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badger.
    ‘Scarcely. Up till now I haven’t eaten for some days, you see. Maybe it might be different now – anyway, I can try.’
    ‘You can take it in stages. We’ll bring more food,’ she promised. ‘Then you can shelter in the set until you’ve built your strength up.’
    ‘I’m afraid you’re stranded now, though,’ said Bold uncomfortably. ‘You can’t travel back all that way in broad daylight.’
    ‘We’ll find cover and hide up until dusk,’ she assured him. ‘Then we can all start together.’
    Bold told them of the nearby wood where he had hidden himself until recently. ‘I’ll stay here,’ he went on. ‘I’ll be quite safe – I’ve been here for days and nothing has been around to disturb me.’
    The badgers made themselves scarce. Bold drowsed with a new feeling of hope in his heart. But his faith was ill-founded. He was awakened from his slumbers by a large and muscular dog – a Labrador – who was being exercised in the wood. It smelt the strong odour of fox in the air and gave tongue excitedly. In no time it had galloped up and discovered the luckless Bold cowering in his unprotected lair. Its frenzied barks brought its owner quickly toward the scene. Bold was cornered and completely helpless. His only hope was to feign death for, although this would not fool the dog, the man might be misled. So he lay stiffly on his side in a stark attitude with his tongue lolling from his open mouth, as if he had perished from cold and hunger. The man arrived, quietened the dog, and stood gazing at the animal in the ditch. Bold’s heart beat fast. The man prodded him a couple of times with his cane, but each time the fox cleverly rolled back to the self-same position, keeping himself quite rigid. Then the man muttered something to himself and called the Labrador away.
    Not until Bold was sure they must be far enough away did he allow himself to stir a muscle. Now it was imperative that he find a safer retreat. He got up and peered cautiously over the top of the ditch. The coast was clear, so out he climbed. He took a few tentative steps. The food had done him some good, for he certainly felt less shaky. He looked around for a place of concealment. There was nothing close enough to hand. Then he remembered that the ditch ran right into the wood to which the badgers had retired. He wondered if he could get that far. Well, at least he would be out of sight as he dragged himself along. There was really no other choice.
    The afternoon wore on as Bold limped his way through the mud and dead leaves of the ditch bottom. Of course, he was taking himself further away from his ultimate destination, but that could not be helped. By the time the first trees of the wood closed around him he knew he could go no further and so he sank down where he was. In an hour or two the badgers would be up and around and expecting him to begin another journey. But there was no possibility of that for the present. He must try and keep awake, though; otherwise, they could miss each other.
    Through bleary eyes that ached for sleep he at last saw four ghostly-grey shapes moving along under the trees with the badgers’ familiar lumbering gait. He yapped to warn them of his presence.
    ‘Why, you’ve come quite the wrong way!’ cried the sow badger. ‘Now you’ve a long trek indeed ahead of you.’
    ‘Had to move – dogs,’ muttered Bold. ‘Afraid I can’t go . . . any further tonight.’
    ‘He’s exhausted,’ said one of the young badgers unnecessarily.
    ‘ Now what do we do?’ demanded one of the others of its mother.
    ‘I don’t know for sure,’ she answered. ‘This is very awkward.’
    ‘I’m sorry,’ groaned Bold. ‘But I was lucky to escape.’
    ‘Yes, yes,’ she said. ‘I understand.’ She thought for a moment. ‘Well, if you can’t be moved, you can’t,’ she pronounced. ‘So I’ll have to stay here with you. However, there’s no need for all of us to remain behind. You three must go back