and returned no more to the spot.


A labourer going to his work one morning sight of a fox stretched
out at full length under a bush. Believing it to be dead, the man
drew it out by the tail, and swung it about to assure himself of
the fact. Perceiving no symptoms of life, he then threw it over his
shoulder, intending to make a cap of the skin, and ornament his
cottage wall with the brush. While the fox hung over one shoulder,
his mattock balanced it on the other. The point of the instrument,
as he walked along, every now and then struck against the ribs of
the fox, which, not so dead as the man supposed, objected to this
proceeding, though he did not mind being carried along with his
head downward. Losing patience, he gave a sharp snap at that
portion of the labourer's body near which his head hung. The man,
startled by this sudden attack, threw fox and mattock to the
ground, when, turning round, he espied the live animal making off
at full speed.


I have still another story to tell about cunning Reynard. Daylight
had just broke, when a well-known naturalist, gun in hand,
wandering in search of specimens, observed a large fox making his
way along the skirts of a plantation. Reynard looked cautiously
over the turf-wall into the neighbouring field, longing evidently
to get hold of some of the hares feeding in it, well aware that he
had little chance of catching one by dint of running. After
examining the different gaps in the wall, he fixed on one which
seemed to be the most frequented, and laid himself down close to
it, in the attitude of a cat watching a mouse-hole. He next scraped