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MRS. FOX.
THERE was once a sly old fox with nine tails, who was very curious to know whether his wife was true to him: so he stretched himself out under a bench, and pretended to be dead as a mouse.
Then Mrs. Fox went up into her own room and locked the door: but her maid, the cat, sat at the kitchen fire cooking; and soon after it became known that the old fox was dead, some one knocked at the door, saying,
"Miss Pussy! Miss Pussy! how fare you to-day?
Are you sleeping or watching the time away?"
Then the cat went and opened the door, and there stood a young fox; so she said to him,
"No, no, Master Fox, I don't sleep in the day,
I'm making some capital white wine whey.
Will your honour be pleased to dinner to stay?"
"No, I thank you," said the fox; "but how is poor Mrs. Fox?" Then the cat answered,
"She sits all alone in her chamber up stairs,
And bewails her misfortune with floods of tears:
She weeps till her beautiful eyes are red;
For, alas! alas! Mr. Fox is dead."
