THE SNOW-WALKERS. 61 



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

 first sight it would appear easy enough. With ap- 

 parent 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 re- 

 mote 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 imag- 

 ined 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 imagination 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 sift- 

 ing 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 conspired to aid him, and the 

 falling snow rapidly obliterated all vestiges of his 

 work. The next morning at dawn, he was on hi* 



