222 WHERE ROLLS THE OREGON 



later one of the workmen of the estate came upon 

 the den of a fox, at the mouth of which lay dead 

 a whole litter of young ones. They had been 

 poisoned. The mother had not eaten the doc- 

 tored food herself, but had carried it home to her 

 family. They must have died in the burrow, for 

 it was evident from the signs that she had dragged 

 them out into the fresh air, to revive them, and 

 deposited them gently on the sand by the hole. 

 Then in her perplexity she had brought various 

 tidbits of mouse and bird and rabbit and placed 

 at their noses to tempt them to wake up out of 

 their strange sleep and eat as hungry children 

 ought to eat. Who knows how long she watched 

 beside the still forms, and what her emotions were *? 

 She must have left the neighborhood soon after, 

 however, for no one has seen her since about the 

 estate. 



I have elsewhere told of the cat, Calico, and 

 her strange family ; the thwarted cat mother mak- 

 ing good the loss of her kittens by adopting a 

 nest of young gray squirrels. A similar story 

 comes to me from a reader in New York State. 

 I will quote my correspondent's letter verbatim, 

 not because there is an item in her account, re- 



