GREY FOX AGAIN 125 



And like the sheep he had not to bear the 

 weight of his covering, for the heat of his body 

 thawed the snow round it, with the result that, 

 when it froze again, a shell of ice was formed, 

 thin Indeed, yet able to sustain its load. For 

 a while the hare was in complete darkness, 

 but his breath presently melted the snow in 

 front of his nostrils, forming a peep-hole through 

 which he looked out on a world he could no 

 longer recognise. His very threshold seemed 

 strange ; only the side of the near boulder with 

 its streaks of yellow and grey lichens presented 

 a familiar face. 



The heavy fall had cleared the sky, whence a 

 vast array of stars looked down on a world as 

 hushed as the depths they lighted. A wondrous 

 silence reigned over hill and plain, till it was 

 broken in the dead of night by a vixen calling 

 from beyond the farm. The penetrating cry 

 had scarcely died away when from the dis- 

 tance came a faint response. On hearing It the 

 vixen squalled again, and was answered from 

 Bartinney. 



Again the awful squall rang out ; this time the 

 reply rose from beside the rock near the chantry. 

 The sharp yap, thrice repeated, made the hare 

 tremble, and no wonder, for it seemed to him to 

 proceed from the back of his snow-hut. Then 



