Tarka the Otter

by Henry Williamson

  Below the island the river widened, smooth with the sky. Tarka swam down slowly, bleeding from many wounds. Sometimes he paddled with three legs, sometimes with one, in the water darkening so strangely before his eyes. Not always did he hear the hounds baying around him. At the beginning of the tenth hour he passed the banks faced with stone to keep the sea from the village, and drifted into deeper water, whereon sticks and froth were floating. Hounds were called off by the horn, for the tide was at flood.

  But as they were about to leave, Tarka was seen again, moving with the tide, his mouth open. The flow took him near the bank; he kicked feebly, and rolled over.

  Tally Ho!

  Deadlock saw the small brown head, and bayed in triumph as he jumped down the bank. He bit the head, and lifted the otter high, flung him about and fell into the water with him. They saw the broken head look up beside Deadlock, heard the cry of Ic-yang! as Tarka bit into his throat, and then the hound was sinking with the otter into the deep water. Oak-leaves, black and rotting in the mud of the unseen bed, arose and swirled and sank again. And the tide slowed still, and began to move back, and they waited and watched, until the body of Deadlock arose, drowned and heavy, and floated away amidst the froth on the waters.

  They pulled the body out of the river and carried it to the bank, laying it on the grass, and looking down at the dead hound in sad wonder. And while they stood there silently, a great bubble rose out of the depths, and broke, and as they watched, another bubble shook the surface, and broke; and there was a third bubble in the sea-going waters, and nothing more.

  HERE ENDS TARKA THE OTTER BY HENRY

  WILLIAMSON, BEGUN IN JUNE 1923 AND

  FINISHED IN FEBRUARY 1927 IN THE

  VILLAGE OF HAM IN DEVON

  Glossary

  Ackymal An onomatopoeic word from the call of the blue and great titmouse

  Aerymouse Common British bat

  Ammil Frost

  Appledrane A wasp buzzing inside a ripe apple

  Belving The note of a deep-chested hound

  Brock Badger

  Bubbles-a-vent An obsolescent otter-hunting cry

  Channered Wandering tracks in the salt turf which look as though they were made by great worms

  Clitter Pile of rocks

  Crackey Common wren

  Dimity Twilight

  Fitchey or fitch Stoat

  Glidders The smooth, sloping mudbanks of an esturial creek

  Oolypuggers Bulrushes

  Pill Esturial creek

  Pollywiggle Tadpole

  Quapping The sound made by a duck with its bill when feeding

  Ragrowster To enjoy boisterously

  Ram-cat Tom cat

  Ream A wave

  Ruddock Robin

  Shillets Flat stones of the river bed deposited by flood waters

  Shippen or shippon A roofed shed with one side open for cattle to shelter in

  Spurring Following the track of a wild animal

  Stag-bird A cock among domestic hens

  Sterlings (Pronounced starlings) The stone piling round the base of a bridge

  Tacker Small child, usually a boy

  Twired Slow and shallow flow of river water moving past a heron’s legs

  Vair Weasel

  Vuz-peg Hedgehog

  Yinny-yikker Noisily aggressive

  puffin.co.uk

  WEB FUN

  UNIQUE and exclusive digital content!

  Podcasts, photos, Q&A, Day in the Life of, interviews and much more, from Eoin Colfer, Cathy Cassidy, Allan Ahlberg and Meg Rosoff to Lynley Dodd!

  WEB NEWS

  The Puffin Blog is packed with posts and photos from Puffin HQ and special guest bloggers. You can also sign up to our monthly newsletter Puffin Beak Speak.

  WEB CHAT

  Discover something new EVERY month – books, competitions and treats galore.

  WEBBED FEET

  (Puffins have funny little feet and brightly coloured beaks.)

  Point your mouse our way today!

  Puffin is over seventy years old. Sounds ancient, doesn’t it? But Puffin has never been so lively. We’re always on the lookout for the next big idea, which is how it began all those years ago.

  Penguin Books was a big idea from the mind of a man called Allen Lane, who in 1935 invented the quality paperback and changed the world. And from great Penguins, great Puffins grew, changing the face of children’s books forever.

  The first four Puffin Picture Books were hatched in 1940 and the first Puffin story book featured a man with broomstick arms called Worzel Gummidge. In 1967 Kaye Webb, Puffin Editor, started the Puffin Club, promising to ‘make children into readers’. She kept that promise and over 200,000 children became devoted Puffineers through their quarterly instalments of Puffin Post.

  Many years from now, we hope you’ll look back and remember Puffin with a smile. No matter what your age or what you’re into, there’s a Puffin for everyone. The possibilities are endless, but one thing is for sure: whether it’s a picture book or a paperback, a sticker book or a hardback, if it’s got that little Puffin on it – it’s bound to be good.

  www.puffin.co.uk

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

  Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)

  Penguin Group (Australia), 707 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3008, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

  Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India

  Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)

  Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, Block D, Rosebank Office Park, 181 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North, Gauteng 2193, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  www.puffin.co.uk

  First published 1927

  Published in Penguin Books 1937

  Reprinted in Puffin Books 1949

  Reprinted with revisions by the author 1962

  Reprinted with map 1963

  This edition reissued 2014

  Text copyright © The Henry Williamson Literary Estate, 1927

  Illustrations copyright © Annabel Large, 1995

  Afterword copyright © Eleanor Graham, 1949

  Cover illustration by Darren Booth

  All rights reserved

  The moral right of the author has been asserted

  Typeset by Jouve (UK), Milton Keynes

  ISBN: 978-0-141-35928-1

  * Taw, Tavy, Teign, Torridge, Dart.