Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1901-06-08
CHAPTER SEVEN.

One day Fun Ting came in from the
woods carrying in his arms the cum
ningest little baby fox that Betty had
ever seen. The baby had hardly got
his eyes open. But he was charming,
nevertheless, for he was all legs ana
paws. and when one rolled him over
on his back and ticklcd his stomach
he played as joyful!y as
kitten. and with his milk white teeth
tried to bite.
Betty advised Fun Ting to carry him
back to his mother and let him so.
She would have advised any other boy
to kill the young animal but even at
that tender age Fun Ting was cham
pion of all dcfcnccless creatures. and
opposed to killing anything.
Fun Ting rolled on the grass i'll the
hot sun and refused to part with his
friend. TITLE Bruce has Il dog, and
she says size teaches him tricks he
said.
Il will teach this little fox so that
he will guard the hen house and drive
away all the other foxes that prowl in
the night.
Il will begin now" And he com
menced. The fox grew older day by
day. and his tail got more and more
buSnN. ull 1liiS Hdu cillICtu INN Jul
of his mothers den by lying fat on
the ground in front of the hole and
Keeping perfectly still hour after hour.
The fox came homo from her hunt for
birds. and seeing him asleep in the
sun, ran away.
TIE baby foxes woke and got hun
cry. They vcntured out to the door of
the cave. and seeing the green jacket
of Fun Ting ran back. Curiosity got
The best of them. and they looked out
again.
The strange creature was still. 1t
must hc some animal that their mother
mad caught and brought home to them.
Fun Ting kept very still and at last
the baby foxes were actually climbing
and frsking over him as he lay on the
ground. And at last his little brown
hand closed on one of them. and he
was a prisoner.
Wherever Fun Ting went the sleek
little red fox trottcd at his heels. They
hunted birds nests together. They
studied the cliffs on the mountainsidc
and worried the Coons in the rocks.
The fox was named Skipper" because
Grandpa Hudson called him 50. And
whatever Grandpa Hudson did was
considered right.
Fun Ting and Skipper passed many
hours together in the woods At night
when the boy went for the COWS it was
skipper who rounded them up and
brought them down to the bars where
Fun Ting sat singing queer unheard
Of Oriental ditties and swinging his
bare brown feet in the light of the
setting sun.
One day Fun Ting lay slecpily star
1.
mystic ravinc. Joel and Betty were
busy with the garden work and had
not noticed which way he went. He
was as much alone here as he would
have been on an island in the sea
The tall trees overhead kept out the
hot sun, and it was delightfully."- cool
and pleasant in the ravinc. The boy
was toying with Il straw in his mouth
from which he blew little gusts of air
upon the smooth surface OF the brook
He had brought a pockctful of worms
for the trout, and after feeding them
had watched them going to sleep I'M
der the edge of rock
All around him We're the friends that
he knew so well. He was careful not
to step on any of them as he entered
the retreat. and he always lay in one
place on the shore that no one should
be crushed by his weight.
Eufro, the old fat scabby- backed
toad, snapped viciously at a fly and
then blinkcd horribly as he saw it go
skimming off along the shiny, green
leaves of the sarS;parilla shrub and
circle above the yaWning leaves of the
pitcher plant.
Ugh, that's the tenth one that l
have missed today" said Buffo in sui
len. stolid anger And did you ever
see anything like it? They go
straight from my tongue to that hor-
rid. ugly looking, squat little plant
over there. and pop into its mouths
like trout falling over the cascade into
the pool. Seem bewitchcd to commit
suicide there. Wish | WAS Il plant
That fiat. little siGc-saddlc thing there
has eaten enough today to fill my
stomach ten times over, and | heard
it say yesterday that it didn't depend
upon flies and bugs at all for its life
Fun Ting opened his eyes wide and
listened.
NO. il doesn't depend on the flies
said the sarsaparilla plant from its
messy bed on the dead pine needles
that fell from the trees far up the side
of the ravinc. and rotting there made
Splendidly rich couch for Sir SarSa
pariIa to burrow in. The side saddle
plant does not depend on the bugs and
insects that it cats and kills to live.
as Won do. but il hopes that is the way
t" freedom. IT is proud, ana thinks
That because il has stomach and cats
flies that it is almost an animal The
pitcher plant wants to be free before
any OF the other herbs and plants are.
Oh, what Il proud day il will be for the
sid"-Saddc family when they can pull
up their legs and hop off as YOU and
other animals do"
En-" said the toad for the first
ume seeming to pay attention to what
SIT Sarsaparilla said. Does that dis
agreeable, i'll smelling creature over
there want to hop and jump? Do the