SLY-BOOTS. 57 



5. All the other parts of the body are in harmony 

 with the face. The month stretches wide, for the fox 

 kills its prey ; a spare beard is ranged around the upper 

 lip, in long, receding points ; those lips, too, are finely cut 

 and closed ; they indicate energy and self-command. But, 

 if they move apart, the sharp, white teeth glisten fiercely ; 

 or, gnashing with rage, a hoarse, cough-like, snapping bark 

 is heard. Swift feet carry the slender, hanging body, 

 with its bushy train, almost trackless over the ground. 

 On his breast he wears a delicate white shirt-front, and his 

 fur gleams red and golden. 



6. Thus formed and clad and furnished, the cunning 

 one goes creeping, slinking, and winking through life ; he 

 wends and bends, is cautious, persevering, agile, and ever 

 resolute ; the master of a hundred arts, whom one can not 

 help admiring and hating in the same breath. 



7. But to return to our fox, still leaning against his 

 door-post. Soon two or three young foxes make their 

 appearance ; and now, as the mother steps out of her 

 dwelling, the old fox departs to obtain his family supplies. 

 With his tail dragging after him, he silently creeps through 

 bush and field, and always in a slanting direction. He 

 soon reaches the park where the roe grazes undisturbed 

 by man. He creeps along ever more slowly and softly. 



8. The evening breathes coolly from every stem and 

 leaf. The summits of the trees rise motionless in the 

 silence ; the throats of the birds alone are still heard. 

 The thrush is warbling in clear tones ; the titmouse, chirp- 

 ing its pert little song, passes from bush to bush ; the 

 carpenter woodpecker is chopping and hammering at an 

 old oak-stump ; the jay's noisy screech is heard now and 

 then, with a strange, jeering flourish ; and when again all 

 is quite still, from the depths of the green solitude there 

 comes the mournful cry of the pewit. 



