“I hope they don’t get me,” thought the silver fox.
And the men and boys did not. They knew nothing about hunting foxes, even in the streets of a big city and they soon gave up the chase. Sharp Eyes stayed under the steps in the darkness until the streets grew quiet. Late at night, or, rather, very early in the morning, the trolley cars and automobiles stopped running. The streets had no one in them. And then it was that the fox came quietly out and ran along. He did not know just where he was going. He wanted to get to the country and to the woods. He wanted to get back home.
On and on he ran, and if any one in the city saw him in those early hours of the morning, they must have thought him a stray dog, for they did not chase him.
The silver fox was tired and hungry. He managed to find a bit of meat in an ash box, and once he came to a fountain where horses were watered, and he got a drink. Then he felt better.
It would take another book, almost as large as this, to tell all the adventures of Sharp Eyes as he ran through the city and at last got to the country where there were some woods.
At times boys and men saw him and chased him, and, more than once, dogs ran after him, barking. But Sharp Eyes was a smart fox. He had the smartness of a wild animal and the cunning of a partly tamed one. So he knew how to hide and how to get away.
On and on he traveled. It was quite different from being carried in a cage by the hunter or riding in the railroad train. It was hard work. The feet of Sharp Eyes became sore, especially the one which had been hurt in the trap.
Often the silver fox was hungry and thirsty, but he kept on and on. He did not go near cities but kept to the country and the woods. Often he would take a chicken or a duck from a farm at night. He did not know it was wrong, for he had to live, and this was the only way he had of getting food.
On and on he went. Sometimes he had to wade across brooks, and more than once he swam rivers. All the while he was looking for his old home in the North Woods, not knowing how far away it was. When he met any animals who seemed kind—horses, dogs or cats—Sharp Eyes would ask them: