What was the matter with the hen-roost at the Valley Farm, the fox pup
asked himself? He had killed so many field mice in the course of the
summer that he felt he was really entitled to one of the farmer's nice
fat hens,--because the mice might have destroyed the farmer's crops, had
Frisky not prevented.
At the same time he knew that Lop Ear, the hound at the Valley Farm,
would have another opinion in the matter.
Frisky sat up and thought.
Lop Ear would give the alarm, and then, even if he threw the hound off
the scent, there would be men with guns, and more dodging of bullets
than he cared to risk. He had often seen it, watching from his hill-top
in the woods. And he always tried to profit by other people's
experience.
Suddenly his bright eyes began to snap. The very idea! He would make
friends with Lop Ear.
Then Lop Ear might try to be sound asleep on the night when Frisky
visited the chicken coop; and should the Hired Man get out his gun, the
hound would surely lose his trail.
Thereafter, for days on end, Frisky made the strangest advances to the
dignified old hound, whenever the latter fared forth into the woods to
catch him a mouse for supper. It was very much like a puppy trying to
coax an old dog to play.
"Come chase me!" Frisky would invite, dancing ahead just out of Lop
Ear's reach. Then, "I'll chase you," he would vary the program. And Lop
Ear (half unwillingly) played the role assigned him, till at last he
came to look on his evening ramble in the woods with Frisky as a
distinct part of his day's pleasuring.
Not that Frisky ever came within reach of Lop Ear's jaws. No, indeed!
That was carrying the thing a bit too far. But he did finally get the
hound to the point where he no longer considered it his duty to try to
make an end of the young fox. And he really enjoyed their games of hide
and seek.
The Boy from the Valley Farm did not know what to make of Lop Ear's
growing fondness for solitary rambles.
One night, when the October moon gleamed cool and sparkling through the
fringe of fir trees, young Frisky Fox might have been seen loping softly
through the corn-field.
"Who goes there?" bayed Lop Ear, as he leaped the barn-yard fence.
"Come and play," coaxed Frisky. "You can't catch me!" and leaping up the
sloping roof of the hen-house, he squeezed gracefully through the barred
window. A moment more and there was a stifled squawk and Frisky squeezed
his way back through the bars, dragging a hen behind him.
But alas for the best laid plans.
"Bow-wow-wow! You can't do that, you know!" suddenly bayed Lop Ear.
"That's carrying the game a little too far. After all, I have my duty to
perform."
"What is it?" yelled the Hired Man, poking his head from his
sleeping-room in the barn-loft. "A fox, eh?" and he grabbed for his gun,
leaning far out to scan the moonlit fields.
Frisky Fox, by keeping the shed between himself and the gun, made off
through the corn-field with the hen across his shoulder.
Lop Ear, his warning uttered, now dashed madly in quite the wrong
direction,--for the memory of the fox pup's friendship was strong upon
him. But the Hired Man was not to be fooled.
In less time than it takes to tell it, he was out circling the field,
gun in hand. And the bright moonlight soon showed him where the
cornstalks rustled with Frisky's passing.
"Hi, there!" yelled the Hired Man, gun in hand, as he raced around the
corn-field.
But Frisky was an excellent judge of distance, and he knew to a
certainty that he was out of gun range.
He therefore deliberately stopped where he was and snatched a bite of
his hen.
As the Hired Man came nearer, the fox pup ran farther, always keeping
just about so much distance between himself and the gun. He could easily
have out-distanced his pursuer. But he was in a mischievous mood
to-night, and it pleased him to see how far he could go toward devouring
the entire hen while the angry man looked on.
He did it, too, saucily enough, gobbling a bite here and a bite there,
looking back over his shoulder the while at the man with the gun. One or
two shots did ring out on the crisp night air, kicking up the dirt a few
rods behind him, but Frisky Fox ate on, secure by those few rods of
space, as well he knew.
Only once did he miscalculate, the shot landing so near him that he knew
the next one would surely get him if the Hired Man tried again.
Quick as a flash the clever rascal toppled over on his side, playing
dead. The ruse worked, for the Hired Man did not shoot again. And while
he was fumbling his way through the corn-field to where he believed the
fox lay waiting, Frisky was making for the woods with his nimble black
feet fairly twinkling over the ground.
Throwing himself at last on the soft pine needles on a little hill-top,
he peered through the moonlight to where the Hired Man was staring
helplessly about him wondering where the dead fox lay. Frisky laughed
silently at the success of his ruse,--the first time he had ever played
'possum himself, though he had seen it done once before, when his mother
had been hard pressed. In her case she had actually let the boy pick her
up, when he found her with one foot in a trap. But to her surprise he
had only released her with pitying words and a caress on her silky red
head.
No such treatment could be expected of the Hired Man, Frisky knew.
Lop Ear, slinking back to the barn-yard with tail between his legs, was
just unlucky enough to catch the Hired Man's notice as the latter was
returning foxless.
"Here," he ordered threateningly. "Put your nose to that trail and
follow it, or I'll show you what's what!"
The next thing Frisky knew, he heard the baying of his one-time friend
close on his trail. With a yawn and a lick at his jaws, where a feather
still clung, he struck off as easily as if he had just arisen from a
sound night's sleep.
He didn't even bother to keep very far ahead of the dog.
----