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COPYRIGHT DEPOSFR

Courtesy Black Fox Magazine

‘* Blackie instantly stopped’’

RED BEN
the fox of Oak Ridge

by
Joseph Wharton Lippincott
Author of BUN—a wild rabbit

Illustrations by the author

THE PENN PUBLISHING
COMPANY PHILADELPHIA

1919

ri sd ¥

COPY RIGHT |
1 Oey BY
THE PENN
PUBLISHING
COMPANY

NOY 10 1318

RED BEN—THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

OU.A535664 OT

To

a true lover of nature
—my father

INTRODUCTION

There is reason for the fox being
termed the shrewdest of wild creatures.
Unlike the deer and other vegetarians
whose dinners often grow under their
noses, he rarely gets a meal without out-
witting other animals. He lacks the
climbing ability of the opossum, the
sharp claws of the lynx, the protective
odor of the skunk, the diving powers of
the otter—he is indeed just a little wild
dog, a wonderfully bright, hardworking
little animal whose cunning alone can
lead him from his enemies and keep
away the pangs of hunger.

He has been so persistently hunted

by man that he is almost untameable;
ix

INTRODUCTION

but as far as he dares to be, he is friendly
under ordinary circumstances and fond
of wandering around man’s dwellings.
Chicken stealing is charged against him;
but after all he holds the same position
in the animal world that the wise old
crow does among the birds—his good
deeds and his crimes nearly balance.
In “Bun, a Wild Rabbit,” the fox ap-
peared as one of many woods creatures
encountered by that doughty cotton-
tail; but, to do him justice, a separate
volume was required.

Foxes are much more plentiful than
generally supposed. It is almost safe
to say that wherever there are woods
there are foxes, yet so wonderfully
clever are they that few are ‘seem
Whoever can distinguish their tracks

from those of other animals is usually
xX

INTRODUCTION

not disposed to tell of the discovery of
rom ‘sien.’ Vhe) friend of the) fox
fears the fox’s enemy; the trapper fears
a competitor; and so the wily creature
weaves his trail endlessly about the
country side, unwatched except by the
very few “who know.”

Imagination must play a part in mak-
ing the story of a wild animal complete,
especially that of such an intensely shy
and crafty creature as a fox; but noth-
ing is included here which does not fall
within the actual powers of the swift
and wily red fox of today. Indeed
there are numbers of them very much
like Red Ben. Parts of his story are
written in the snows of many wood-
lands besides Oak Ridge, and adven-
tures such as his are still happening in

the quiet of moonlit nights.
XI

INTRODUCTION

As fast as man thinks out new
methods of destruction, the fox finds
fresh tricks through which to escape.
And may he ever escape! For when
the edges of our old fields no longer bear
the imprint of his tireless feet, when the
woodlands that delighted his wild little
heart have been usurped by the tame
dog and the tame cat, then indeed will
have departed half their charm, half the
thrill of winter walks.

J. W. G.

Bethayres, Pa.

CHAPTER

Contents

I. The Coming of the Red Fox
i,

ITI.
IV.

V.

VI.
VAL
VIII.
IX:

X.

XI.
XII.
XIII.
XIV.
XV.
XVI.
XVII.
XVIII.

The Den

Learning to Hunt
Other Woodsfolk
Gray Fox

A Long Chase

Red Ben Is Alone
The Woods Awake
Studying the Enemy
Jim Crow’s Signal
How Others Hunt
Ben’s Hundred Dollar Fox
Red Ben Travels
Blackie

Freedom Is Sweet
The Road to the Sea
The Other Fox
Home Again

PAGE
13
20
35
45
56
67
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83
93

