Tommy had just curled up on his bed and was all ready to go to sleep,
when to his great astonishment he heard his mother talking. She was
not talking to _him_, but to someone near her, for she spoke so low
that Tommy could not hear what she was saying.

He thought right away that somebody had come to pay them a visit. And
he called out--

"Who's here, Mother? Is it a visitor?"

"Yes, Tommy," Mrs. Fox answered. "Come here and see who it is."

Tommy jumped out of bed and hopped across the room. At first he
couldn't see anybody but his mother.

"It's just a joke!" Tommy exclaimed. "You're only fooling!"

"Look sharp!" said Mrs. Fox. "It's a surprise. What do you call this?"
She moved aside a bit, and pointed to a little, soft, woolly thing
which lay close beside her. Tommy had to look two or three times to
see what it was. And even then he wasn't sure.

"Is it--is it--a baby?" he asked.

"That's just what it is," his mother said.

Tommy certainly was surprised. And before he could find his voice
again Mrs. Fox showed him another baby fox, and another and another
and another.