THE SNOW-WALKERS 49 



in your footsteps in the field, or travels along the 

 beaten highway, or lingers in the vicinity of stacks 

 and remote barns. Carry the carcass of a pig, or a 

 fowl, or a dog, to a distant field in midwinter, and 

 in a few nights his tracks cover the snow about it. 



The inexperienced country youth, misled by this 

 seeming carelessness of Reynard, suddenly conceives 

 a project to enrich himself with fur, and wonders 

 that the idea has not occurred to him before, and to 

 others. I knew a youthful yeoman of this kind, 

 who imagined he had found a mine of wealth on 

 discovering on a remote side-hill, between two woods, 

 a dead porker, upon which it appeared all the foxes 

 of the neighborhood had nightly banqueted. The 

 clouds were burdened with snow; and as the first 

 flakes commenced to eddy down, he set out, trap 

 and broom in hand, already counting over in imagi- 

 nation the silver quarters he would receive for his 

 first fox-skin. With the utmost care, and with a 

 palpitating heart, he removed enough of the trodden 

 snow to allow the trap to sink below the surface. 

 Then, carefully sifting the light element over it 

 and sweeping his tracks full, he quickly withdrew, 

 laughing exultingly over the little surprise he had 

 prepared for the cunning rogue. The elements con- 

 spired to aid him, and the falling snow rapidly oblit- 

 erated all vestiges of his work. The next morning 

 at dawn he was on his way to bring in his fur. 

 The snow had done its work effectually, and, he 

 believed, had kept his secret well. Arrived in sight 

 of the locality, he strained his vision to make out 



