132 Vixen 



uresome, so again he came to the ground 

 and skurried across the glade nearer than 

 before. 



Still as death lay Vix, " surely she was dead." 

 And the little foxes began to wonder if their 

 mother wasn't asleep. 



But the squirrel was working himself into a 

 little craze of foolhardy curiosity. He had 

 dropped a piece of bark on Vix's head ; he had 

 used up his list of bad words, and he had done 

 it all over again, without getting a sign of life. 

 So after a couple more dashes across the glade 

 he ventured within a few feet of the really 

 watchful Vix, who sprang to ^er feet and 

 pinned him in a twinkling. 



" And the little ones picked the bones e-oh.** 



Thus the rudiments of their education were 

 laid, and afterward, as they grew stronger, they 

 were taken farther afield to begin the higher 

 branches of trailing and scenting. 



For each kind of prey they were taught a 

 way to hunt, for every animal has some great 

 strength or it could not live, and some great 

 weakness or the others could not live. The 

 squirrel's weakness was foolish curiosity ; the 

 fox's that he can't climb a tree. And the train- 

 ing of the little foxes was all shaped to take 

 advantage of the weakness of the other creat* 



