Sometimes at night Sharp Eyes would cry for Don, the dog, to come to help him get out of the cage, as Don had helped the fox pull loose from the spring trap. And one night Don, who was roving in the woods far away from his master’s house, as he had done once before, passed near the hunter’s cabin.
“What! are you here, Sharp Eyes?” asked the dog, in surprise.
“Yes,” answered the wild creature. “Can’t you help me get out?”
“I’ll try,” answered Don.
But Sharp Eyes’ cage was made strong to keep animals from getting in, as well as to keep Sharp Eyes from getting out, and Don could do nothing.
“I’m sorry,” he said to Sharp Eyes. “It needs some one stronger than I am to break open your cage. If I could only get Chunky, the happy hippo, here, he could open your cage with one shove of his big head.”
“Can’t you get him here?” asked Sharp Eyes, eagerly.
“I’m afraid not,” answered the dog. “He is in the park menagerie far away. You’ll never see Chunky.”
But just you wait and see what happens.
So Sharp Eyes was kept in the hunter’s cage for nearly a year. And in that time the silver fox grew quite tame. He saw that the hunter was not going to hurt him—at least for a while, and the man brought good things for the fox to eat and nice water to drink.