The SpringficU Fox 



•was. So I could come and go at will without 

 scaring the foxes. 



For many days I went there ai-,d saw much 

 of the training of the young ones. They early 

 learned to turn to statuettes at any strange 

 sound, and then on hearing it again or finding 

 other cause for fear, to run for shelter. 



Some animals have so much mother-love that 

 it overflows and benefits outsiders. Not so old 

 Vixen it would seem. Her pleasure in the cubs 

 led to most refined cruelty. For she often 

 brought home to them mice and birds alive, and 

 with diabolic gentleness would avoid doing 

 them serious hurt so that the cubs might have 

 larger scope to torment them. 



There was a woodchuck that lived over in 



the hill orchard. He was neither handsome 



nor interesting, but he knew now to take care 



of himself. He had digged a den between the 



roots of an old pine stump, so that the foxes 



I k *&&%. could not follow him by digging. But hard 



^W*R5»8£^*lb work was not their way of life ; wits they be- 



^?"..---_ _.J;.^.:"{%^ heved worth more than elbow-grease. This 



^>-f/%liM^*^- woodchuck usually sunned himself on the stump 



£ ^ i f.\^p^- :jit ^ i ^ • f each morning. If he saw a fox near he went 



II r ~' i 



198 



