"You may say 'Oh!'" retorted Uncle Andy, "but let me tell you, if the
wild creatures hadn't pretty short memories, they would have a very
unhappy time.

"Well, they had been enjoying themselves and forgetting their troubles
for some little time, when, just as it came down the slide, one of them
was grabbed and pulled under. The mink had arrived and decided to
settle accounts with the youngsters. He had probably been thinking it
over, and come to the conclusion that they were getting too bumptious.
Darting up through the water, he had snapped savagely at the careless
player's throat.

"But the latter--it was the female, and spry, I can tell you--had felt
that darting terror even before she had time to see it, and twisted
aside like an eel. So instead of catching her by the throat, as he had
so amiably intended, the mink only got her leg, up close by the
shoulder. It was a deep and merciless grip; but instead of
squealing--which she could not have done anyhow, being already under
water--the Little Furry One just sank her sharp white teeth into the
back of her enemy's neck, and held on for dear life. It was _exactly_
the right thing to do, though she did not know it. For she had got her
grip so high up on the mink's neck that he could not twist his head
around far enough to catch her by the throat. Deep down at the bottom
of the pool the two rolled over and over each other; and the mink was
most annoyed to find how strong the youngster was, and how set in her
ways. Moreover, he had been under water longer than she had, and was
beginning to feel he'd like a breath of fresh air. He gave a kick with
his powerful hind legs, and, as the Little Furry One had no objection,
up they came.