Bob pursued by a Fox.
“Now, then, Bob was compelled to confess his faults, and to own to himself how foolish and wicked he had been, while every moment he imagined his foe was watching his distress from some sly corner, and making up his mind what sauce was best to eat squirrels with.
“‘Oh, dear!’ sobbed the poor runaway, ‘if I was only at home, in my native forest, and in my father’s tree, I would never run away again, nor wander off from my parents! There is the hole in the old oak, my mother’s cupboard, all filled with apples and nuts, and nice acorns for a relish, and they have no need to-day to wet so much as the tips of their ears in the rain! And here am I, half-drowned, and starving besides! There is my comfortable bed of dry, sweet leaves, and no dangers near it, while here I must run for my life, without a tree to take refuge in, and no rest for my weary limbs, and no sleep for my eyelids! Oh, my dear, wise father! what a wicked fool I was to scorn your advice! Oh, my poor, dear mother! How much better I should have fared, if I had minded your entreaties!’
“All his tears, however, did not help the matter any, but rather made it worse. The more he thought of his home, the worse the present place seemed; and the more he lamented himself, the more his conscience smote him. While he was thus deploring his folly, and nearly blind with grief, an enemy came from a new and unexpected quarter.
“A raven, who, like the poor squirrel, was half famished, made a dive after him; and Bob, who had taken a high place to get away from the beast, was glad to hurry down to escape the talons of the bird.
Bob is carried off by a Crow.
“Away he scampered, and the raven after him; fear giving him new strength, and the terror of the raven making him forget the fox.
“But that hungry gentleman, who had merely taken a nap with one eye open, while he waited for the squirrel to come down from his perch, was awakened by the outcry which was made by the pursuer and the pursued, and the poor squirrel found himself in a double danger. The fox was at his heels, and the raven was over his head. If there had been a tree by which he could have got away from the fox, it would not have saved him from the raven; and if there had been a hole which would have protected him from the bird, the beast would have followed him into it.
“Which of the two deaths he would die seemed now the only choice left for him; and the raven at last settled that matter, by catching him up, and giving him a sail in the air, as an offset to his former sail on the water.