The Old Fox and Her Young One
An old fox and her young one found their way to a yard where hens were kept, and one by one they put them all to death. It was the wish of the young fox to eat them all then and there, but his dam said, “We have had great luck, yet we must not spend all our stock at once, but put some by, and come for it when we want it.” “Don’t preach to me,” said the pert young fox, “the fowls will not keep sweet a day, so I shall eat as much as I can now, for when the men on the farm see what we have done, they will, of course, look out for us.” The young fox then ate such a meal that it was all he could do to crawl to his hole, and in less than an hour he was dead. The old fox came back to the hoard, and was caught by the men, who had lain in wait to kill her. “Ah!” said she, with her last breath, “each age hath its fault; each bean its black; each day its night; each weal its woe!”