THOUGHTS ON CUBBING 181 



occasion may even be walked up in standing corn. 

 That is a moral crime, and ought to be a legal one. 



With September, cubbing begins and the young of 

 the thief of the world must justify their existence 



by making sport. Many sudden and be- 

 Thoughts wildering shocks the cubs receive. Hitherto 

 Cubbing their lives have been peaceful enough. 



No wolf has found them out in the corn- 

 fields where they have been learning to hunt their 

 own game ; no wild dog has dug a way into the 

 nursery earth. To be hunted is quite a new experi- 

 ence. The cubs are spared at least the dread of 

 anticipation as in the early hours of a September 

 morning they settle to sleep in their soft warm 

 kennel, canopied by bracken and brambles. Dream- 

 ing, it may be, of their own night's sport, the cheer- 

 ful voice of the huntsman, as he urges on his newly 

 entered puppies to draw with their elders, means no 

 more than a general alarm to the cubs' drowsy ears. 

 Again and again the hunt may come, yet a cub may 

 have no thought of a game, with life or death as the 

 stake. Not until the attentions of the hounds become 

 pressing and particular can he awake fully to what 

 cub-hunting means. Then perhaps it is too late. 

 But an old fox is quick enough to hear the first sound 

 of the hunt ; he breaks away at an unguarded corner, 

 and is allowed to go. 



There is little chance for the cub when, fat from 



