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 ten sustained a cramped position for hours. Her mate was not allowed in the den while the pups were still unweaned, but even so, the den was often cramped.

If Mr. Fox even dared to poke his head in at the burrow to see how things were going, he was promptly invited to get out. This was not because he might have killed the pups as a tomcat will often do with kittens before their eyes are open, but just a bit of jealous mother love, which would not suffer anyone but herself to care for these small wriggling woolly things, that would some day be real full grown foxes.

After stretching and yawning until it would seem as though her jaw would be put out of joint, Mother Fox looked about amid the darkening shadows of the ancient woods. With her keen yellow eyes she searched out every dark thicket, but there was no game in sight, not even a wood mouse. So she sat down upon her haunches to wait for the mighty hunter.

Half an hour before daylight he had arisen from a deep thicket where he had