Now it was chiefly in a spirit of mischief that Father Red Fox decided
to chase the fawns. To tell the truth, the old fellow was proud of his
wits; and though he knew he could not hope to catch them and bring them
down by a straightaway race, he thought he might use some trickery on
them.
So, he watched and waited till he should find them alone. After an hour
or more in the racing meadow, Fleet Foot called to her little ones with
a "He-eu" and a stamp of her little fore-hoof, and led them back to Lone
Lake, where they all waded out after their supper of lily pads. Every
minute of the time Father Red Fox was right behind, but always with the
wind in his face, so that she wouldn't catch his musky scent on the
breeze with that wonderful nose of hers.
Now Father Red Fox knew one thing about Fleet Foot, the doe. He knew
that when she heard a sound that alarmed her, she always ran straight
away from the sound, without once stopping to see what made it. No
sooner, therefore, was she neck-deep in Lone Lake, with her back to the
shore, than he cracked a twig behind her.
The doe, hearing that, supposed of course it must be Old Man Lynx, at
least, or perhaps a big black bear, as nothing so small and dainty as a
fox ever made a sound like that.
She was terribly frightened, and whistling the fawns to follow, she swam
straight across the Lake, never once stopping for breath till they
scrambled up the opposite bank.
But Father Red Fox had raced around the upper end of the Lake, just far
enough back in the woods so that she couldn't see him. And the instant
the tired little family planted their hoofs on dry ground, Red Fox,
hiding behind a boulder, cracked an even larger twig, and made them
think there was another bear on that side of the Lake.
So she had to lead them back across the Lake again, to the third line of
shore. But Father Red Fox was there before her and cracked another twig
to make her think there was a bear on that side, too.
This time the fawns were fairly gasping for breath, their little spotted
sides heaving painfully and their big eyes round with fright. But there
was no help for it; Fleet Foot had to make them swim back across the
Lake to the fourth bank, where she hoped to get into the woods before
the three bears could catch her. She was quite worn out, herself, by
now, and it was only the fear of death that kept her in the race at all.
But finally up the bank she stumbled, and on down a forest trail, her
fawns following desperately.
Father Red Fox laughed as he ran around the Lake. They were all so worn
out that it should be an easy matter to corner them. In fact, that
wicked fellow had one of the meanest plans in his black heart that ever
deserved the name of a foxy trick. And so far it had worked.
Fleet Foot, believing she had nothing less than a bear on her trail,
raced on and on till her flanks dripped foam and her legs felt weak and
wobbly--which was just what the old fox intended. On he raced after her,
knowing she wouldn't stop even to turn her head.
Then, suddenly, he made a short cut in the trail and headed her straight
toward a brush heap. The tired doe drew her trembling legs together for
the leap that would carry her over in safety. But there was not quite
enough spring left in those delicate hind quarters. She came down too
soon, catching one of her slim feet in the brush. It broke her leg.
Ah, but Red Fox had hoped it would be one of the fawns. Fleet Foot he
dared not approach, because she could strike him with her sharp
fore-hoofs, and punish him severely. In fact, had she known it was only
a fox behind her, she would have stopped to face him long ago.
The fawns--little rascals that they were--had not tried to leap the
brush heap; they had left the trail and gone around it, hiding--when
their mother fell--by crawling under a juniper bush. And there they
waited, without so much as waggling an ear, till Red Fox had given up
his quest in disgust and trotted away home.
But their troubles were not ended. For one thing, they were hungry.
Besides, what was Fleet Foot to do, helpless there where a real bear
might find her?
Just then they heard a cowbell.
Clover Blossom, the soft-eyed Jersey at the Valley Farm, must have found
a broken place in the pasture fence, and wandered into the woods again.
She loved to go exploring.
This time she gave the Boy a chase. Here it was, nearly dark! Straining
his ears to catch the sound, he decided he must creep very softly upon
her, or she would never let him catch her.
