The Springfield Fox 



Again and again this rough sport went on till 

 one of the little ones was badly bitten, and his 

 squeal of pain roused Vix to end the woodchuck's 

 misery and serve him up at once. 



Not far from the den was a hollow overgrown 

 with coarse grass, the playground of a colony 

 of field-mice. The earliest lesson in woodcraft 

 that the little ones took, away from the den, 

 was in this hollow. Here they had their first 

 course of mice, the easiest of all game. In 

 teaching, the main thing was example, aided by 

 a deep-set instinct. The old fox, also, had 

 one or two signs meaning "lie still and watch," 

 " come, do as I do," and so on, that were much 

 used. 



So the merry lot went to this hollow one 

 calm evening and Mother Fox made them lie 

 still in the grass. Presently a faint squeak 

 showed that the game was astir. Vix rose up 

 and went on tip-toe into the grass — not crouch- 

 ing but as high as she could stand, sometimes 

 on her hind legs so as to get a better view. The 

 runs that the mice follow are hidden under the 

 grass tangle, and the only way to know the 

 whereabouts of a mouse is by seeing the slight 



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