“The fox went on his own business,” she said. “He fell in his own hunting. We can trust nobody now.”
Then, with bent head, she went sadly home.
THE LION
1
It was one night, some days after the animals had held their meeting in the meadow.
The lion lay in his lair, as was his custom, and stared with his yellow eyes. His spouse was sleeping or pretending to sleep. At every moment she heaved a deep sigh. All was still in the forest.
The lion well knew what his consort’s sighing meant. He knew what the animals had talked of that day and all the other days in the forest. Not one of their complaints was unfamiliar to him; not one of the taunts uttered against him had escaped his ears. Not for a moment had he doubted the feeling in the forest towards the king of beasts.