THE PET FOX.
Hardie had a funny present once. It was a little fox. The man who gave it to him found it when it was a small cub. He tried to tame it as it grew older, but he could not make it very tame.
The man belonged to the army, and soon he had to go away. Then he gave his fox to Hardie, who was glad to have it for a pet. He wanted to keep it in the house. But his mamma said Foxy was not a nice pet to keep in the house. So Hardie made him a kennel out doors. Foxy had a collar on, with a strong chain.
His young master fastened him by this chain; and then he gave him chicken bones, and other good things, to eat.
Foxy seemed quite happy for a time; but one day the dogs found him, and they teased him so that poor Foxy worked out of his collar and ran and hid in the house. Hardie was sorry for his pet, but he knew he must not stay in the house.
So he made the collar and chain fast once more, and put the fox back in his kennel. Then he fenced it up so that the dogs could not get in, and said, "There, poor fellow! You need not be afraid!"
But when Foxy heard the dogs bark he was afraid. He was sure they would get at him, and he worked so hard at his collar that he got it off again. Then he ran away to the woods, Hardie was very sorry to lose his fox; he asked all the boys if they had seen it.
Down the road there lived a blacksmith who had two pet raccoons. They were tame, very tame. They had a place to live in which they had fixed as they liked it. They used to run across the road from their home to a spring, to drink.
A boy who did not know about the blacksmith's raccoons saw one of them as it ran to get a drink. He chased it and caught it Then he came up to find Hardie.
"Hardie, I 've found your fox!" cried the boy. Hardie ran in haste to look; but when he saw what the boy had brought he said, "O dear! That is no fox at all. It is one of Mr. Gunn's raccoons."
The boy took the raccoon back, and Hardie never found his fox.