Mr. Fox told all his friends of his new home and
invited them to a housewarming.

Mr. Coon and Mr. Possum and Mr. Squirrel were not at all upset by
finding out that Mr. Fox's new home was in the big tree, but Mr. Rabbit
and Mr. Badger looked very sad and said it was out of the question for
them to accept Mr. Fox's kind invitation, much as they would like to
come.

Mr. Fox had borrowed a ladder from Mr. Man, and when Mr. Rabbit and Mr.
Badger said they could not come Mr. Fox remembered that he was not much
of a climber himself and that if he did not keep that ladder he might
have a hard time getting into his home when he was in a hurry.

So he decided that Mr. Man would not need it as much as he would and
that it would also make a nice addition to his home.

When he told Mr. Badger and Mr. Rabbit about the ladder they decided to
come, and one night when the moon was shining the animals were all to
go to Mr. Fox's house to dinner.

Mr. Fox thought it would be the cheapest way to fill his guests with
soup, so he took all the bones that he had collected and put them in a
pot on the stove to boil.

Up curled the smoke from his chimney and out through the windows went
the nice-smelling odor of soup, and Mr. Dog, who happened to be running
through the woods, saw and smelled as well.

He wagged his tail and looked up at the house in the tree; then he
whined and scratched the tree, and as he danced about it, with his eyes
fixed upon the house all the time, he bumped into the ladder.

"Ah, how fortunate!" he said, and up he went and into Mr. Fox's house
he went, too, and took the cover off the pot.

It did not take him a second to remove the pot from the stove and pour
out the soup in the sink and cool those bones, and then such a feast as
he had.

He ate until he became sleepy; then he lay down on the floor and went
to sleep.

Mr. Dog did not dream that Mr. Fox lived in that house; not that he was
afraid of him, but he would have slept with one eye open so that he
could catch him if he had known.

Mr. Fox was out roaming over the hill, looking about for a stray turkey
or hen, and he did not come home until it was nearly dark.

He ran up the ladder, and without striking a light he went toward the
stove to see how his soup was getting on, and stumbled over Mr. Dog.
Up jumped Mr. Dog with a gruff bark, and Mr. Fox, not stopping for the
ladder, jumped out of the window and almost broke his neck, while Mr.
Dog looke