"What is it?" yelled the Hired Man, poking his head from his sleeping-room in the barn-loft. "A fox, eh?" and he grabbed for his gun, leaning far out to scan the moonlit fields.
Frisky Fox, by keeping the shed between himself and the gun, made off through the corn-field with the hen across his shoulder.
Lop Ear, his warning uttered, now dashed madly in quite the wrong direction,--for the memory of the fox pup's friendship was strong upon him. But the Hired Man was not to be fooled.
In less time than it takes to tell it, he was out circling the field, gun in hand. And the bright moonlight soon showed him where the cornstalks rustled with Frisky's passing.
"Hi, there!" yelled the Hired Man, gun in hand, as he raced around the corn-field.
But Frisky was an excellent judge of distance, and he knew to a certainty that he was out of gun range.
He therefore deliberately stopped where he was and snatched a bite of his hen.
As the Hired Man came nearer, the fox pup ran farther, always keeping just about so much distance between himself and the gun. He could easily have out-distanced his pursuer. But he was in a mischievous mood to-night, and it pleased him to see how far he could go toward devouring the entire hen while the angry man looked on.
He did it, too, saucily enough, gobbling a bite here and a bite there, looking back over his shoulder the while at the man with the gun. One or two shots did ring out on the crisp night air, kicking up the dirt a few rods behind him, but Frisky Fox ate on, secure by those few rods of space, as well he knew.
Only once did he miscalculate, the shot landing so near him that he knew the next one would surely get him if the Hired Man tried again.
Quick as a flash the clever rascal toppled over on his side, playing dead. The ruse worked, for the Hired Man did not shoot again. And while he was fumbling his way through the corn-field to where he believed the fox lay waiting, Frisky was making for the woods with his nimble black feet fairly twinkling over the ground.
Throwing himself at last on the soft pine needles on a little hill-top, he peered through the moonlight to where the Hired Man was staring helplessly about him wondering where the dead fox lay. Frisky laughed silently at the success of his ruse,--the first time he had ever played 'possum himself, though he had seen it done once before, when his mother had been hard pressed. In her case she had actually let the boy pick her up, when he found her with one foot in a trap. But to her surprise he had only released her with pitying words and a caress on her silky red head.