“I will do it,” he said, seriously. The backwoodsman paused in his chewing, spat over the sawhorse,—the two were sitting on the wood-pile in Jabe’s yard,—and eyed the lad doubtfully. He could not believe that his eloquence had triumphed so overwhelmingly as this speech seemed to imply.
“It’s this way, Jabe,” went on the Boy after a few moments of silence. “I know that fox a sight better than you do! I’ve watched and studied him; and I’ve got so that I like him. I could have shot him a dozen times. I know all his kinks. I’ve lugged him by the hind legs, hanging over my shoulder—”
“The hell you have!” ejaculated the backwoodsman, looking at the Boy with astonishment and growing respect. The two knew each other too well to be incredulous of each other’s statements.
“Yes! and even then he fooled me! But I know, now, how to best him if I wanted to. I don’t want to. But if you’re bound you’re a-going to, then I’ll chip in with and show you how, on condition that you spare his life. You’ll get the glory, Jabe; and I’ll get the fox.”
The backwoodsman spat contemplatively, and rolled the question over in his mind. What he called the Boy’s “durn foolishness” about killing things naturally made him impatient at times, and he was unwilling to seem to humour it. But in this the Boy was certainly meeting him half-way; and he wanted to gratify him.
“What’d you want to do with the critter, after we’d got him?” he inquired at last, suspicious of some strategy.
The Boy smiled comprehendingly.
“Well, I wouldn’t let him go again, to give you your trouble all over, Jabe! Don’t be scared of that!”
“I ain’t skeered of that!” protested Jabe, ashamed of having his suspicions penetrated.
“Well,” went on the Boy, “I’d keep the fox a little while myself, I think, if father didn’t mind, and see if I could tame him. He’s so clever, maybe he’d not be so hard to tame as other foxes. But I don’t expect I could do much with him that way. Foxes all think too much of themselves to let any one brag of having tamed them. But he’s such a beauty that any show or ‘zoo’ would be mighty proud to get him, and would take care to treat him well. I’ll sell him, and get a big price for him, Jabe. And we’ll divide. He’d better be in a show, Jabe, than dead,—whatever some people might say.”