HUNTING THE SNOW 



11 



rac y tracks which, had they not been evidently^ 

 Jthose of a smaller squirrel, would have read to usvi. 

 most menacingly. 



As this was the mating season for squirrels, I sug- 

 ted that it might have been a kind of Atalanta's 

 here in the woods. But why did so little a squir- 

 rel want to mate with one so large ? They would not 

 *{look well together, was the answer of the small 

 .boys. They thought it much more likely that Father 

 Squirrel had been playing wood-tag with one of his 

 children. 



Then, suddenly, as sometimes happens in the woods, 



the true meaning of the signs 

 was fairly hurled at us, for 

 down the hill, squealing and 



panting, rushed a full-sized gray squirrel, with a red 

 (squirrel like a shadow, like a weasel, at his heels. 



For just an instant I thought it was a weasel, so 

 swift and silent and gliding were its movements, so 

 set and cruel seemed its expression, so sure, so inev 

 itable, its victory. 



Whether it ever caught the gray squirrel or not 



