398 THE ROLL OF THE SEASONS 



Vulpes stop to consider that he would have nothing 

 to fear from a man of this growth in a bare tooth- 

 and-limb tussle. An unreasoning dislike urged the 

 one to follow and the other to shun. 



Once, said the boy, and the tracks confirmed him, 

 Vulpes stopped and looked back over his shoulder. 

 Possibly he was thinking, "Why cannot you and I be 

 friends? You could put a meal in my way easily 

 enough, and possibly I could repay you." Here, 

 though the boy did not volunteer the statement, he 

 stopped also. The tell-tale tracks made that clear. 

 Perhaps he began to consider the consequences of 

 catching up this sharp-toothed animal. Perhaps he 

 happened just then to want new breath. May we 

 even imagine that he instinctively accepted the truce 

 proposed by Vulpes, with a view to peace and an 

 alliance ? There is no telling which first moved on 

 again. Only the steps were resumed, first at a walk, 

 then at a run, as Vulpes whisked over the big bank, 

 then flashed into the gorse, long before the boy was 

 able to see what had become of him. 



The orchard will be a blanker place for the boy, 

 now the red fox is gone. For ourselves, when we 

 have added up the account, even though it includes a 

 few ruined partridge-nests to his discredit, we find no 

 cause to rejoice at his death. That remains for those 

 who have chickens, but not voles, or who do not know 

 that they have voles. Pheasants being accounted 

 poultry also, as, indeed, they are, poultry-keepers are 

 almost the only ones who will speak ill of the dead, 

 The hundred horsemen who took part first and last 

 in that twenty-mile run have nothing but praises 

 to bestow on the gallant quarry. 



