I was amazed at being taken out so early, but all the same very much delighted, and sat on my master’s shoulder chattering with joy. Neither brother spoke, but walked steadily on under the long morning shadows of the tall elms until they reached the ha-ha which cut the garden off from the park. Jumping down the sunk fence, they turned to the right, passed under the shadow of the wall of the kitchen-garden, and along beside the laurel plantation beyond. A wicket-gate led through the park fence and into a large field, in which red cattle were grazing. Strange memories began to stir in my breast as a line of tall, thick timber came in sight on the far side of the meadow; and when my master jumped the little brook and walked up over some broken, sandy ground where the white scuts of rabbits bobbed among the bracken, towards the tall magpie hedge beyond, my heart was beating so violently that I could only sit quite still upon his shoulder and stare about me in a sort of mazed bewilderment. On through the gate, and at once we were plunged into deep, damp coolness. All the half-forgotten odours of moss and bracken and rotting wood, and a hundred other woodland scents, rose to my distended nostrils and almost overpowered me. Just then I could not have moved for the life of me. Harry was the first to break the silence. ‘That’s where I saw the little beggars the other day, Jack,’ he said softly, and pointed to a tall beech-tree whose leaves, just beginning to yellow with the first chill of autumn, hung motionless in the still morning air. Then they both seated themselves on a mossy log and waited, still as two dormice. The wild things of the woods, frightened into silence at these early morning intruders, gradually regained confidence. A rabbit popped out of his hole and began feeding on the close turf, on which the autumn dew-spangles gleamed in a patch of sunshine which struck through the leafy canopy overhead. A shrew-mouse, intent on some business of his own, bustled noiselessly across the path; a woodpecker started his tap, tap, tap, as he industriously probed a rotten branch for his breakfast of fat grubs; two jays began calling harshly, and presently the flicker of their brilliant blue plumage glanced through the greenery. As for me, I had crept off Jack’s shoulder, and, sitting up straight on one end of the log, was struggling desperately to take it all in. The boys never moved nor spoke, but presently Harry touched his brother gently, and pointed very cautiously towards the beech-tree. I, too, was gazing with all my eyes up into the tree, my heart throbbing more violently than ever, for down the smooth grey bark a patch of red-brown fur was softly stealing with slow, deliberate steps, clutching tightly at unseen footholds with outstretched claws. The boys saw him, and so did I, but we none of us moved. As for me, my feelings were beyond words.