6 WINTER 



afraid it might have fared ill with him. But here he 

 was, with four good legs under him ; 

 and, after bagging our skunk, we 

 returned to pick up the hare's trail, 

 to try our luck once more. 

 We followed his long, leisurely leaps 

 down the ridge, out into our mowing-field, 

 U jf and over to the birches below the house. 

 Here he had capered about in the snow, had 



stood up on his haunches and gnawed the 

 bark from off a green oak sucker two and 

 a half feet from the ground. This, doubt- 

 less, was pretty near his length, stretched 

 out an interesting item ; not exact to the 

 inch, perhaps, but close enough for us ; for 



who would care to kill him in order to measure him 



with scientific accuracy? 



Nor was this all ; for up the footpath through the 



birches came the marks of two dogs. They joined 



the marks of the hare. And then, back along the 



edge of the woods to the bushy ridge, we saw a 



pretty race. 



It was all in our imaginations, all done for us by 



those long-flinging footprints in the snow. But we 



" 7, 



