Chapter 77
PATTI’S LITTLE VIXEN had indeed been waiting again in Blackberry Covert where Ryman said she’d be and provided another morning of entertainment on Tuesday. Two of her cousins took up the baton on Thursday and played a tag-team game that ended at a well-used den in the field next to the meet, a most obliging conclusion for the large group of tired but happy hunters.
By Saturday morning the autumnal foliage was past its peak, the trees half naked, a mid-November warning of winter’s barrenness to come. The air was chilly, dampened by a fine mist that stubbornly resisted the sun’s weak efforts to burn it away. But the spirits of the hunters remained as brilliant and warm as they had been since the season’s first day.
“Hark, please!” Everyone turned to Ryman as he called the assem
