Page:Life Story of an Otter.djvu/222

186 three boys never wearied of hearing their mother tell how she stood on the rick and watched the hounds stream through the Fairies' Gap; they always insisted on her giving the squire's 'Tally-ho!' and hung on every word when she came to the message brought by the steward, that old John and his grandchild were to have their little place rent free for the rest of their days.

'Again, again!' they would cry, clapping their little hands; and generally Mary yielded to their entreaties. And when the time comes they will repeat the tale to their own children, as indeed do the miller's and the moorman's sons and daughters to-day. Thus the tradition of the otter bids fair to be handed on by generation after generation for long years to come, and to win an imperishable place amongst the hearthside stories of the West.