Back in his room David suddenly felt wide awake. He picked the dog up and went to the open window. The moon was going down, but there was enough light for him to see the edge of the wood and the mountain-side above it. Macbeth was licking his face when he first heard the plane in the distance. Not so many weeks before such a sound had been frightening enough after the wail of the siren. Now it seemed out of place.

"One of our night fighters going home," he said to Mac. But it did not sound like a fighter. It really was a bit like a German plane but he knew it couldn't be. Not out here. It came nearer and he leaned from the window. Just for a second he thought he saw a blacker speck against a strip of sky above the silhouette of the trees. Then the plane seemed to change direction and just before the last notes of the engine died away there came loud and clear from the mountain the unmistakable cry of an owl.

It was repeated three times and Macbeth growled in David's arms.

The boy was cold now and tumbled quickly into bed. Macbeth jumped up beside him and settled down on the eiderdown. Richard had not moved.

The owl's cry came again.

Then boy and dog slept.

2. Dark Hollow

It was a cool, clean morning when David looked out of the window. A gentle wind swayed the tops of the larch trees and there was no sound but their soft sighing and the jolly running of the brook.

He was pulling his sweater over his head when the twins came in. He could see that they were in one of their irritating "just alike" moods, and from previous experience he knew what that meant.

They were both wearing navy blue jerseys and grey flannel shorts and looked maddeningly alike. When they started the day like this they would probably insist upon doing everything together and refuse to be parted. They did not always dress alike, but sometimes, without telling each other, they would get up and put on similar clothes.

After breakfast Mrs. Morton explained that living in the wilds of the country meant that there were many more jobs to be done. She thought it only fair that each member of the family should be responsible for a definite task each day.

David agreed to be responsible for pumping all the water to keep full the tank in the roof, and the twins would gather kindling wood for the fires. They thought it would be a good idea to help each other to bring in logs and to take turns in fetching the milk from Ingles down the lane.