THE SNOW-WALKERS. 



61 



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

 sight it would appear easy enough. With apparent in- 

 difference he crosses your path, or walks in your foot- 

 steps in the field, or travels along the beaten highway, 

 or lingers in the vicinity of stacks and remote 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 occured to him before, and to others. 

 I knew a youthful yeoman of this kind, who imagined 

 he had found a mine of wealth on discovering on a re- 

 mote 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 sifting the light element 

 over it and sweeping his tracks full, he quickly with- 

 drew, laughing exultingly over the little surprise he 

 had prepared for the cunning rogue. The elements 

 conspired to aid him, and the falling snow rapidly ob- 

 literated all vestiges of his work. The next morning 



