THE PINE-MARTEN 99 



that she too was the sole survivor of her kind. 

 She came early ; the stars had hardly begun to 

 pale when, with scarcely a rustle to announce 

 her coming, the hare saw her making as 

 straight towards him as the trees permitted. In- 

 deed, she threatened to overrun him, but stopped 

 a dozen yards away near a patch of gaudy 

 orange-red fungus, and sat scratching an ear till 

 a shout from the glebe farm suddenly arrested 

 her attention. At the sound she stood erect 

 and listened with ears acock. She was an 

 elegant creature with a bushy tail, resembling, 

 save for her dark-brown colouring, a dwarf fox ; 

 and, like reynard himself, the moment she was 

 satisfied that the shout, twice repeated, was not 

 the hue and cry that had pursued her again and 

 again, she relaxed her tense attitude and fell to 

 play. She ran with bewitching grace and 

 activity along the trunk and branches of a fallen 

 tree, rested at the end of the longest branch, 

 and, after brushing a feather from her muzzle, 

 renewed her frolics, as if for the hare's enter- 

 tainment. Then back she jumped to the ground, 

 sprang to the nearest bole, climbed up and up, 

 was plainly visible at the dome against the now 

 reddening sky, and finally lay at full length 

 on a horizontal branch scanning the scene 

 below. Her quick eyes were everywhere — now 



