CHAPTER X 



THE FOX IN SUMMER 



" Stags in the forests lie, hares in the valley oh, 

 Web-footed otters are speared in the lochs 

 Beasts of the chase that are not worth a tally-ho 1 

 None can compare with the gorse covert fox." 



Now is the season of respite, at length has arrived 

 the time of peace and goodwill to the vulpine race. 

 No more for many months shall disappointment in 

 the shape of locked hall-door await the rambling 

 fox at his earth after a nightly prowl. No more 

 shall the deep note of some well-known " finder " 

 arouse Sir Reynard from dreams of hen-roosts and 

 plunder, and strike terror to his guilty soul. 



Nunc est ludendum, the time of domestic quietude, 

 of endless frolic with the precocious youngsters of 

 the fox family, of havoc among young birds, bunnies, 

 and field-mice. 



The majority of the throng in scarlet or sable, 

 whose chief recreation for five months of the year is 

 the pursuit of the fox, will probably never again 

 set eyes on a single specimen of the race till the 

 first week of next November, and what becomes of 



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