90 THE IJO.V. 



when sufficiently near, be took a high and deter- 

 mined jump on to the top of it, and, after looking 

 around a while, hopped to the ground again. After 

 Reynard had repeated this knightly exercise several 

 times, he went his way ; but presently returned to 

 the spot, bearing in his mouth a pretty large and 

 heavy piece of dry oak ; and thus burdened, and, 

 as it would seem, for the purpose of testing his 

 vaulting powers, he renewed his leaps on to the 

 stump. After a time, however, and when he found 

 that, weighted as he was, he could make the ascent 

 with facility, he desisted from further efforts, 

 dropped the piece of wood from his mouth, and, 

 coiling himself up upon the top of the stump, re- 

 mained motionless, as if dead. 



"At the approach of evening, an old sow, accom- 

 panied by her progeny, five or six in number, issued 

 from a neighbouring thicket, and, pursuing their 

 usual track, passed near to the stump in question. 

 Two of her sucklings were somewhat behind the 

 rest, and, just as they iieared his ambush, Mechel* 

 darted down from his perch upon one of them, and 

 in the twinkling of an eye bore it in triumph on to 

 the fastness he had so providently prepared before- 

 hand. Confounded at the shrieks of her offspring, 

 the old sow returned in fury to the spot, and, until 

 a late hour in the evening, made repeated desperate 

 efforts to storm the murderous stronghold ; but the 

 fox took the matter very coolly, and devoured the 

 pig under, or rather above, the very nose of its 

 mother, who at length, with the greatest reluctance, 



* The nickname uf the fox in Sweden. 



