instead of _"days."_ For one night his mother came home with a fat hen
slung across her shoulders. She had been down to Farmer Green's hen-
house, right in the middle of the night, when Farmer Green and his
family were asleep; and she had snatched one of the sleeping hens off
the roost and stolen away with it without waking anybody.

Only a very wise old fox could do that. "You mustn't go near Farmer
Green's hen-house," Mrs. Fox said to Tommy, as they picked the bones
of the fat hen together. "You are not old enough to get one of Farmer
Green's hens."

You notice that Mrs. Fox didn't speak of _"stealing"_ a hen. She
called it "getting" one. For foxes believe that it is only fair to
take a farmer's hen now and then, in return for killing field-mice and
woodchucks, which eat the farmer's grain. But the farmer never stops
to think of that. He only thinks of the hens that he loses.

Tommy Fox never said a word while his mother was talking to him. He
was very busy, eating. But that was not the only reason why he kept
still. He heard his mother's warning, but he thought she was silly. He
really believed that he was quite old enough and quite big enough and
quite wise enough to go down to Farmer Green's and get a hen himself.
After catching old Mr. Woodchuck Tommy felt that he was able to do
about everything his mother could do. And he made up his mind right
then and there that he would show her. He would pay a visit to the
hen-house that very night.

Tommy Fox could not wait for night to come. In fact, he could wait
only until the close of day--he was in such a hurry to capture a hen.
The sun had scarcely sunk out of sight in the west and the sky was