THE SNOW-WALKERS 



continues to the eye the ease and poise of his car- 

 riage. But, pursued by the hound on a wet, thawy 

 day, it often becomes so heavy and bedraggled as to 

 prove a serious inconvenience, and compels him to 

 take refuge in his den. He is very loath to do this; 

 both his pride and the traditions of his race stimu- 

 late him to run it out, and win by fair superiority 

 of wind and speed ; and only a wound or a heavy 

 and moppish tail will drive him to avoid the issue 

 in this manner. 



To learn his surpassing shrewdness and cunning, 

 attempt to take him with a trap. Rogue that he 

 is, he always suspects some trick, and one must be 

 more of a fox than he is himself to overreach him. 

 At first sight it would appear easy enough. With 

 apparent indifference he crosses your path, or walks 

 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 midwin- 

 ter, 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, 

 11 



