108 THE FALL OF THE YEAR 



CHAPTER II 



TO THE TEACHER 



I have chosen the fox in this chapter to illustrate the very inter- 

 esting and striking fact that wild animals, birds and beasts, thrive in 

 the neighborhood of man if given the least protection ; for if the fox 

 holds his own (as surely he does) in the very gates of one of the larg- 

 est cities in the United States, how easy it should be for us to pre- 

 serve for generations yet the birds and smaller animals ! I might 

 have written » very earnest chapter on the need for every pupil's 

 joining the Audubon Society and the Animal Rescue League ; but 

 young pupils, no less than their elders, hate to be preached to. So I 

 have recounted a series of short narratives, trusting to the suggestions 

 of the chapter, and to the quiet comment of the teacher to do the 

 good work. Every pupil a protector of wild life is the moral. 



FOR THE PUPIL 



There are two species of foxes in the eastern states — the gray 

 fox, common from New Jersey southward, and the larger red fox, so 

 frequent here in New England and northward, popularly known as 

 Reynard. Far up under the Arctic circle lives the little white or Arc- 

 tic fox, so valuable for its fur ; and in California still another species 

 known as the coast fox. The so-called silver or blue, or black, or 

 cross fox, is only the red fox with a blackish or bluish coat. 

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Mullein Hill : the name of the author's country home in Hingham, 

 Massachusetts. The house is built on the top of a wooded ridge 

 looking down upon the tops of the orchard trees and away over 

 miles of meadow and woodland to the Blue Hills, and at night 

 to the lights that flash in Boston Harbor. Years before the house 

 was built the ridge was known as Mullein Hill because of the 

 number and size of the mulleins ( Verbascum Thapsus) that grew 

 upon its sides and top. 

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mowing-field : a New England term for a field kept permanently 

 in grass for hay. 



