When not a soul is near?
The birds, the trees and flowers
Are kind as kind can be,
I'm sure that not a single one
Would do a thing to me.

"The bugs and pretty butterflies
Will form a fairy band
And guard me safely while I walk
Throughout this dark woodland.
But just the same, I'll hurry,
And not stay here too long;
Because, you see, I only know
Two verses of this song."

Well, as soon as Alice finished singing, land sakes! goodness, gracious
me! if a big fox didn't pop out from behind a tree, and before Alice could
say "How do you do?" or even "Good afternoon," or anything like that, if
he didn't grab her by the legs and put her into a bag he carried over his
shoulder, and then he tied the bag tight and started to run away.

"Oh! Oh!" cried Alice. "Let me out! Please let me out of this bag, Mr.
Fox, and I'll give you all the money I've got saved up in my bank! Honest,
I will; every cent in my bank!"

"No," answered the fox savagely. "I don't want your money. What good would
money be to me? I can't eat money! Ha! ha! ha!" and he laughed that way
three times, just like a mooley cow.

"Are you going to eat me?" asked Alice, from inside the bag, where she was
trembling so that she squashed the yeast cake all out, as flat as a
pancake on a cold winter morning, when you have brown sausage gravy and
maple syrup to pour on it.

"Eat you? Of course, I'm going to eat you!" cried the fox. "That is why I
caught you. But I can't decide whether to have you boiled or roasted. It's
quite trying not to know. I must make up my mind soon, however."

Then he ran on some more, over the hills, bumpity-bump, with poor Alice
jouncing around in that bag, and the little duck girl wished the fox would
be a long time making up his mind which way to cook her, for she thought
that maybe Jimmie might come and save her in the meanwhile.

"It didn't do much good to sing that song," thought Alice, and I suppose
it didn't, but you know you can't always have what you want in this world.
Oh, my, no, and a bottle of cough medicine besides.

Well, the old fox hurried on, with Alice in the bag and he ran fast to get
to his den, and pretty soon the little duck girl felt him coming to a
stop. Then she heard some one saying:

"Ah, good day, Mr. Fox; what have you in that bag?"

"I have apples in this bag," said the fox. Oh, but wasn't he the bold, bad
story-telling fox, though?