FOXES 



and stood side to me, with his eyes still turned in 

 my direction. In that bright sunlight his fur 

 lighted up to a most brilliant red on his back and 

 tail, and was so short and close as to give him a 

 singularly lean appearance. 



Presently he turned and cantered slowly away 

 with much of the movement of a trotting horse, 

 slowly veering around toward me however, and 

 coming back along the sheep-path to almost his 

 original position. The birds were scolding him 

 more or less all the time, and a song-sparrow that 

 had alighted in the grass at no great distance 

 seemed to catch his eye, for he at once crouched 

 and attempted to crawl to within springing dis- 

 tance, but without success ; then he sat down in 

 the path and proceeded to scratch his ribs with 

 his hind foot, after which he stood up and walked 

 off along the sheep-path toward the woods, every 

 now and then stopping to look back over his 

 shoulder at me as if still in doubt as to my 

 identity. Whenever his head was turned away 



37 



