WILY'S STORY 23 



" Ponto ! — curse that dog ; he's after him," cried a 

 voice, when the dog turned back, or else he must 

 certainly have caught me, as I had only power to 

 run a short distance into some thick bushes, where 

 I lay down and listened to the following rebuke. 



" Y^ou young rascal, how dared you to shoot at 

 a fox — here, too, above all places ? Don't you know 

 that this is the very centre of the hunt ? Had you 

 killed him, you would have been a lost man, an 

 outcast from the society of all good people, a 

 branded vulpicide. Who do you think that has 

 the shghtest regard for his own character would 

 have received you after that ? " 



" I really," replied the offending youth, " mistook 

 him for a hare." 



"Yes, and if you had killed such a hare, you 

 should have eaten him, and without currant jelly 

 too." 



Now, if an humble individual of a fox may 

 venture to give an opinion upon such a momentous 

 question, I will say that the practice of destroying 

 our breed for the purpose of preserving the quantity 

 of game, is, where it prevails, equally selfish and 

 short - sighted. For every fox thus destroyed 

 hundi'eds of men are deprived of a day's sport, and 

 sometimes more than that ; and if none of us were 



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