him, which was unusual in her (though natural enough
in her sister Angelica). He sat down a little way from the earth
fondling her, and fed her with some fish he had brought for her mother,
which she ate so ravenously that he concluded she must have been short
of food that day and probably alone for some time.

At last while he was sitting there Esther pricked up her ears, started
up, and presently Mr. Tebrick saw his vixen come towards them. She
greeted him very affectionately but it was plain had not much time to
spare, for she soon started back whence she had come with Esther at her
side. When they had gone about a rod the cub hung back and kept stopping
and looking back to the earth, and at last turned and ran back home. But
her mother was not to be fobbed off so, for she quickly overtook her
child and gripping her by the scruff began to drag her along with her.

Mr. Tebrick, seeing then how matters stood, spoke to her, telling her he
would carry Esther if she would lead, so after a little while Silvia
gave her over, and then they set out on their strange journey.

Silvia went running on a little before while Mr. Tebrick followed after
with Esther in his arms whimpering and struggling now to be free, and
indeed, once she gave him a nip with her teeth. This was not so strange
a thing to him now, and he knew the remedy for it, which is much the
same as with others whose tempers run too high, that is a taste of it
themselves. Mr. Tebrick shook her and gave her a smart little cuff,
after which, though she sulked, she stopped her biting.

They went thus above a mile, circling his house and crossing the highway
until they gained a small covert that lay with some waste fields
adjacent to it. And by this time it was so dark that it was all Mr.
Tebrick could do to pick his way, for it was not always easy for him to
follow where his vixen found a big enough road for herself.

But at length they came to another earth, and by the starlight Mr.
Tebrick could just make out the other cubs skylarking in the shadows.

Now he was tired, but he was happy and laughed softly for joy, and
presently his vixen, coming to him, put her feet upon his shoulders as
he sat on the ground, and licked him, and he kissed her back on the
muzzle and gathered her in his arms and rolled her in his jacket and
then laughed and wept by turns in the excess of his joy.

All his jealousies of the night before were forgotten now. All his
desperate sorrow