"And oh, mother, never, never go away from us again!" cried another. "Do not leave us at home all alone."
"But, my dear little ones," the mother said, "how could you have any food if I never went away from our home?"
The mother quail was very sad, and she would have been still more sorrowful if she had known what was happening to her little son far away in the owl's nest. The cruel owl had pulled and pulled on the quail's bill and legs, till they were so long that his mother would not have known him.
One night the mole came to the quail and said, "Your little son is in the owl's nest."
"How do you know?" asked the quail.
"I cannot see very well," answered the mole, "but I heard him call, and I know that he is there."
"How shall I get him away from the owl?" the quail asked the mole.
"The owl crept up to your home in the dark," said the mole, "but you must go to her nest at sunrise when the light shines in her eyes and she cannot see you."
At sunrise the quail crept up to the owl's nest and carried away her dear little son to his old home. As the light grew brighter, she saw what had happened to him. His bill and his legs were so long that he did not look like her son.
"He is not like our brother," said the other little quails.