The Stranger Comments

It takes a heap of trouble to pretend to simple nothings. Cards up sleeves; wombats pulled out of hats.

True, but also-written in Frost country, and a little wily. Traditional theme of going into the dark woods (of self) to find oneself (light) dates back to Dante. Notice doubt in doubt, lost in thought. May not work that well, but perhaps not that simple, either. Could the narrator be the Stranger? How would it be possible for the snow to cover over one set of tracks and not the other, so that exiting the woods explorer says the tracks seemed to be his? Happenstance? Or is there a stranger in the self to be tracked down? I don't know.