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They could have subscribed to the witches' cauldron of Macbeth: "Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog, Adder's fork and blindworm's sting, Lizard's leg and owlet's wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."
Beautiful and sweet to the young heart is the gentle shadow of melancholy which here falls upon it, soothing, yet sad, a sentiment midway between joy and sorrow. How true is it, that, in the language of Wordsworth, "In youth we love the darkling lawn, Brushed by the owlet's wing; Then evening is preferred to dawn, And autumn to the spring.
At this critical point, when the understanding of defeat was forming itself swiftly in Baree's mind, chance saved him. His fangs closed on one of the owlet's tender feet. Papayuchisew gave a sudden squeak. The ear was free at last and with a snarl of triumph Baree gave a vicious tug at Papayuchisew's leg.
And it was done, though more by the act of God than any particular cleverness of man. But, primed with what I'd told him, Mr. Bates got up Owlet's sleeve and, little by little, wormed out the truth. And Owlet, who'd been on the razor edge over the job for a good bit with a mind tottering, lost his nerve at last and gave himself away.
"Ay?" said the Baron; "it had been better for thee to have been a Norman, and better for my purpose too; but need has no choice of messengers. That St Withold's of Burton is an owlet's nest worth the harrying. The day will soon come that the frock shall protect the Saxon as little as the mail-coat."
The imitation of an owlet's cry directed them to a neighbouring large elm, and on approaching it, they were aware of three horses, held by one, concerning whom they could only see that he was tall, strong, and accoutred in the dress of a man-at-arms. "The sooner," he said, "we are gone from this place, Lady Margaret, it is so much the better.
I saw the hen-owl stoop and examine a dead chestnut leaf which lay, as the other had said, on an owlet's back. "Fa-a-ther!" said this owlet suddenly, in a shrill voice, "mayn't I go out to-night?" But all that Father did was to clasp its head in his claw and push it to and fro several times.
It was like trying to bite through a pillow, the feathers fangs, and just as they were beginning to prick the owlet's skin, Papayuchisew jabbing a little blindly with a beak that snapped sharply every time it closed got him by the ear. The pain of that hold was excruciating to Baree, and he made a more desperate effort to get his teeth through his enemy's thick armor of feathers.
And Oohoomisew, the old owl, might have said to Papayuchisew: "You little fool use your wings and fly!" They did neither and the fight began. Papayuchisew started it, and with a single wild yelp Baree went back in a heap, the owlet's beak fastened like a red-hot vise in the soft flesh at the end of his nose. That one yelp of surprise and pain was Baree's first and last cry in the fight.
A shot I heard, but it was dull and far off and didn't sound no ways different from the usual shots you always heard in Oakshotts. Then, after going without any event for half a mile or more, I saw the woodstack ahead on my way, and that minded me of Owlet's warning and the chance it might be true.
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