ing on well in this dry weather, I am told; it's very annoying,
for I was looking forward to my turnips," and then the Hind would say,
"I am so sorry, dearest. How I hope it will rain soon!" For old stags
are perhaps rather too fond of their dinners.

Once only he showed himself quite different, and that was when one day
the Blackcock flew up to say that all the hills were coming down. Now
the way the Blackcock got the idea into his head was this. He had been
taking a bath in the dust at the foot of a great sheet of screes, the
loose, flat stones on the hill-side which you have often seen on the
moor, and had enjoyed it greatly, fluffing out his feathers and
flapping his great wings. But while he was in the middle of it a
Jackdaw came flying overhead, and seeing this great ball of feathers
rolling about, pitched down upon the screes to see what strange thing
it might be. And as he came hopping down to look at it closer, he
displaced one little stone, which displaced another little stone, and
that another, until quite a number of stones were set moving, and came
rushing down for twenty feet like a tiny cataract, close to the
Blackcock's ear. Whereupon the Jackdaw flapped off cawing with fright,
and the Blackcock flew away screaming to tell the deer that all the
hills were coming down.

But when he came the old Stag stood up at once and said: "Lady Yeld,
take the lead; Ruddy and Tawny, follow her. Steadily now, no
hurrying!" Then they moved on a little way and stopped, the Stag
always remaining behind them; for they could see that the hills were
not coming down before them, and therefore they must have begun to
fall behind them, if the Blackcock spoke truth. And that was why the
Stag remained behind, to be nearest to the danger, as a gentleman
should be. And some day, if you go into the army, you will learn that
in a retreat the rearguard is the post of greatest danger; and you
must read the story of the retreat of Sir John Moore's army to Corunna
and Vigo, and see what great things Uncle Charlie's regiment did
there.

The Deer stopped for a time, and at last the Stag said: "I can see
nothing, hear nothing, and wind nothing. Are you _quite_ sure the
hills are all coming down, Blackcock? I think that you must have made
some mistake." For the old Stag was a great gentleman, and always very
civil and courteous. But Aunt Yeld, who was quick of temper, stamped
on the ground, and said almost out loud: "Bah! I believe the bir