The San Francisco call., 1910-02-19

BODY IN his end OF the world who was
quite like him The other anlmals
were brown or gray or grlzGled or
yellow red. Most Of his family was
brownish red, with a cross Of black
to lend them distinction, although he
had cousins which were clothed merely
in the long reddish coats which silver
Fox regarded with tolerant superiority.
He alone of all his animal world res
joiced in coat of black, rich, and
lustrous, and set Off by a cleaning
white tail tip and by wonderful frost
CLEANS across the launches
1t made him sweet tempered to know
that he was SO exceptionally good look
ing and his days were happy ones,
winter and summer, spring and fan.
In the open woodland which was his
home, he found excellent opportunities
for foraging and he improved them
readily. He enjoyed playing with his
friends and hunting for his food in
the mysterious dawns and dim twi-
lights of the fields and forests. But,
better than anything else, he liked to
look in the STILL CLASSY surface of
some pond which gave back his own
charming image In winter, when the
ponds were frozen over and refused to
reflect his beauty. he consoled himself
by solitary moonlight excursions dur
ing which he would stop frequently to
twist himself around so that he might
see his own distinguished loveliness
But one winter hard times came to
the forest. which was the home of
Silver Fox. The woods were suddenly
emptied of the small creatures, which
had always been so plentiful. No one
knew what had become of them nor
why they had gone. Perhaps the
storms had been harder than usual or
the winter more prolonged. Silver Fox
and his brothers did not wait to reason
it out. All that they knew was that
the small animals on which they lived
had vanished and that there was not
nearly enough food to be had to keep
the foxes comfortable.
Silver Fox had to hurry and scurry
around as he never had before in order
to get enough to live on Instead of
satisfactory meals every day in the
week he was often obliged to dine
sparsely every other day with perhaps
little something extra for Sundays.
Then came a time when even the Sun
day dinner was scanty and unsatisfac-
tory and Silver Fox would have been
very melancholy indeed If he had not
been thinking SO much of his good
looks and how fortunate he was after
all and how superior to the rest of the
forest animals. This consoled him
often when he went hungry to bed and
kept him from feeling too downcast
when he came back to his den after a
long unsuccessful hunt for supper.
Then one day something happened to
Silver Fox. There came spell of
warm weather and he bethought him
that the pond, which was his favorite
mirror, was perhaps melting so that
he might be able to see himself once
again in it's surface. He knew that it
was not able to give him any idea Of
the beauty of his coioring. but still it
had always rendered a satisfactory re-
hection of his general effectiveness, and
SO he set off for the pond with en-
thusiasm, resolved to forget the uncom-
enough to eat in the pleasure Of seeing
his own image once again.
The pond was long distance away,
but he ran so swiftly that he was there
before you would have imagined IL pos
sibie. To his delight the ice on the
pond was partly melted. and he saw
that there was considerable stretch
OF water I'm which he womb ha ahla ~
see himself. The open water was out n
/, little distance from shore. and Silver
Fox didn't like to get his feet wet, but