d for stealing my food from me! What can you do
to save yourself? Down, down on the ground, chicken-heart, where I
can get hold of you! You shall pay me for the eggs with your life! I
shall hold you fast by the throat, and drink and drink until I see
your glassy eyes close, and your cheeks turn whiter than ashes, and
I feel your heart flutter like a leaf in your bosom! Down, down!"

It was terrible to watch him and seem to hear such words. He was
nearer now--scarcely a yard away, still with his beady glaring eyes
fixed on Martin's face: and Martin was powerless to fly from
him--powerless even to stir a step or to lift a hand. His heart
jumped so that it choked him, his hair stood up on his head, and he
trembled so that he was ready to fall. And at last, when about to
fall to the ground, in the extremity of his terror, he uttered a
great scream of despair; and the sudden scream so startled the weasel,
that he jumped up and scuttled away as fast as he could through the
creepers and bushes, making a great rustling over the dead leaves
and twigs; and Martin, recovering his strength, listened to that
retreating sound as it passed away into the deep shadows, until it
ceased altogether.

CHAPTER VIII

THE FLOWER AND THE SERPENT

His escape from the horrible black animal made Martin quite happy,
in spite of hunger and fatigue, and he pushed on as bravely as ever.
But it was slow going and very difficult, even painful in places, on
account of the rough thorny undergrowth, where he had to push and
crawl through the close bushes, and tread on ground littered with old
dead prickly leaves and dead thorny twigs. After going on for about
an hour in this way, he came to a stream, a branch of the river he
had left, and much shallower, so that he could easily cross from
side to side, and he could also see the bright pebbles under the
clear swift current. The stream appeared to run from the east, the
way he wished to travel towards the hills, so that he could keep by
it, which he wras glad enough to do, as it was nice to get a drink
of water whenever he felt thirsty, and to refresh his tired and sore
little feet in the stream.

Following this water he came before very long to a place in the
forest where there was little or no underwood, but only low trees
and bushes scattered about, and all the ground moist and very green
and fresh like a water-meadow. It was indeed pleasant to feel his
feet on the soft carpet of grass, and