“That’s the way I would have done it if it had been a real bird,” said Mr. Fox. “Now you try, Sharp Eyes, and let us see how you would do it.”
So the little fox boy tried, and so did his brother and his sister, and for many days after that their father or their mother gave them hunting lessons outside the hollow log.
After a while Sharp Eyes, Twinkle, and Winkle learned to be very good jumpers, and they could move over a bit of ground, covered with sticks, stones and leaves, so softly that you never would have heard them.
“Now come out in the woods, and let us see if you can be as quiet when there is something real to catch, instead of the make-believe birds and rats, that are really only pieces of wood,” said Mr. Fox. For, up to this time, he had let the fox children practise on bits of bark, clumps of grass, or a stone, pretending they were grouse or partridges.
Through the woods went the family, Mr. Fox in front, then Sharp Eyes, Twinkle and Winkle, and Mrs. Fox behind them all. The two old foxes were looking out for danger, you see.
All at once Mr. Fox stopped, and, speaking in an animal whisper, said:
“Here is a mouse just in front of me, Sharp Eyes. He does not see me yet. Come and see if you can get it!”
Up came Sharp Eyes very, very softly. He saw a big wood mouse under the roots of a tree. The mouse was gnawing the soft bark.
Sharp Eyes tried to, but alas! he stepped on a dried stick, which broke with a crack. The mouse heard it and started to jump down into his burrow under the earth.
“No, you don’t!” cried Mr. Fox, and he made a big jump and caught the mouse just in time.
“That’s the way to do it!” barked Mrs. Fox. “The mouse would have gotten away from you, Sharp Eyes.”
“I’m sorry,” replied the little fox boy slowly and sadly.
“Never mind,” said his father. “You’ll do better the next time.”
But it was some days before the little foxes learned to catch anything.
“Oh, shall we ever learn?” asked Twinkle.
“Of course you will,” said his mother. “When I was a young fox, like you, I thought I’d never catch my first mouse. But I did.”
So Mr. and Mrs. Fox had to keep on catching the things the little foxes ate, though each day Sharp Eyes, Twinkle and Winkle were getting quicker and better.