178 GLIMPSES OF WILD LIFE 



my study floor. The occasional glimpses I get 

 of them about the lawn in the dusk, their cotton 

 tails twinkling in the dimness, afford me a gen- 

 uine pleasure. I have seen the time when I 

 would go a good way to shoot a partridge, but 

 I would not have killed, if I could, the one 

 that started out of the vines that cover my rus- 

 tic porch, as I approached that side of the 

 house one autumn morning. How much of the 

 woods, and of the untamable spirit of wild 

 nature, she brought to my very door! It was 

 tonic and exhilarating to see her whirl away 

 toward the vineyard. I also owe a moment's 

 pleasure to the gray squirrel that, finding my 

 summer-house in the line of his travels one 

 summer day, ran through it and almost over my 

 feet as I sat idling w^ith a book. 



I am sure my power of digestion was im- 

 proved that cold winter morning when, just as 

 we were sitting down to breakfast about sun- 

 rise, a red fox loped along in front of the win- 

 dow, looking neither to the right nor to the 

 left, and disappeared amid the currant-bushes. 

 What of the wild and the cunning did he not 

 bring ! His graceful form and motion were in 

 my mind's eye all day. When you have seen 

 a fox loping along in that way you have seen 

 the poetry there is in the canine tribe. It is 

 to the eye what a flowing measure is to the 

 mind, so easy, so buoyant; the furry creature 

 drifting along like a large red thistledown, or 

 like a plume borne by the wind. It is some- 

 thing to remember with pleasure, that a muskrat 



