the
"set," they were gathered to the soft comfort of her folded limbs, and
fed and fondled to their hearts' content.

Though Brock grew as rapidly as any young badger might be expected to
grow, a comparatively long time passed by before he and the other small
members of the family ventured out of doors. Repeatedly they were
warned, in a language which soon they perfectly understood, that, except
under the care of their parents, a visit to the outer world would end
disastrously; so, while the old ones were abroad, the little creatures
dared not move beyond the opening to the dark passage between the
chamber and the gallery above. Sometimes, following their dam when she
climbed the steep passage to her favourite lookout corner within a mouth
of the burrow, they caught a glimpse of the sky, and of the trees and
the bracken around their home; but a journey along the gallery was never
made before the twilight deepened.

The purpose of such close confinement was, that the young badgers should
be taught, thoroughly and without risk, the first principles of
wood-craft, and thus be enabled to hold their own in that struggle for
existence, the stress of which is known even to the strong. Obedience,
ever of vital importance in the training of the forest folk, was
impartially exacted by the mother from her offspring. It was also taught
by a system of immediate reward. The old badger invariably uttered a low
but not unmusical greeting when she returned to her family at dawn.
Almost before their eyes were open, the sucklings learned to connect
this sound with food and comfort, and at once turned to the spot from
which it proceeded. Later, when the same note was used as a call, they
recognised that its meaning was varied; in turn it became, with subtle
differences of inflection, an entreaty, a command, and a warning that it
would be folly to ignore; but, whatever it might indicate, they
instinctively remembered its first happy associations, and hurried to
their mother's side. Hardly different from the call, when it conveyed
the idea of warning, was a note of definite dissent, directing the
youngsters to cease from squabbling, and to become less noisy in their
rough-and-tumble play. After they had learned each minute difference in
the call notes, their progress in education was largely determined by
that love of mimicry which always prompts the young to imitate the old;
and in time they acquired the tastes, the passions, and the exper