arth," and vanished, with a
ridiculously feeble "yap" of make-believe bravado, into the darkness of
the den. Confidence, however, came and increased as the days and the
nights went by, till, at the close of a week's experiences, Vulp was as
bold in danger as either of his playmates. He learned to trust his
mother implicitly, and, in her absence, became the guardian of the
family when some fancied alarm brought fear. He was always last in
learning his lessons; but, as if to make amends, he always profited most
by the teaching.

Happy, indeed, were those hours of innocence--filled with sleep, and
love, and play. Till Vulp was six weeks old, he was wholly unconscious
of that ravenous hunger for flesh which was fated to make him the
scourge of the woodlands. Nevertheless, his instincts were slowly
developing, and so, when on a second occasion the old buck rabbit that
had frightened him in the thicket bolted before his eyes across the
path, the little fox bristled with rage and, but for his mother's
presence, would doubtless have tried to pursue the exasperating coney.
Invariably, when the night was fine, the cubs gambolled about the vixen
on the close-cropped sward beyond the den, climbing over her body,
pinching her ears, growling and grunting, tugging at each other's
brushes, and in general behaving just as healthy, happy fox-cubs might
be expected to behave; while the patient, careful mother looked on
approvingly--save when, uniting in one strong effort, they endeavoured
to disjoint her tail by pulling it over her back--and smiled, as only a
fox can smile, with eyes asquint and a single out-turned fang showing
white beside the half-closed lip.

A great event occurred when the mother first brought home her prey that
she might educate her youngsters in the matter of appetite and prepare
them for an independent existence. The victim was an almost full-grown
rabbit. Laying it down close to the entrance of the "earth," the vixen
called her cubs, and instantly they rushed from the den, tumbling over
each other in their haste, till they gained the spot where she was
waiting. At that moment, however, they caught sight of the strange grey
object in the grass, and, leaping back, bolted round to their mother's
side. Then, feeling safe under her care, they cautiously advanced in a
row to sniff the rabbit, and wondered, yet instinctively guessed, at the
meaning of the situation. The vixen growled, and, picking up her prey,
carried