FIELD AND STUDY 



prise him in your morning walk, or he surprises you 

 in his. He, too, is a night prowler, but often he does 

 not get home till after sun-up. Early one October 

 morning, as I stood in the road looking out over the 

 landscape, a belated fox jumped over the wall a 

 few yards from me and loped unconcernedly along 

 parallel with the road, then turned and scaled the 

 fence, and crossed the road, and went bounding up 

 the hill toward the woods with a grace and ease im- 

 possible to describe. I suppose it was his massive 

 tail held level with his body that helped give the 

 idea of buoyancy. There was no apparent effort, as 

 when the farm dog climbs the hill, but the ease and 

 lightness that goes with floating and winged things. 

 It was indeed a pleasing spectacle, such as I had 

 not seen for many years. This winter the fox-hunter 

 with his hound will be trailing him from mountain 

 to mountain or from valley to valley, and he will 

 drift along over the snow, pausing now and then 

 to harken back along his trail, and reluctantly 

 expose himself to the eye of day in the broad open 

 spaces. Unless the day is wet and his tail and fur 

 get draggled, he will run from sun to sun without 

 much apparent fatigue. But if his burden gets too 

 great, he knows of holes in the rocks where he can 

 take refuge. 



Any device that a plant or an animal has for get- 

 ting on in the world interests us; it brings the lower 

 orders nearer to us. We have our own devices and 



32 



