SILVER FIELDS 11 



more and more suspicious and presently will van- 

 ish like a swift shadow in the shadow of the woods. 

 Shall we send him off with a shout or try how near 

 he will let us come? Then step carefully and 

 slowly. How steadfast he stands, though we have 

 lessened by half the distance that lay between 

 us when we first saw him. He must have an ap- 

 pointment here with the most bewitching vixen 

 in all fox society, and will not budge till he must. 

 How does the wise scamp know that our guns are 

 at home? Or has he not heard or seen us yet, all 

 his looking and listening being for the coming of 

 his mistress? Has love made him blind and deaf 

 to all enemies but the maiden of his heart? Try 

 with a mouse squeak if he cannot be moved by 

 an appeal to his stomach. Stock still yet! Con- 

 found his impudence or his unvulpine stupidity. 

 Salute him with a yell that shall make the moon- 

 lit night more hideous to him than the glare of 

 noon with a hundred hounds baying behind him. 

 The shadowy hill and the black pines behind us 

 toss back and forth the echoes of such an infernal 

 uproar as has not stirred them since Indians and 

 the "Indian devil" were here. Our fox is para- 

 lyzed with fright, actually frozen with fear. Let 

 us rush upon him and secure him before the blood 

 starts again in his veins. Well, it is a stump after 

 all ! But were ever mortals played a worse trick by 

 a real fox? 



