Vixen 127 



was. So I could come and go at will without 

 scaring the foxes. 



For many days I went there and saw much 

 of the training of the young ones. They early 

 learned to turn to statuettes at any strange 

 sound, and then on hearing it again or finding 

 other causs for fear, to run for shelter. 



Some animals have so much mother-love that 

 it overflows and benefits outsiders. Not so old 

 Vixen it would seem. Her pleasure in the cubs 

 led to most refined cruelty. For she often 

 brought home to them mice and birds alive, 

 and with diabolical gentleness would avoid do- 

 ing them serious hurt so that the cubs might 

 have larger scope to torment them. 



There was a woodchuck that lived over in 

 the hill orchard. He was neither handsome 

 nor interesting, but he knew how to take care 

 of himself. He had digged a den between the 

 roots of an old pine-stump, so that the foxes 

 could not follow him by digging. But hard 

 work was not their way of life ; wits they be- 

 lieved worth more than elbow-grease. This 

 woodchuck usually sunned himself on the 

 stump each morning. If he saw a fox near he 

 went down in the door of his den, or if the 

 enemy was very near he went inside and stayed 

 long enough for the danger to pass. 



