52 A FOX TALE 



for miles round in all directions, so that if one is dis- 

 covered, they still have two or three other breakfasts or 

 dinners waiting for them somewhere else. 



Mrs. Fox did not seem to take her loss very much to 

 heart— merely told young Eenard that he would have to 

 cater for himself and her now, and bade him hurry on 

 with his breakfast. 



His meal over, Eenard sauntered about till he found 

 a cosy place in a spruce covert wherein to rest. He tried 

 this place and that, but none suited him : one was too 

 humpy, another too deep, and a third full of pine, 

 needles ; but at last, after a great deal of thinking and 

 poking, he twisted himself into a round woolly ball, curled 

 his tail over his nose and slept soundly till dusk. 



When he awoke, he remembered with a pang that he 

 would have to do the hunting all alone that night, and 

 for every night to come ; and that, if there were any 

 poachers' nets or gamekeepers' traps, he would be sure 

 to fall into them, as now he had no one to reconnoitre on 

 ahead. 



He thought over all the birds and beasts which he 

 liked best to eat, and decided that a nice fat chicken was 

 really dearest to his heart. So away he went, as soon as 

 it was dark, to a farmyard some five miles off. Arrived 

 there, he was not long in discovering the hen-house, and, 

 luckily for him, the hen-wife had left the small lower door 

 open to admit three stray ducks who had not made their 

 appearance at the usual locking-up hour. Eenard was 

 not slow to avail himself of this piece of good luck, and, 

 creeping slyly through the hole, stood quite still for a 

 minute or two to see if his entrance had been observed. 

 It had evidently not, for there was the silence of sleep 

 upon the unsuspecting fowls; so, cautiously, and with 

 a beating heart, he softly scaled the ladder, and crept 

 towards an open coop which was standing on the tioor. 

 There was a nice fat chicken inside, which stirred a little 

 as Eenard approached, and fearing it was going to wake 



