io REDPAD THE FOX 
the chestnut leaves spread out their cool fingers, 
and a filmy green veil of foliage is flung over the 
beeches' naked branches. In the long light evenings 
scores of rabbits grazed along the woodsides, and 
it was upon these that Redpad took his first lessons 
in hunting. He obeyed Vix and her signals im- 
plicitly, and therefore learned by imitation, which 
is the only form of pedagogy known in the woods. 
One evening when the sun shot long slanting 
shadows across Knockdane, the foxes stole out to 
hunt. Between the woods and the river lies a flat 
meadow, and thither Vix led Redpad, the latter 
aping the carriage of his mother's brush to the 
best of his ability. She made him crouch down 
in the thicket twenty yards from the fence, but 
she herself crept forward. Although the bushes 
were too thick to allow her to see into the field, 
yet the air was full of that peculiar silence which 
means that many hearts are beating and many 
ears listening close at hand. But the senses of a 
fox are very keen, and above the murmur of the 
river over its pebbles, Vix could hear eager lips 
snatching and nibbling at the coarse grass, and 
many feet splashing in the dew. She crept forward 
until she could peep into the field, and saw a dozen 
rabbits feeding there. A fox has two methods of 
completing a ' stalk 'the spring and the rush. 
