136 FOXES AT HOME. 



to 112 degrees at night, when men were dying 

 with heat apoplexy and enteric two or three 

 a day, and one was not allowed outside one's 

 tent from 6 a.m. till 7 p.m., these little foxes 

 became part of one's life ; they were as tame as 

 cats, about the same size, though longer in the 

 leg. I taught them all sorts of tricks, and made 

 a steeplechase course for them round inside my 

 tent. The little things quite entered into the 

 spirit of the game, and used to become so 

 excited when they saw me preparing the fences ; 

 and when I let them out of the orange crate, 

 w^ent almost wild with joy. Round and round 

 the tent they raced, one after the other, a dozen 

 times, until they had had enough, and then they 

 trotted up and put their little paws on my knee 

 to ask for a drink of condensed milk and water, 

 and submitted to be quietly returned to their 

 crate. This was the daily routine until I was 

 ordered to Cyprus in the end of July, and, of 

 course, my little pets went to. When we arrived 

 at the top of Mount Troodos, where we were 

 quartered in that island, we found it dreadfully 

 cold at night, almost freezing ; and fearing the 

 effect of the great and sudden change on the 

 foxes, 1 got a strip of soldier's blanket for each. 



