Uncle Hambright used to pride himself upon his ability to invent amusing
games for the children. Sometimes he found it hard to think of anything
new, but the demands of the children were so insistent and his desire to
please them always was so intense that it often happened that Uncle
Hambright could almost make a way out of no way.
Dinner-time was fast approaching. All the morning, the half-dozen little
children, who were spending the day with Uncle Hambright at the
Sunday-school picnic, had been playing every conceivable sort of game
and had been enjoying every imaginable kind of story told in Uncle Ham’s
inimitable way,--but still the children were not satisfied. “Just one
more story,” or “Just one more game,” or “Give us your best game now for
the last before dinner,”--the children clamored one after another.
“Very well,” said Uncle Ham. “You all wait until I come back, and then
we’ll play fox-hunting.”
Uncle Ham went and told his sister and her husband, the parents of the
little children, to take the dinner-baskets far into the woods to the
place which they had already agreed upon as the spot where the
dinner-table should be spread. Coming back to the children, Uncle Ham
said,----
“Now, we are ready. Come close and listen while I explain.”
[Illustration: UNCLE HAMBRIGHT.]
With anxious hearts and eager faces, and clapping their glad hands, the
children gathered around Uncle Ham.
“Now,” said he, “I have a piece of chalk here in my hand. I am going to
make something like this wherever I go along.” While he was speaking he
made a round ring on the fence close by. He put marks for the ears and
feet and a mark for the tail. Then he continued: “This is the fox. I’m
going to make foxes along the path that I take into the woods--sometimes
these foxes may be on fences, sometimes on trees, sometimes on rocks, or
anywhere I wish to place them. Whenever you find a fox you will know
that you are on the right road, and you must be sure each time to follow
in the direction that the head of the fox points. Then you won’t lose
your way. You must give me a little start, because I must be out of
sight before you all begin the hunt. At the end of the hunt, if you
follow carefully, you will find a large present waiting for each one of
you. You may help yourself to whatever you like, and then we shall all
come back together, because, you know, I will be at the end myself
waiting for you when you come.”
It seemed that the ten minutes start that the children had agreed to
give Uncle Hambright would never come to an end, so eager were they to
begin the hunt. By-and-by the time came, and they were off. The first
few foxes had been drawn on the board-walk, so the hunters had easy
sailing for a little while. Pretty soon, however, one of the girls
discovered a fox on a tree, and the head of the fox pointed right into
the woods. At first the children halted. The eldest girl said finally,
after studying a few minutes,----
“Let’s go on; Uncle Hambright wouldn’t take us where anything could hurt
us, and, besides, he said he would be waiting at the end.”
Thus re-assured, all of them plunged into the woods. Once in the woods
the little foxes drawn on trees and stumps carried them right along by
the side of a babbling brook for a long distance. Sometimes they would
find one fox, and then they would find it very hard to locate the next
one. It was great fun for them to scurry about in the woods, examining
trees, stumps, rocks and everything, hunting for the foxes. Finally one
of the little girls found a fox on a fence. The head of the fox pointed
upwards. The little child said,----
“This little fox seems to be pointing to heaven; I’m sure we can’t go up
there.”
“Oh, no;” said the oldest girl, again coming to the rescue,--“I think
that that little fox leads over the fence--that’s all.”
So, over the fence they jumped and continued the chase.
[Illustration: “WAIT HERE UNTIL I RETURN.”]
The course proved to be zig-zag now for a few minutes, and the children
found the foxes more and more difficult to locate. They felt safe again,
when the foxes were found on stones or rocks leading up the side of a
hill. The woods began to thin out, and the children were no longer
timid. Up the hill they went with a merry laugh and a shout. Once on top
of the hill, they lost their course again. After a time, they found a
fox, though, and that fox pointed straight down the hill. The children
bravely followed. At the foot of the hill, they came suddenly upon an
open space, and close by there was a great big fox marked upon a piece
of black paste-board and standing right over a bubbling spring of water.
“Uncle Hambright must have meant for us to stop here,” said one.
“Maybe, he meant for us to stop and get some water,” said another.
One or two of the fox-hunters stopped and drank some water. Then the
oldest one said,----
“Come on now, let’s look for another fox; I guess we are most through
now.”
About twenty yards away from the spring, the children came to another
open space that was well shaded. What was their delight and surprise to
find there stretched out before them on a large white table cloth, laid
on the bare ground, a sumptuous picnic-dinner. And in the middle of the
table there was a true-true stuffed fox with a large red apple in his
mouth. For a few moments the children stood around the table in
bewilderment. But they were not to be kept in suspense a great while.
Pretty soon, Uncle Hambright and mama and papa came out of the woods
near by, and such a laugh as went around that picnic-dinner was never
heard before or since!
At the close of the meal, the children all voted that that was the best
game that Uncle Ham had played during the day.