So Tommy made a leap for old Mother Grouse. He just missed her.

She rose in the nick of time and slipped away from him. But she didn't
fly far. So Tommy followed. And he stole up very slyly; and once more,
when he was quite near the old lady, he sprang at her.

It was really very annoying. For again old Mother Grouse just escaped.
Again she flew a little further away, lighted on the ground, and
seemed to forget that Tommy Fox was so near.

That same thing happened as many as a dozen times. And the twelfth
time that Mrs. Grouse rose before one of Tommy's rushes she didn't
come down again. She lighted in a tree. And since it appeared to Tommy
that she had no intention of leaving her safe perch, he gave up in
disgust. He was very angry because he hadn't caught old Mother Grouse.
But there was her family! He would get _them_--the whole eleven of
them! And he turned back toward the place where he had first come upon
them.

Now, sly old Mother Grouse had played a trick on Tommy Fox. If he had
just left her alone he could have caught every one of her children.
But she had tempted him to follow her. And every time she rose from
the ground and flew a short distance, she led Tommy further away from
her little ones.

Tommy had some trouble in finding the exact spot where he had stumbled
upon Mrs. Grouse and her children. But he found it again, at last. And
little good it did him; for not a trace of those eleven young grouse
could he discover. They had all disappeared--every single one of them!