stream, partly to have another look for their lost parents, partly
because they had nothing better to do. But they did not go very far
that day, or have any more very exciting adventures. They spent most
of their time in the water, where they had no foe to watch out for
except the mink. And, as the fish had now learned to beware of them,
they had enough to do in satisfying their lively appetites. That night
they slept in the den, lying close to the water's edge, lest the fox
should come. And they had no visitors.

"The next day they were feeling more confident, more sure of
themselves. So they set out on a longer expedition. In the course of
the morning they killed a big muskrat, after a sharp fight, and felt
terribly proud of themselves. They got bitten, of course, and had
their fur all mussed up, so it meant a long, elaborate toilet in the
warm grass by the water's edge. And it was not till early in the
afternoon that they came once more to the fateful slide where their
parents had so mysteriously vanished.

"At the sight of it, as they came upon it suddenly around a bend of the
stream, their fur bristled and they crouched flat, glancing angrily
this way and that. Then they stole forward, and once more explored the
whole place minutely. At last, finding nothing to alarm them, in an
absent-minded way one of the two went down the slide, splash into the
cool brown water. The other followed at once. The temptation was
simply not to be resisted, you know. And in a minute more they were
both hard at it, having the time of their lives--hawks, foxes, minks,
and vanished parents alike forgotten."

"Oh!" protested the Babe in a shocked voice.