The swamp once more breathed freely and naturally. Blue jays called, flickers whinnied, two of Red Squirrel’s cousins came out of their hole under a cedar root, Gray Squirrel was calling out, “Fee-we-e-e-e-k, kek, kek, kek, fee-wee-e-e-e-k”—everywhere within sight things seemed peaceful and happy.
Yet, somewhere in the Pine Barrens, Red Ben knew his mother was running on and on, with death on her trail. One slim red fox against three dogs. Would she ever come back?
Red Ben’s Mother
Red Ben crept from under the tree and looked all around. The red squirrels scolded at him, but he did not notice them; he had made up his mind to follow his mother. Full of trouble and scarcely knowing where to go, he at last wandered to Oak Ridge. Through its leafy tangles he trotted, in the direction he had last heard the hound. A branch of the old woods path ran here, and with the instinct of the fox to take always the best road, he followed it.
Suddenly, however, something unfamiliar appeared ahead and caused him to stop as if frozen. It did not move, he could not make out what it was, but he knew that never before had it been there when he followed this path.
Cautiously he slipped into the woods and circled until he caught the scent on the faint breeze. One sniff was enough. It was Farmer Slown!
Away ran Red Ben, not knowing, however, how narrow had been his escape. Ben Slown, gun in hand, was sitting there watching the trail. At that moment he was looking in the other direction, whence he expected the mother to run ahead of the hound.
Red Ben knew now the danger of moving about in daytime. At night man is asleep or else blundering about blinded by the dark. His traps and his poisoned baits may do harm then, but he himself is made harmless. There is not a creature of the wild that does not learn this.
To Red Ben the world seemed full of enemies. He dared not go farther, nor wander back; so he crouched in the laurel bushes and waited. And then he heard, far away, the baying of the hound. Nearer it came. It thrilled the young fox: he knew his mother was not far off.