CHAPTER XII
SHARP EYES GETS HOME
“How good it is to be free!” thought Sharp Eyes, the silver fox, as he bounded out of the broken cage and ran quickly to hide under some bushes that grew near the place in the zoölogical park where Chunky, the happy hippo, lived. “How good it is to be free! Good-bye, Chunky!” he called softly to his friend, from where he was hidden under the bush. “Good-bye! I wish you were coming with me.”
“No, thank you,” said the hippo. “I am better off in the park. I need to be warm, for I come from Jungle Land. As for you, with your warm coat of silver fur, you do not mind winter and snow. Good-bye and good luck to you!”
Then the hippo went to take a swim in the pool of his cage, and Sharp Eyes, remembering the hiding tricks his father and mother had taught him when he lived in the woods, made ready to get as far away as he could.
The silver fox kept very quiet under the bush, waiting to see what would happen. Soon, he knew, the animal keepers would find out he was gone, and they would hunt for him. Sharp Eyes did not want them to find him.
“I must creep away as carefully as if I was hunting a chicken at the farm near the North Woods where I used to live,” said Sharp Eyes to himself. “But no more chickens for me, unless I can be sure there is no trap near by! I must be very careful!”
Carefully and slyly he looked around. He saw no one, and he thought it would be a good thing to run a little farther away from the park. He was too close to his broken cage.
Trailing his big, bushy tail along behind him, Sharp Eyes crept out from under the bush and ran across the path. A little distance farther on were some trees, and the silver fox hoped they would prove to be a wood in which he might hide.
But just as he was going in among these trees (which were not a wood, but only a part of the park) one of the keepers saw him.
“Oh, the silver fox is out of his cage!” cried this man. “We must get the silver fox!”