Down went Pew with a cry that rang high into the night; and the four hoofs trampled and spurned him and passed by.
The surrounding walls of massive earth broke down here and there and crumbled away, being trampled over by wandering cattle.
Sometimes, in taking a walk through the wood, you would find yourself suddenly sprawling on all fours, having trampled on one of Gibbey's salmon.
I could see, here and there, the track of his former journeys: broken branches of witch-hazel and moose-wood, ferns trampled down, a faint trail across some deeper bed of moss.
Before taking the back track, however, they had halted, and stayed some time in the same place--under the branches of a spreading cottonwood. The turf, much trampled around the trunk of the tree, was evidence of this.
'And at last I dreamt that I was walking over a bridge made of a whale's back, and the living bridge spoke to me and said: "Here have I been stretched out these three years, and men and horses have trampled my back down into my ribs.
Then another important thing, Raoul: should you be wounded in a battle, and fall from your horse, if you have any strength left, disentangle yourself from the line that your regiment has formed; otherwise, it may be driven back and you will be trampled to death by the horses.
My friend, Little Wound (as I will call him, for I do not remember his name), being quite small, was unable to reach the nest until it had been well trampled upon and broken and the insects had made a counter charge with such vigor as to repulse and scatter our numbers in every direction.