But though the chase went merrily on (that is, merrily on the fox's part), the fawns had learned a valuable lesson.
They now made straight for Lone Lake, and my! You should have seen the ducks take flight as these two alarming little fellows came splashing in among them!
A deer, when pursued by hounds, will always take to water when he can, and the hounds have no scent to follow. Then, unless there is a hunter along, and he catches sight of his quarry, and fires, the deer are safe.
The Red Fox Pup uses his eyes, as well as his nose, and he was so close behind, and understood so well this trick of taking to water, (for he escaped the hounds that way himself), that he wasn't fooled the least little bit in the world. Not he!
Only once they had taken the plunge, the little fellows decided to swim out to a reedy islet where they could rest. And the fox pup didn't think it worth while to get his fur wet. For when his great brush of a tail gets wet, it is so heavy that it weighs him down, and he can't run nearly so fast, so the mice all get away.
Of course the fawns thought it was all their own cleverness, and you should have heard them telling Fleet Foot about it when she found them there!
The fawns never tired of watching the life that stirred everywhere about them, their great soft eyes filled with pleasant wonder.
One day it would be the one soft cluck of Mother Grouse Hen, calling to her chicks to hide before Frisky Fox should pass that way.
When he had passed, looking so wise and knowing, (with his bright eyes peering into every nook and corner, and his pointed little nose testing the air for a taint), Mother Grouse Hen would give a different sort of cluck; and back the frightened chicks would come to her, and she would gather them comfortingly under her wings, pressing each wee brown baby to her down-covered breast to reassure him.
Then she would utter a soft, brooding cluck that told them how she loved them, and how safe they were with Mother to look out for them.
What was the matter with the hen-roost at the Valley Farm, the fox pup asked himself? He had killed so many field mice in the course of the summer that he felt he was really entitled to one of the farmer's nice fat hens,--because the mice might have destroyed the farmer's crops, had Frisky not prevented.