40 BRITISH QUADRUPEDS. 



The cunning of this animal, however, cannot always 

 avail him. A farmer in Essex having suffered much 

 from the depredations of a fox, determined to lay wait 

 for the plunderer. Accordingly, on a fine moonlight 

 night, and well knowing the track of the thief, he took 

 his stand, and soon espied the fox padding along a 

 clover field, with a young goose which he had just 

 stolen slung across his neck. Just as the gun was 

 levelled, the fox observed a hare feeding a little on one 

 side, and nearer to the farmer. The goose was now 

 dropped, and the fox began playing many curious antics ; 

 rolling over and over on the ground, and jumping up in 

 the air, but still getting nearer to the hare, who was 

 quite unconscious of a foe. At length, at one enormous 

 spring, he made the hare his prisoner, but almost at the 

 same moment the farmer shot the fox, and then carried 

 home his double prize and the recaptured goose. 



Cunning, it has been said, is not only met with in 

 brutes, but in persons who are but a few removes from 

 them. It is assuredly one mark of a degraded mind. 

 Its aims are always selfish, and it will employ any means 

 to accomplish its purposes. Against every approach to 

 it, therefore, it becomes us to guard, while it is our duty 

 and privilege constantly to seek the guidance of true 

 wisdom. 



