After Dark

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21908, 8 October 1936, Page 5 (Supplement)

After Dark

(By Frances Cress well)

He was a strange little figure as he shuffled along the path; his old, rather grubby brown suit looked a size too big for him; from under his beetling brows little beady black eyes peered from side to side. A little grey form, in a sleek, well fitting “tailor made,” glided alongside him from beneath the hedge.

“Good evening, Spiker Hedgehog,” said the newcomer in a thin squeaky voice.

“Nice fellow you are!” said the hedgehog, turning round, “Sneaking up behind a chap like that when he is walking in the open. Quite a turn you gave me. Master Rat. Well, well, I suppose we are not all made the same. Did you notice how the Snails were running as you passed Cabbage Corner?”

Rat had not noticed the snails at Cabbage Corner, for the very good reason that Terrier Tim had his kennel near there, and the rat always gave it a wide berth, but not for the world would he have let Spiker know that. A boastful fellow was Rat, who believed in knowing all his friend’s weaknesses, but liked to keep his own well hidden. So he said, “I suppose you know there is a nest of eggs in the rubbish heap near the fowl run? The folk from the house have not discovered it yet.”

Now Spikes Hedgehog was almost as fond of eggs as he was of slugs and snails. “Now that is very kind of you. Ratty,” he said. “Very kind and thoughtful. As a matter of fact I have just come out from my winter sleep,” he added shyly, for he altvays felt rather ashamed of spending the winter in bed. “And I am really very hungry indeed. If you will take me to the nest, Ratty, I would be most grateful. Hunting has its good points,” he rambled on. “But when a feller is really hungry. Well, give him something that is easily caught, I ses. and nourishing. Take an egg now— ** But the Rat did not want to take an egg, or rather, he did not want Spikes to take too many eggs. He had not known that Spikes had just wakened up, and was feeling rather sorry he had mentioned ‘ the eggs at all, though it was nice to have Spikes thanking him so prettily, and making out what a fine fellow he was. But as it happened neither he nor Spikes Hedgehog were to have the eggs quite so easily. There •was a sudden rush and a scurry, and a loud shrill yapping. It was Terrier Tim, whoshad not been tied up. “Oh my tall and whiskers!” cried the rat, and with a spring and a twist he was gone. “Very surprising,” said Spikes to himself. “How does my good friend move so quickly; I wonder. But really I think my way is better,” and he curled up into a prickly ball, his little brown paws over his eyes, while Terrier Tim scurried about sniff-sniffing into every chink. “I’m sure it was Rat,” he said, “I can smell Rat, but I can only find Hedgehog, and she is full of prickles.” He sniffed round Soikes and tried to turn him over with his nose, but he only got it pricked; every prickle on Spike's tight little body stood out more stiffly than ever. A door in the house opened, sending a flood of light down the path. A man and a woman came out. "What a noise Timmy is making,” said the woman. “Why, I must have forgotten to tie him up. Oh! Look, he is trying to eat a hedge--hog!” “Silly boy,” skid the man, tor®. Tim! Leave the hedge-

hog alone, old man, he’s too tough a customer for you, and he will do a lot of good on my lawn amongst the grass grubs. Come here, Tun.” The man took him to his kennel and tied him up, and he and the woman went inside, closing the door behind them.

When things had quietened down again, Spikes poked out his head and looked round. Seeing all was clear, he uncurled and waited for Rat to join him. But Rat had decided that this was a good opportunity to leave Spikes and his big appetite, and he had made off alone to the nest in the rubbish heap. Spikes soon grew tired of waiting for him. His little brown snout told him that many interesting things were happening on the lawn. He trotted over and started foraging in the grass roots. What the man had said was quite right, the lawn was full of grass-grubs. Many of them were busy shedding their skins and turning into brown beetles. While they waited for their wings to dry and harden. Spikes had plenty of time to catch and eat them. He really was very hungry, and the encounter with Tim, and the long wait, had made him simply ravenous. It took him a long time to fill his emptiness. “This is better than eggs,” he said at last when he was feeling slightly better. "I could have given some of these to Ratty, only I don’t believe he likes grubs. I wonder if there are any snails under those lettuces.” He had gradually worked down to the end of the lawn where there was a big bed of lettuces and spring onions. “What a wonderful place,” said Spikes. Large snails with shells on their backs were crawling over the plants and biting big pieces out of the leaves, and tender juicy slugs were everywhere.

Soon Spikes had eaten as much as his little brown body could possibly hold. He trotted rather clumsily along between the rows of lettuces till he came to the hedge. On the other side of the hedge in a dry ditch under a big clump of bracken he found his little nest. It was just beginning to grow light as he curled himself up, to sleep through the warm, sunny day, till hunger would awaken him again at dusk for his evening hunting.