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138

153

162

172

183

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Illustrations

‘Blackie instantly stopped” Frontispiece

PAGE

Fox track 18+
‘‘A gray squirrel was watching her’’ 21
“He became indignant”’ oo
Coon tracks | AOL
“Flying Squirrel, one of the very nicest of

the woodsfolk”’ §22-
“Gray Fox was waiting to trap him”’ Sy
Red Ben 634
Red Ben’s Mother 72s
The Mole Big
Deer Mouse 86—
Shrew 86°
‘Possum fell over backwards”’ 907
‘They sat on their tails and held hands” 113°
‘Muskrat was busy pulling up grass”’ FE SL
‘A turkey buzzard had been circling over

him”’ 133°
mlhey tore at, cach’ other through the

wire” 140

“She stood on the threshold of the pen” 154:
“Two coons who were having a loud al-
tercation”’ 163%
’Possum tracks 166
‘Holding to a limb with all four feet’’ 185!

RED BEN,
The Fox of Oak Ridge

CHAPTER I
THE COMING OF THE RED FOX

N the state of New Jersey there are
still thousands of acres of low-lying
woodlands, called pine barrens, where
man has done little except chop down a
few trees. Slowly but surely, however,
the farmers are each year pushing their
clearings deeper into this section, grad-
ually overcoming the last barriers which
Nature sets up to protect her own.
Ben Slown was one of these farmers.

When the forest had been cut, he built
13

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

a square house and a square barn.
He planted straight-rowed orchards, he
fenced in square, flat fields. He suc-
ceeded so well in stamping out all the
natural loveliness that other practical
farmers came there to start practical
farms like his.

Soon there was a village; but Ben
Slown’s square fields and the edge of the
wild, interesting .Pine Barrens were
never separated, because no plow could
conquer Oak Ridge and Cranberry
Swamp.

The Ridge was a long mound covered
with laurel, pines and white oaks.
Cranberry Swamp, on the other hand,
was low, wet ground which bore a nearly
impenetrable mass of greenery, largely
made up of tall cedars, holly bushes and
cat briars. Through the swamp flowed

14 |

THE COMING OF THE RED FOX

a little creek in whose deep eddies green
waterweeds swung with the current, giv-
ing glimpses now and then of turtles and
slender, watchful pike.

When Ben Slown first planned to
come to the Pine Barrens, his friends
gloomily shook their heads.

“The foxes and other varmints will
drive you out,” they warned. “You
won't be able to raise a chicken. ‘The
coons and crows will eat your corn.
The woodchucks will destroy your
vegetables. There are critters enough
in the Barrens to keep you from being
lonely, but they won’t be the kind of
neighbors you want.”

“You just watch me,” boasted the
farmer, “I'll fix the varmints.”’

He was no sooner settled in his new
place than he began to put traps and

15

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

poison around the cleared ground. All
the little creatures that still lived there,
and the others which came out of the
woods at night to marvel at the strange
new things to be seen—mice, snakes,
birds, rabbits, mink, muskrats, wood-
chucks, coons, possums, skunks, foxes,
deer and a lot of others—all suffered
the same ill-treatment. But most of
all he feared and hated the foxes, for
they were clever enough to give him a
little trouble. One after another was
destroyed, however, and the farmer was
having everything his own way when
all at once there was a newcomer on the
Ridge. | |

This was a red fox, a_ beautiful
creature several inches taller than any
of the gray foxes that lived in the Bar-

rens. She found the farmer’s poisoned
16

THE COMING OF, THE RED FOX

baits, but instead of taking them she
took a chicken, and that right before
his face.

This was the first fowl a fox had
taken from Ben Slown, and therefore he
complained all the more loudly; so
loudly indeed that the neighbors began
to think the destruction of the red fox
the only thing that interested him. In-
stead of asking about his health, who-
ever met him would say, “Well, Ben,
have you caught that pesky fox yet?” or
perhaps, “Say, Ben, that old red fox of
yours 1s bothering me now. Why don’t
you keep her at home?’

Ben would mutter something, then
pass on, his brows puckered from worry-
ing over how to get rid of her. He
might have worried far more had he
known that in a burrow near the south

17

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

end of Oak Ridge the red fox had four
fine little fox pups.

