90 
TEE LION. 
when sufficiently near 5 lie took a high and deter¬ 
mined jump on to the top of it, and, after looking 
around a while, hopped to the ground again. After 
Reynard had repeated this knightly exercise several 
times, he went his way; but presently returned to 
the spot, bearing in his mouth a pretty large and 
heavy piece of dry oak ; and thus burdened, and, 
as it -would seem, for the purpose of testing his 
vaulting powers, he renewed his leaps on to the 
stump. After a time, however, and when he found 
that, weighted as he was, he could make the ascent 
with facility, he desisted from further efforts, 
dropped the piece of wood from his mouth, and, 
coiling himself up upon the top of the stump, re¬ 
mained motionless, as if dead. 
“ At the approach of evening, an old sow, accom¬ 
panied by her progeny, five or six in number, issued 
from a neighbouring thicket, and, pursuing their 
usual track, passed near to the stump in question. 
Two of her sucklings were somewhat behind the 
rest, and, just as they neared his ambush, MecheP 
darted down from his perch upon one of them, and 
in the twinkling of an eye bore it in triumph on to 
the fastness he had so providently prepared before¬ 
hand. Confounded at the shrieks of her offspring, 
the old sow returned in fury to the spot, and, until 
a late hour in the evening, made repeated desperate 
efforts to storm the murderous stronghold; but the 
fox took the matter very coolly, and devoured the 
pig under, or rather above, the very nose of its 
mother, who at length, with the greatest reluctance, 
* The nickname of the fox in Sweden. 
