duties at the top of the "redd."

After diving up-stream and along by the line of the eager trout, he rose
to breathe at the surface, when, suddenly, the river seemed alive with
trout scattering in every direction, a great upheaval seemed to part the
water, and he himself was gripped by one of his hind-feet and dragged
violently down and across to the deep "hover" near his home. The salmon
had at last outwitted the vole. The current was strong, and beneath its
weight Brighteye's body was bent backwards till his fore-paws rested on
the salmon's head. Mad with rage and fright, he clawed and bit at the
neck of his captor. Gradually his strength was giving way, and for want
of air he was losing consciousness, when, like a living bolt, Lutra, the
otter, to save unwittingly a life that she had erstwhile threatened,
shot from the darkness of the river-bed, and fixed her teeth in the neck
of the salmon scarcely more than an inch from the spot to which the vole
held fast in desperation. In the struggle that ensued, and ended only
when Lutra had carried her prey to shore, Brighteye, half suffocated and
but faintly apprehending what had taken place, was released. Like a cork
he rose to the surface, where he lay outstretched and gasping, while the
current carried him swiftly to the ford, and thence to the pool beneath
the village gardens. Having recovered sufficiently to paddle feebly
ashore, he sat for a time in the safe shelter of a rocky ledge,
unnoticed by the brown rats as they wandered through the tall, withered
grass-clumps high above his hiding place. At last he got the better of
his sickness and fright; and, notwithstanding the continued pain of his
scarred limbs, he brushed his furry coat and limped homeward just as th