MINSTREL WEATHER < CHAPTER 

 XV. THE PLAY OF LEAVES * 



| OR fox and partridge, fawn 

 and squirrel all the wood 

 dwellers that run or fly 

 youth, like the rest of life, is 

 a time of stress and effort. 

 They have a short babyhood and little 

 childhood. Once they begin to move they 

 must take up for themselves the burden 

 of those that prey and are preyed upon. 

 They step from nest or den into a world 

 in arms against them, and while they 

 sensibly fail to worry over this, undoubt- 

 edly it complicates their fun. Baby foxes 

 playing are winsome innocents, but they 

 have become sly and wary while lambs, 



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