148 THE ROLL OF THE SEASONS 



eyes had swung back to the earth we had come to 

 watch. In those few moments the vixen had appeared 

 out of the unknown, had called at the mouth of her 

 den, the cubs had come tumbling out, and were now 

 nozzling her from both sides in the ecstasy of reunion 

 after a day's solitude. We soon had them under the 

 lens, which brought them so near that when the vixen 

 happened to look our way we marvelled at not seeing 

 recognition in her eyes and a swift departure of her 

 and her family. 



There were four of the little foxes, now as large as 

 rabbits. They were fat and woolly, uncertain upon 

 their feet, and with solemn faces that seemed to won- 

 der at the friskiness of the bodies to which they had 

 become attached. Certainly those bodies were full of 

 play. Sometimes they ran against one another and 

 sent one another sprawling, sometimes they chased 

 one another till the watchful mother brought them 

 back to bounds with a call so low that we failed to 

 hear it a hundred yards away. Sometimes these odd 

 little bodies stood up on hind-legs and grasped one 

 another like wrestlers. Once, all four wrestled to- 

 gether and fell in a heap, with sprawling legs that 

 seemed to amount to a score instead of sixteen, as 

 should have been the case. And while they played a 

 fond mother watched over their safety, little dreaming 

 that they were all being watched by a hated upright 

 animal, who, .had he been armed and ill-disposed, 

 would have had them all at his mercy. 



We have seen our little foxes many times since that 

 evening. We know the four of them one from the 

 other the big brother who takes care of the others 

 in their mother's absence ; the thin cub with a strong 



