The
Clever Fox
By Valerie L. Egar
A
long time ago, a clever mother fox lived in a den with her husband and eight
children. Though she and her husband
hunted every night, keeping eight mouths fed was hard work. By dawn, both were
exhausted and the growing children complained they were still hungry.
All
of the animals in the countryside were suspicious of the foxes, which made
hunting difficult. The chickens squawked when they saw the foxes and warned the
rabbits. The rabbits thumped the ground with their back legs, warning the wild
turkeys. The turkeys flapped their wings
and flew into the treetops, screeching a fox alarm to all the other animals in
the forest.
Every night the
foxes hunted, the animals warned each other. Even though the chickens had
nothing in common with the rabbits, and the wild turkeys found
the chickens to be silly, all
united to protect themselves from the foxes despite their differences.
The
mother fox thought and thought and because she was so clever, she came up with
a plan.
“That’s
not true!” yelled a red hen.
“Oh,
but it is,” said the fox. “They probably haven’t started here— yet. But on the other side of the mountain, they
steal them every night.”
For
the rest of the day, the hens spoke of nothing else. Maybe it was only rogue
rabbits, maybe it was all rabbits, but they agreed that rabbits weren’t chickens
and could not be trusted.
The
fox wandered near a field where the clover grew and rabbits liked to play. “La,
la, la,” the fox sang to herself. “How
terrible the turkeys are going to rip out all this nice clover to weave their
nests instead of using sticks and leaves!” she whispered.
“That
can’t be true,” yelled an old rabbit.
“Oh,
but it is,” said the fox. “I overheard
them talking about it yesterday. ‘Who cares about the rabbits,’ they said.”
For
the rest of the day, the rabbits spoke of nothing else. “Turkeys are like
that,” they agreed. “Selfish. Not like rabbits at all. You can never trust a
turkey.” They felt angry at the turkeys and were grateful to the fox. “Wasn’t
she kind to tell us!” they said.
“La, la, la,” the
fox sang as she walked in the woods. “Be careful friend turkeys,” she said
sweetly. “The chickens are jealous of your freedom and are conspiring to cage
all of you.”
“Ridiculous!”
yelled a hen turkey.
“Is it?” said the
fox. “You are free and they are not. You are smart, and they— well, they
aren’t. They’re silly. You all think so, don’t you? So, they want to make you
more like them.”
What the fox said
made sense to the turkeys. Of course the chickens were envious of them. How kind of the fox to warn them. Chickens
were nothing like turkeys and couldn’t be trusted.
That night, as the
foxes hunted, the chickens saw them and said nothing. Why should they warn the
rabbits, when rabbits steal chicken eggs? The foxes caught several rabbits that
night which made the rabbits angry at the chickens for failing to warn them.
“Huh,” the rabbits
thought. “The chickens are no better than the turkeys!”
The next night,
the rabbits saw the foxes and, because they were angry, they didn’t warn the
chickens or turkeys. The foxes dined on turkeys that evening, and
the turkeys’ ire spread to the
rabbits. “You can’t trust chickens or rabbits!” said the turkeys.
The animals’
hatred of each other grew and the foxes hunted undisturbed every night.
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Copyright 2018 by Valerie L. Egar. May not be copied, distributed or reproduced without permission from the author.
Published May 20, 2018 Biddeford Journal Tribune (Biddeford, ME).
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