Chapter III
Alone in the World
WHEN Autumn finally came the young foxes were glad, for it gave such a zest to living. The mornings were crisp and cold, the air was clear and bracing, and it made them want to run and leap, just in sheer exuberance of living, and it gave them such appetites that they were almost painful. That is, they were annoying until they were satisfied.
On such mornings as these, when the frost was very heavy, it gemmed the weeds along the brookside with diamonds, and fringed the ferns with a wonderful frost work, which was like the finest lace. Finally it did wonders to the trees. The soft maples along the water courses were painted scarlet, while the berries of the staghorn sumac were almost as red. Other trees it painted a fainter
