how best a fir-cone can be stripped 

 and which of toadstools one might 

 eat. The partridge, why it dives 

 beneath the snow, and the fox, just 

 why he sets his feet so straight, and 

 why he wears so huge a taiL 



He learned the ponds, the woods, 

 the hills, and a hundred secrets of the 

 trail, but he got no deer. 



And though many a score of crook- 

 ed frosty miles he coursed, and some- 

 times had a track to lead and some- 

 times none, he still went on, like 

 Galahad when the Grail was just 

 before him. For more than once, 

 the guide that led was the trail of 

 the Sandhill Stag* 



