“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.

“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.

“Now, the other youngster had not been able, just at first, to make out what was happening.  He thought his sister had gone down to the bottom for fun.  But when he saw her coming up, locked in that deadly struggle with their old enemy, his heart swelled with fury.  He sprang clear out into the deep water when the struggling pair reached the surface, lashing and splashing, and the mink had only bare time to snatch a single breath of air before he found another adversary on his back, and was borne down inexorably to the bottom.