ep!
On 'round and around,
With a sharp clear sound,
To fly like a fish in the sea!--
Ah, this is the sport for me!

THREE SMART LITTLE FOXES.

There were once three little foxes who lived in a hole in a bank. It was
a large, comfortable hole, and these three little foxes (two of them
were brothers and one was a sister) could lie down and put their heads
out of the hole, and see what was going on in the neighborhood.

One afternoon one of the brother foxes slipped out by himself for a
little walk, and when he came back he called the other two, and said:
"Oh, come here! I will show you something, and tell you all about it."

So they all lay down close together, and looked out of the hole.

"Now then," said the brother fox who had been out, "you see that fence
down there?"

"Oh yes," said his brother and sister.

"Well, on the other side of that fence is a splendid chicken-yard. I
went down there and saw it myself. I peeped through the fence. And in
that yard there is a row of chicken-coops, all with chickens in."

"Oh!" said the others. They began to feel hungry already.

"Yes, all with chickens in, and I heard a little girl say that the row
of coops was called Pullet Row, Chicken Avenue, and that all the houses
were taken. The first coop had an old hen and eleven little puffy
chickens in it, and the second one held a whole lot of small chickens
who were big enough to take care of themselves; and the next coop had in
it an old rooster who had hurt his foot, and who had to be shut up. I
think it's funny that neither mother nor father ever found out this
splendid chicken-yard, so near us too! As soon as it gets to be a little
dark we must go down there and get some of those chickens."

"All right," said the sister fox; "we'll go, and I'll take the first
coop with the little chickens."

"And I'll take the coop with the young chickens who are big enough to
take-care of themselves," said one of the brother foxes.

"I'll take the big old rooster," said the other brother fox. "I like
lots of chickens when I eat any."

At the back of the hole the old Mother Fox was lying down. Her children
thought she was asleep, but she was not, and she heard all that they had
been talking about.

She now came forward and said: "That is certainly a very nice place that
you see down there, and you, my son, were very smart, no doubt, to
discover it. But when you go down there, this evening, take a look at