The moths and caterpillars and beetles, came from everywhere--crannies in
the brickwork, joints in the palings, crevices in the bark, from
neat-rolled envelope of leaf, from hollowed shelter of reed-stem, from
pigmy burrows in the ground.

* * * * *

It was the hedgehog who started it. The hedgehog has a keen sense of
humour, and, for that reason, he loves an argument.

"I will back my spines," said he, "against any means of defence in the
country." He curled himself into a forbidding spiky ball, and rolled
slowly down the bank towards the water. On the very brink he stopped and
uncurled himself. "Or any means of offence," he added.

This was too much.

"Spines!" sneered the stoat. "Spines might be some use if you had any pace
behind them. Where would they come in against a hare?"

[Illustration: IT WAS THE HEDGEHOG WHO STARTED IT.]

"Spines would be awkward in the shallows," murmured the water-rat, as she
swam quietly over to the far shore, keeping half an eye on the stoat, who
was also something of a swimmer.

"Spines!" squeaked the noctule from the safe height of a hundred feet.
"Why load yourself with spines? Why not fly like me?"

"Spines!" shouted the squirrel. "A pretty mess you'd make of it with
spines up here. Do you think every one spends their life grubbing after
ground beetles?"

"Spines!" purred the moths. "We gave up spines at quite an early stage.
Haven't you finished moulting, hedgehog?"

"Spines!" snapped the trout. "Give me a good set of fins."

Now this was exactly what the hedgehog had foreseen. As I have said
before, he had a keen sense of humour.

"I am willing to hear you all," said he.

So, because of his pleistocene lineage, and because of his popularity (the
comedian is always the more popular candidate), and because he had started
the discussion, he was voted to the chair.

[Illustration: THE NOCTULE SPOKE FIRST; HE OPENED HIS MOUTH AS THOUGH HE
WOULD EAT THE WORLD.]

The noctule spoke first. He leant his arm against the roughened bark,
hooked his thumb-nail into a crevice, and opened his mouth as though he
would eat the world. He was not beautiful, and his voice was three
octaves above F in alt. What reached the audience below was somewhat on
these lines--

"I and my kin are the only mammals that fly. Therefore I am superior to
the hedgehog. Flying is the best state of all. Even the humans do their
poor best to fly. Every part of me is mod