The Wit of the Wild 



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" Like a shadow she came, and in a moment 

 was gone, and Tip seized on something dropped, 

 and crunched and chewed with relish what she 

 brought. But even as he ate, a knife-like pang 

 shot through, and a scream of pain escaped him. 

 Then there was a momentary struggle and the 

 little fox was dead. 



" The mother's love was strong in Vix, but a 

 higher thought was stronger. She knew right 

 well the poison's power, . . . now at last 

 when she must choose for him a wretched pris- 

 oner's life or sudden death, she quenched the 

 mother in her breast and freed him by the one 

 remaining door." 



After that Vixen is no longer seen in the 

 neighborhood, " gone, maybe, deliberately," 

 says the author, " from the scene of a sorrowful 

 life, as many a wildwood mother has gone, by 

 the means that she herself had used to free her 

 young one the last of all her brood." 



Now, here is an assertion, as of observed 

 facts; first, of two premeditated murders by a 

 brute animal, one from motives of prudence and 

 revenge, and another from motives of the high' 

 est moral import; and, second, an implication, 

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