er than the foxes, chase them with awful noises, guns
and dogs, and catch them alive--to save their skins. No wonder I
couldn't sleep! I guess the foxes wouldn't either, if they had known
what was coming. Maybe hereafter the mean old things would eat rabbits
and weasels, and leave the Dorking roosters alone.

May, Candace, and Miss Amelia were going to Deams' to wait, and when
the round-up formed a solid line, they planned to stand outside, and
see the sport. If they had been the foxes, maybe they wouldn't have
thought it was so funny; but of course, people just couldn't have even
their pigs and lambs taken. We had to have wool to spin yarn for our
stockings, weave our blankets and coverlids, and our Sunday winter
dresses of white flannel with narrow black crossbars were from the
backs of our own sheep, and we had to have ham to fry with eggs, and
boil for Sunday night suppers, and bacon to cook the greens with--of
course it was all right.

Before it was near daylight I heard Laddie making the kitchen fire, so
father got right up, Leon came down, and all of them went to the barn
to do the feeding. I wanted to get up too, but mother said I should
stay in bed until the house was warm, because if I took more cold I'd
be sick again. At breakfast May asked father about when they should
start for Deams' to be ahead of the chase, and he said by ten o'clock
at least; because a fox driven mad by pursuit, dogs, and noise, was a
very dangerous thing, and a bite might make hy----the same thing as a
mad dog. He said our back barn door opening from the threshing floor
would afford a fine view of the meet, but Candace, May, and Miss Amelia
wanted to be closer. I might go with them if they would take good care
of me, and they promised to; but when the time came to start, there was
such a queer feeling inside me, I thought maybe it was more fever, and
with mother would be the best place for me, so I said I wanted to watch
from the barn. Father thought that was a capital idea, because I would
be on the east side, where there would be no sun and wind, and it would
be perfectly safe; also, I really could see what was going on better
from that height than on the ground.

The sun was going to shine, but it hadn't peeped above Deams'
strawstack when father on his best saddle horse, and Laddie on Flos,
rode away, their eyes shining, their faces red, their blood pounding so
it made their voices sound excited and different. Leon was