Page:Four Little Blossoms at Brookside Farm.djvu/160

146 "I'm standing over it," said Meg, "so the thing can't get away."

Meg, you see, was frightened, but not too frightened to be interested and curious about a strange animal.

"I'm sure it's an animal, 'cause it moves," she told Jud, as she stood aside to let him look in the hole.

Jud put his hand in the hole—it was an old dead tree and hollow at the top—and drew out something soft and fluffy.

"Just as I thought," he chuckled. "It's a baby owl."

"Oh, how cunning," cried Meg, coming closer and venturing to put a finger on the bunch of feathers. "But what a funny face, Jud!"

Indeed the baby owl looked like a very young and foolish monkey as it sat in Jud's hands and rolled its head and stared aimlessly.

"He's pretty near blind," Jud explained. "In the daytime owls can hardly see at all. I suspect there's a nest in this old tree. Want to hold it for me while I feel?"

Meg was certainly not afraid of a baby owl,