|Hardie had a funny present once. It was a little fox. The man who gave
it to him found it when it was a small cub. He tried to tame it as it
grew older, but he could not make it very tame.
[Illustration: 8066]
The man belonged to the army, and soon he had to go away. Then he gave
his fox to Hardie, who was glad to have it for a pet. He wanted to keep
it in the house. But his mamma said Foxy was not a nice pet to keep in
the house. So Hardie made him a kennel out doors. Foxy had a collar on,
with a strong chain.
His young master fastened him by this chain; and then he gave him
chicken bones, and other good things, to eat.
Foxy seemed quite happy for a time; but one day the dogs found him, and
they teased him so that poor Foxy worked out of his collar and ran and
hid in the house. Hardie was sorry for his pet, but he knew he must not
stay in the house.
So he made the collar and chain fast once more, and put the fox back in
his kennel. Then he fenced it up so that the dogs could not get in, and
said, "There, poor fellow! You need not be afraid!"
But when Foxy heard the dogs bark he was afraid. He was sure they would
get at him, and he worked so hard at his collar that he got it off
again. Then he ran away to the woods, Hardie was very sorry to lose his
fox; he asked all the boys if they had seen it.
Down the road there lived a blacksmith who had two pet raccoons. They
were tame, very tame. They had a place to live in which they had fixed
as they liked it. They used to run across the road from their home to a
spring, to drink.
[Illustration: 0067]
A boy who did not know about the blacksmith's raccoons saw one of them
as it ran to get a drink. He chased it and caught it Then he came up to
find Hardie.
"Hardie, I 've found your fox!" cried the boy. Hardie ran in haste to
look; but when he saw what the boy had brought he said, "O dear! That is
no fox at all. It is one of Mr. Gunn's raccoons."
The boy took the raccoon back, and Hardie never found his fox.
--MRS. D. P. SANFORD.