The Boy, however, was not the only one to hear the tinkle of the
cowbell. Though Clover Blossom grazed quite unaware that she was being
watched, as an actual fact she had quite an audience of wood folk around
her, peering and sniffing and studying the situation. Softly, silently,
creeping through the hazel copse, came Frisky, the fox pup, as curious
as his nose was long. Then came Bobby, Madame Lynx's kitten, to whose
nostrils the odor was most tempting, though he did not dare attack an
animal so large. Crouched flat along a low-hanging branch, he peered and
peered with his narrow gold-green eyes, his claws working nervously into
the bark.
Came also Unk-Wunk, the Porcupine, rattling his slow way up a beech tree
from whose top he could see all that was going on. He, too, watched
curiously as the Jersey wandered from one huckleberry bush to another,
lowing faintly now and then as she realized that she needed to be
milked.
But the two who were most interested as she came their way were the
hungry fawns. They had waited hours for the familiar stamp of their
mother's foot that should call them to her, and for the warm milk that
had never failed them when they needed it, and their little stomachs
ached worse and worse.
The hot sun had crept across the sky, and the birds who had chirped and
warbled over their breakfast had come out again for the cool of the late
afternoon to chatter over their worms. Then the sun had grown large and
red in the west, and the crickets had begun to chirp, and the
white-footed deer mice to scuttle through the leaves in search of
beetles. Finally the shadows had grown long and black, and the woods
full of a breathing silence, and still they waited for their mother to
come and feed them.
Then, at last, they crept to where Clover Blossom mooed her invitation
for some one to relieve her udders of their creamy burden. And when the
Boy finally peered through the bushes beyond which she stood, he stopped
amazed. For there on either side of her a tiny fawn stood nursing!
"Something must have happened to their mother," he told himself. "I
wonder if I could coax them to go home with Clover Blossom?"
Then he heard a rustle behind him. Bobby Lynx was slinking home. (He was
ever a coward where human beings were concerned.) The next instant the
boy spied Fleet Foot, lying helpless in the brush heap.
In her exhaustion after the chase, the pain of her broken leg, and her
terror, as she listened, hour after hour, for the coming of stealthy
padded feet, she had been too weak to struggle. Then had come a kindly
stupor.
The Boy set about applying such first aid as he had at his command.
First knotting her fore feet together with his handkerchief so that she
could not struggle, he searched until he found a cedar sapling very
nearly the size of the leg that was broken. With his jack-knife he made
two length-wise slits and removed the bark in two pieces, as nearly the
same size as he could make them. They were just long enough to reach
below the foot of the deer and above the knee.
These he lined comfortably with dry moss and crumpled grass, for he was
going to be as tender of the doe as he would be of a person. Next he
tore his shirt, which was an old one, into bandages the width of his
wrist, knotting their ends together. For splints he went down to Lone
Lake and gathered a bundle of good strong rushes.
But when he tried to set the bone, Fleet Foot struggled so that he had
to run home for his father.
The Valley Farmer was a man who could not see any creature suffer, so he
came straight back with his son. Lifting her to the ground, the farmer
braced himself and held the injured leg while the Boy gently but firmly
grasped it with one hand above the fracture and one below. My! How it
must have hurt! But his practised fingers pulled the two pieces of bone
in opposite directions till he got them end to end! Fleet Foot tried
hard to struggle free, for of course she did not understand. But she was
helpless. Then the Boy worked the bones, ever so gently, till a slight
thud announced to his listening ear that they had fitted together right.
Next, he applied the padded halves of the cedar bark, which--as he had
intended--did not reach quite around the leg. For, in this way, he could
tie them more firmly, as he bandaged them immovably in place with the
strips of his torn shirt.
"There!" the Farmer sighed at last. "That ought to heal. I don't see why
a few weeks of rest and good feeding ought not to set her on her feet
again. But we'll have to make a litter to take her home."