Vixen 125 



We soon lound that it was Scarface and his 

 wife Vixen that had made our woods their 

 home and our barnyard their base of supplies. 



Next morning a search in the pines showed 

 a great bank of earth that had been scratched 

 up within a few months. It must have come 

 from a hole, and yet there was none to be seen. 

 It is well known that a really cute fox, on dig- 

 ging a new den, brings all the earth out at the 

 first hole made, but carries on a tunnel into 

 some distant thicket. Then closing up for good 

 the first made and too well-marked door, uses 

 only the entrance hidden in the thicket. 



So after a little search at the other side of a 

 knoll, I found the real entry and good proof 

 that there was a nest of little foxes inside. 



Rising above the brush on the hillside was a 

 great hollow basswood. It leaned a good deal 

 and had a large hole at the bottom, and a 

 smaller one at top. 



We boys had often used this tree in playing 

 Swiss Family Robinson, and by cutting steps in 

 its soft punky walls had made it easy to go up 

 and down in the hollow. Now it came m 

 handy, for next day when the sun was warm I 

 went there to watch, and from this perch on 

 the roof, I soon saw the interesting family that 

 lived in the cellar near by. There were fout 



