How Animals Talk 



hills he had come down through sheltering woods 

 at a stealthy trot; across open pastures on the 

 jump; over a bridge and along a highway, where 

 he traveled behind a friendly stone wall; then 

 very cautiously through lanes and garden fringes, 

 where the scent of men and dogs met him at every 

 turn; turning aside here for a difficulty or there for 

 a danger, but holding his direction as true as if 

 he followed a compass, till he came at last with 

 delicate steps to where his mate was silently call- 

 ing him. For except on the assumption that she 

 called him, and with a cry that was soundless, I 

 know not how to explain the fact that he found 

 her in a place where neither he nor she had ever 

 been before. 



It is possible, you may reason, that this was not 

 his first visit; that unknown to us, venturing 

 among his human and canine enemies, he had by 

 a lucky chance stumbled upon his mate on an 

 evening when the bare ground did not betray his 

 secret to our eyes; and that for his next visit he 

 had cunningly laid out a different trail through 

 manifold dangers. It was the latter trail, made 

 without doubt or question of what lay at the end 

 of it, which I had followed in the telltale snow. 



That is a good armchair argument, but a very 

 doubtful explanation of the fox action, since it calls 

 for more reasoning power than we commonly find 



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