134 Vixen 



able to go abroad with their parents they 

 learned new animals. They were beginning to 

 think they knew the scent of everything that 

 moved. But one night the mother took them 

 to a field where was a strange black fiat thing 

 on the ground. She brought them on purpose 

 to smell it, but at the first whiff their every 

 hair stood on end, they trembled, they knew 

 not why — it seemed to tingle through their 

 blood and fill them with instinctive hate and 

 fear. And when she saw its full effect she to''' 

 them — 



** That is ma?i-scent*' 





m 



Meanwhile the hens continued to disappear. 

 f had not betrayed the den of cubs. Indeed, 

 I thought a good deal more of the little rascals 

 than I did of the hens; but uncle was dread- 

 fully wrought up and made most disparaging 

 remarks about my woodcraft. Tc please him 



