The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-10-24
A TAME FOX,

burrow last April, while they were yet blind and woody. The Sprite is still
 guest of mine, and although he has long since lost all appearance of a pup py, at heart he is as young and mis- chievous as ever.
 For 8 long time the young fox had 1 the run Of the house, but there finally came time when. in the interests of
 humanity we decided that one roof
 must no longer cover us all. In fact, if
 ''The Sprite" had stayed another week, l it is a question whether there would
 have been roof for any of us. Then
 the neighbors, good-natured as they were, had got into the habit of count | ing their chickens every night before | retiring, and all that were not pres
 ent" at tattoo" were accounted for''
 in just one way. So we built a large
 cage of wire and wood, out in the garden, and into it we put ''The Sprite," with a pretty little yellow
 haired vixen to keep him company.
 And they were very happy there to-
 gether playing by the hour, leaping
 over each others backs or standing on
 their hind legs to box each other with 1 their fore paws, At first the vixen was
 very wild, but her mate showed such
 delight whenever any of us went near
 the cage, that in time she too lost all
 fear, and fed from our hands l. Among the many to whom the young l foxes were objects of interests were
 some hens which used to stray into the
 garden and stare rudely through the | I,af ha xrtx tye a 1tt1n
 lady that she was, paid no attention to
 these vulgar fowls, but "The Sprlte"
 chafed under the insult, which he fre-
 quently sought to wipe out, only to be
 reminded that he could not jump clean , through thick wire netting, So he gave
 it up. and bided his time. The hens be-
 came bolder and holder. and strutted
 back and forth, close beside the cage, twisting their. saucy neeks that they might see better. One morning the
 boldest Of these fowls was walking past and "The Sprite" was nowhere to be
 seen. It may have been irresistible
 curiosity which prompted the hen to
 find out just where he was, but, at any
 rate, in that evil hour she thrust her head through the netting. It never
 came out again, There was flash of
 red, and the fox was wiping out all in-
 sul.s. The good little jaws came to- gether with "click" the black front legs strengthened out like ramrods, and had the hens neck been made of wire cable he would have had the whole of
 her. AS it was, he twisted off the head like flash, and tossed it into the air as
 one might toss a ball.
 That bit of revenge, sweet as 1t was
 but gave him an appetite for what was
 to follow some weeks later I am in
 the habit of taking him for a walk, and
 out of respect for my neighbers' poultry
 I take him on a chain. On the morning
 of Labor Day I opened the cage door,
 as usual, with his collar in my hand,
 but before could put 1t on, he slipped
 past me and out into the garden. As though he had been planning it for a
 week, he ran directly for my nearest
 neighbours hen-yard, with his fond own
 CT in his wake, doing the best bit of , sprinting he has done for some years.
 It was no use: '"The Sprite'' knew his
 advantage, and even turned to laugh in my face, In another moment he was over a wall, and in the middle of a CO., : vey of well-grown chickens, which scat tered like skittles before a "tenrstrike."
 But they were not quick enough for the fox, who had one of them in his teeth even as I came up with him. My pre- l sence did not disconcert him in the least, either; he kept his presence of
 mind, in spite of my shouts and the , noisy cackling of the hens. Of course,
 he dodged me; but even as he did so 7 his mind was strictly on the business in hand. He glanced quickly about, as much as to say, 'tAre there any more around here while I'm at it? o, yes 3 here's one;" and before I could turn he had another victim, and away he dash
 ed with the two in his mouth. Back
 he went into the garden, and around tc
 his own Den. where he stopped long
 enough to bite the chickens till he was sure they were dead. He dropped then, as came up, and at once gave his at- tention to a full grown hen which hap 7 pened to catch his eye at that moment At the first rush he had her by the
 wing and had not had endorsements from the house. that hen would never have answered roll-call again, A stil f further incentive to keep at it" was a the sight of the owner of the chickens
 who, with pipe in his mouth and 6 non-committal look upon his face, stood t cn the wall and viewed the hunt. I rar S as had never run in any cross country s race, and now overlook the fox, handi.
 capped as he was with the hen. Bu he understood the situation quite as = well as I did, and, dropped the fowl }. shook his thick brush at me, as 1T q derision. and was at once il full pursuit of another hen. Just ther Mrs. Baynes appeared upon the scene # and when "Fhe Sprite'' will yield to n, if one else, he will to her. At her call h, fl turned, and up to her he ran, waggint
 his bushy tail and smiling as only fox can smile. He was in her arms ii a a moment, and a minute later was bacl - in his cage, with the vixen sniffing a II his muzzle to find out what he had t,
 eat. "It's all right; accidents will hap - pen in the best regulated families" L. After thiS i'll went well with the foye