184 THE CLERK OF THE WOODS 



and once had stopped to scratch at the back 

 side of it. 



" He knew what was in there," said I. 

 The farmer laughed. 



" Oh, he is an old fellow," he answered. 

 " I have a trap set for him just where he 

 used to pass. Now he crosses the field, but 

 he goes round that spot ! I see his tracks. 

 They say it is easy to trap foxes. Perhaps 

 it is ; but it is n't for me." 



Yet he has shown me not this year 

 more than one handsome skin. 



Once, too, he showed me the fox himself. 

 Hounds were baying in the distance as I 

 came to the house on my Sunday morning 

 walk, and we spoke of their probable course. 

 He thought it likely that they would cross 

 a certain field, and taking a by-road that 

 would carry us within sight of it, we kept 

 our eyes out till the dogs seemed to have 

 diverged in the wrong direction. Then I 

 was walking carelessly along, talking as 

 usual (a bad habit of mine), when my com- 

 panion seized me by both shoulders and 

 swung me sharply about. " Look at that ! " 

 he said. And there stood the fox, five or ten 



