Now Frisky, the Red Fox Pup, admired no one so much as he did his
father. And he had heard his father tell how he had chased the doe and
her fawns that dreadful day when Fleet Foot broke her leg.
Not that the little rascal really wanted to hurt those gentle soft-eyed
babies. He wasn't hungry, and besides, he couldn't have killed them had
he wanted to. He just thought it would be fun to play that he was Father
Red Fox and give them a good scare. (But how were the fawns to know
that?) In other words, like a great many very young persons, he didn't
stop to think of the other fellow's point of view in the matter.
Thus, no sooner had he seen Fleet Foot headed in the other direction,
leaving the fawns unprotected, than he pranced merrily up to them, his
yellow eyes gleaming with mischief.
"Yip, yip!" he yelled at them in his high-pitched little voice.
Now the fawns had been told to lie still. But how could they, when
danger was almost upon them? They were certainly not going to lie there
and let this little wild dog bite them!
With a bleat of alarm they sprang to their feet and raced through the
brush, leaping over bush and brier and boulder as if their very lives
depended on it.
But Frisky Fox could also leap bush and brier and boulder. And he came
leaping after, just two jumps behind them!
Now around a clump of greenbriar, down a trail of dainty pointed hoof
prints that led through brush head high,--up hill, down hill the trio
sped, startling the pheasants and sending them into the air with a
whirr.
Here the trail turned abruptly down the side of a precipice, and the
fawns followed, while Frisky, having paused for a moment when his tail
got caught in a bramble, had to come trotting after with his nose to the
ground, as he could no longer see them.
Now the fawns had never been taught that water carries no scent. They
just happened to go splashing across a bit of a frog pond that lay
cupped among hillocks of seedling pines. But looking back at every
seventh leap or so, they could see that the fox pup followed his nose to
the water's edge, and there stopped and sniffed all about uncertainly,
before again catching a glimpse of them.
But though the chase went merrily on (that is, merrily on the fox's
part), the fawns had learned a valuable lesson.
They now made straight for Lone Lake, and my! You should have seen the
ducks take flight as these two alarming little fellows came splashing in
among them!
A deer, when pursued by hounds, will always take to water when he can,
and the hounds have no scent to follow. Then, unless there is a hunter
along, and he catches sight of his quarry, and fires, the deer are safe.
The Red Fox Pup uses his eyes, as well as his nose, and he was so close
behind, and understood so well this trick of taking to water, (for he
escaped the hounds that way himself), that he wasn't fooled the least
little bit in the world. Not he!
Only once they had taken the plunge, the little fellows decided to swim
out to a reedy islet where they could rest. And the fox pup didn't think
it worth while to get his fur wet. For when his great brush of a tail
gets wet, it is so heavy that it weighs him down, and he can't run
nearly so fast, so the mice all get away.
Of course the fawns thought it was all their own cleverness, and you
should have heard them telling Fleet Foot about it when she found them
there!
The fawns never tired of watching the life that stirred everywhere about
them, their great soft eyes filled with pleasant wonder.
One day it would be the one soft cluck of Mother Grouse Hen, calling to
her chicks to hide before Frisky Fox should pass that way.
When he had passed, looking so wise and knowing, (with his bright eyes
peering into every nook and corner, and his pointed little nose testing
the air for a taint), Mother Grouse Hen would give a different sort of
cluck; and back the frightened chicks would come to her, and she would
gather them comfortingly under her wings, pressing each wee brown baby
to her down-covered breast to reassure him.
Then she would utter a soft, brooding cluck that told them how she loved
them, and how safe they were with Mother to look out for them.
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