Unfortunately a dead branch under the snow 



broke with a dull snap beneath his cautious 



hoof, and I turned aside to see and so df^en VpfdeeA/3 



saved myself the long tramp up and down 



the cunning trails. When he saw that his 



trick was discovered he broke away for the 



open barren, with all his wonderful powers 



of eye and ear and tireless legs alert to save 



himself from the man whom he mistook for 



his deadly enemy. 



It was of small use to follow him further, 

 so I sat down on a prostrate yellow birch to 

 rest and listen awhile in the vast silence, 

 and to watch anything that might be passing 

 through the cold white woods. 



Under the fringe of evergreen the soft 

 purple shadows jumped suddenly, and a hare 

 as white as the snow bounded out. In long 

 nervous jumps, like a bundle of wire springs, 

 he went leaping before my face across a nar- 

 row arm of the barren to the shelter of a 

 point below. The soft arms of the ground 

 spruces and the softer shadows beneath them 

 seemed to open of their own accord to let him 

 in. All nodding of branches and dropping 



