LITTLE BEASTS OF FIELD AND WOOD 



out of some woods into the open, I saw a fox 

 that looked quite black running before me up 

 the hill-side ; he stopped for a moment to look 

 back at me, and then disappeared round the hill. 

 I followed his track in the snow, and found that 

 he circled round to the woods I had just left, and 

 from there he refused to be driven, though I fol- 

 lowed his track until it crossed and recrossed so 

 often as to be indecipherable, but I was only able 

 to get the merest glimpse of him between the 

 trees. When I saw him first, I was looking 

 north, and, as it was nearly noon, the sun must 

 have been at my back, though it may have been 

 hidden by clouds at the time. Now every 

 one is aware that an object on the snow looks a 

 great deal darker than it really is, by contrast ; 

 but I have never seen anything so light as a red 

 fox look black, unless the sun was directly beyond 

 it. All of the foxes that I have ever seen when 

 the ground was bare have been of the ordinary 

 kind ; but other persons appear to have been 



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