He Is Merry And Sly

' ' How few peopl e kno w what an interesting chap the fox is!" said tbe naturalist. ' They know him only by repatation and thatas a chicken thief,which he is. But he has lots of pointe, I teil you. A ïnerry, sly dog is reynard. All sumruer he lives in luxurious ease, roaming the woods and savintering by the pearly brooks, or basking in the noonday sun. "He loves fish and going down to the stream he waits till he spies a plump trotit. It's all over in a twinkle. A leap, a snap, and off he trots with his juicy inorsel. A stupid crawtish snoozes by his hole near the water 's edge. Reynard drops his tail in the water and tickles him with it. The angered crnstacean conies out of his hiding place and is seized and crushed, anuor and all. When the ripening corn is ready to drop, and the luscious fruits have reached their niiifurity, and all nature is plethoric with ripening fullness. then Master Fox is in clover. Timid rabbits prick up.their ears and run, unconscious of danger, along the hillside ; the quails skulk noiselessly in the wheat stubble; birds pour forth their notes of praise - and he catches them all. He loves fruits, stealthily stealing into orchards, where apples and plump pears tempt, and in the vineyard he fairly reveis in grapes. His cubs grow fat and saucy. He shows them how to pilfer honey, and when the busy bees have laid up a winter store he crawls to the hives near the garden fence, and jumping up to the small opening licks the sweet drops with pure delight. Out come the stinging,humming honey makers, and settle like a pall on his thick pelt, but he doubles up in a twmkling, and rolling over and over crushes them by the score and eats them as a relish. Cunning? No animal beats him. Look at his brainy head. His delicate ears - broad below to catch every sound froin the highest note of the shrill warbler to the low crooning of the cricket, or the distant murmur of storm, or the f evered pants of the prancing hounds, and tapering so sharply to a point Ihat they can shape themselves to every wave of air that makes the tiniest rustle of noise. Note the crafty calculation and foresight of the low,flatbrow. Whatanose! Now full of resolute purpose pointing straight forward, and anon turning mp with concentrated malice and scorn. The eye, deep set, a regular robber 's eye, lacking the soft beauty of the timid deer, or the fascinating glare of the cat's, yet it trembles with modest huinility or glares with murderous rage, flashing fire and vengeance. Energy and self control speak in the thin, cynical lips, and the inouth opens from caito ear. He can leap, crawl, run and swirn with the velocity of lightning,and his wiry body is carried so noiselessly along that scarce a trace is left. His delicate footfalls echo no response even among the dead leaves of the forest. His walk is treacherous, his glance sinister. Seizing a btinch of grain in his mouth, he will swim into the midst of a flock of ducks and seize the plumpest tor a dinner. "He will feign death like a possum, and even the hound'steeth and the flash of gunpowder have failed toáronse him. A farmer snrprised one in a hen roost. Believing that the fox was dead from overeating the farmer kicked the stiffened body on the floor, picked it up by the taii and flnng it out in the barnyard. In a jiiïy the fox gathered up his legs and escaped. 'He is voracions, is reynard. When hunger pressed and gaunt and lean from starvation, he'U not refuseseipents and toads and moles and rats. He has been known to attack and kill yönng calves and lambs, and if the seashore is near will revel in oysters and shellfish. A group of rabbits are feeding in a clover patch. He'll crawl along, nibbling the juicy flowers. until near enough to ruake a grab. He'll stalk a bird with his hind legs dragging behind him until near enough to spring. How farmers dread his inroads in the poultry yard ! Fasten the yard up tight, and he will burrow a winding passage into the ground beneath and suddenly appear among the drowsy chickens and stupid geese, whose shrill and alarnied cries arouse the farmer from his bed to sally forth, flnding all safe. Then the fox will sneak back and pack away with the phmiijest pullet or the fattest goose. February is the month when reynard goes a-wooing, and a wide range he takes, flirting and toying with every vixen that chances in his way. ltisfnlly 60 daysbefore madam dears therubbish all out of her bnrrow and brirü's forth her young, from thrée to six at ;i litter. It will be fully a month before the sharp nosed cubs begin to play and gambol abont the doorway of their home. Perhaps it will be at the root of an old tree, beneath a ledge of roeks, or in the hollowof a dead tree trunk, or a burrow with several entrances iii the sand or loam. Telltale chicken bones and feathers and fur strewn about the entrance speak of many a hen roost robbed or of foolish rabbits and overconfident grouse that have furnished food for the ever hungry culis. The mother fox faithfully feeds her young and boldly steals to support them. She knows, as all gportsmen know, that the hounds will not follow her while slip has a family depending apon her. ' A merry.devil may care life does the fox lead indeed! It may be a short one, for traps and snares are many, hnnters are alert, and the scent of hound is keen. But reynard rollicks and roysters and plays the bold freebooter amid it all. " - New York Sun. Womau, once made equal to man, beconieth bis superior. - Socraii .