And it was but a gray badger pattering past the hut, which he feared not, it having been deserted for so long, on his search for food.
Then I was angry with myself, for I could not have been more feared had it been a full pack of wolves; but at last I laughed at my fears, and began to look round the hut in the moonlight.

Soon I had shut and barred the heavy door, and laid myself down to sleep, with a log for pillow.
Though sleep seemed long in coming, it came at last, and it was heavy and dreamless, until the sun shone through the chinks between the logs whereof the hut was built, and I woke.
Then I rose up, opened the door, and looked out on the morning.

The level sunbeams crept through the trees and made everything very fresh and fair, and a little light frost hung over twigs and young fern fronds everywhere, so that I seemed in the land of fairy instead of the Quantocks.

The birds were singing loudly, and a squirrel came and chattered at me, and then, running up a bough, sat up, still as if carved from the wood it was resting on, and watched me seemingly without fear.

Then I went down the combe and sought a pool, and bathed, and ate the last of the food the collier had given me.