Page:The red book of animal stories.djvu/76

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54
A FOX TALE

gnaw off his own leg! Who shall say now that foxes have no courage? In a few minutes he was free of the trap—and free of his own leg too! He had to limp home as best he could, and there lay for several days in great pain, with the result that the larders became empty, and he had to live on frogs and weasels—anything, in fact, that he could catch in his burrow;

So, now, if any of you come across a three-legged fox, you will know why it is; and if you happen to catch him, don’t keep him, for he is grown up. and grown-up foxes never tame.