Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/43

 where it faded to a ruddy fawn, and on the lower parts of the legs, where it was of a pepper-and-salt grey. For all her strength and her imposing appearance, however, she could lay small claim to beauty or grace; her were much too small and meagre to balance her grand shoulders, and her huge head, with its long, overhanging muzzle and immense, donkey-like ears, would have been grotesque had it not looked so formidable.

Presently, turning her head to glance at her offspring, she decided that he was rather closer to the edge of the bluff than prudence would dictate. "M'wha!" she grunted, softly but emphatically. The calf wheeled in answer to the summons. But he did not instantly obey—for, indeed, the call had not been urgent. It had not been the usual danger signal. That cry would have brought him to her side at once. Now, however, he was inclined to be playful, and to tease his anxious mother. He shook his head, and executed an ungainly gambol on his absurdly babyish stilts of legs.

In that same instant, the slight extra impulse of his kick being just what was needed to precipitate the catastrophe, the whole brow of the bluff crumbled beneath him, undermined by the torrent. With an agonized bleat of terror, amid a sinking chaos of turf and stones and bushes, he vanished.