Weeks went by, and still the fox and
her tracks were seen occasionally, and

st
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GG
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Fox Track.

uproar.

still the farmer worried over
that chicken he had) fee
Then, one fine day, when the
mice seemed scarce and the
pups were very hungry, the fox
dashed among the hens and
took away another, this time a
big white one.

The farm yard was in an

Chickens cackled and rushed

about, cows mooed, sheepdogs barked,
and Ben Slown, snatching his rifle from
the rack, shot twice at the fox before she
reached the woods, two fields away.

He was too much excited to aim well;
‘the bullets went wild and the fox went

18

THE COMING OF THE RED FOX

on. The farmer, however, would not
believe he had made aclean miss. Out
to the fields he ran to see if a tuft of fur
could be found on the ground.

He was walking around and around,
growing more and more angry because
where the fox had been he found only
the white feathers of his pet hen, when
out from the woods burst a neighboring
farmer.

moc. (this: man called, Ben; get
your shovel, quick! Ive just found the

q?

red fox’s den!

19

CHAPTER II

THE DEN

HEN the fox was making her

wild rush to the woods, with

the white hen held high in her strong
jaws, she was thinking more about the
four hungry pups in the home burrow
than about the fuss she had left behind
in the farmyard. In the frmemee
shelter of the woods, however, she
began to feel very uneasy about it all.
Everything had certainly gone wrong.
She laid down the limp body of the
hen and looked back. Through the
laurel and the straight trunks of the

pines she could see the flat stretch of the
20

WH:

YY

ERE:

her’’

atching

ye
c

A gray squirrel was w

6

THE DEN

fields she had just left. Ben Slown’s
hurrying figure was there, but too far
back to worry her now. ‘There were no
dogs loose, nothing else moving except
three crows that were circling to find out
what had happened to arouse the
farmer.

Ahead of her lay Oak Ridge and the
Swamp. What breeze there was came
from that direction, laden with the
smell of sweet fern. Still she felt un-
eer) Ter ‘quick. ear caught the
scratching of claws on bark—a red
headed woodpecker was examining a
dead oak; that was all right. So also
was the barking of a gray squirrel which
was watching her from the limb of a
pine. But why were the blue jays call-
ing so loudly on the Ridge? Perhaps

some enemy was near the pups.
21

~ RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

Quickly picking up the hen she gal-
loped towards the Ridge in that won-
derfully silent way known only to the
wild things.

She did not know that, though her
own graceful body fitted into the woods
like an illusive shadow, the white hen
stood out like a beacon light. She did
not know that on the Ridge it caught
the eye of a friend of Ben Slown and ©
held it while she circled the den and
then called out the puppies to the feast.
Her mother love had indeed overcome
natural caution.

The den was nothing more than the
enlarged burrow of an old woodchuck,
who, years before, had been driven from
the fields below. To the four puppies,
however, it was all that a home ought to

be. Wonderful to these was its nar-
22

THE DEN

row passage with the half turn at the
end and the snug bed so far from the
dangers of the world outside; wonder-
ful too its collection of feathers and
pieces of fur which told of happy feasts;
but best of all was the sandy, sun bathed
entrance in which they had basked and
played on never to be forgotten May
mornings in their early puppyhood.

Their father had never come to Oak
Ridge to help the mother in feeding and
protecting them. ‘To her tireless en-
ergy they owed everything. ‘There-
fore to her they looked for everything,
and she had never disappointed them.
Nor would she ever disappoint them as
long as they needed her and there was
breath in her faithful body, for such is
mother love in the fox world!

Here Ben Slown’s pet white hen

23

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

found her last resting place. Into the
mouth of the den, among the waiting
pups, she was dropped, feathers and all,
and down their little throats she passed,
piece-by-piece, amid growling and
crunching and pulling and fighting, for
in no other way did they know how to
show their thorough enjoyment.

A glorious feast it was! And when
they were through, the mother, who had
all this time been on guard, picked up
for her share the bones that were left.
She was still nosing about among the
feathers when a man’s cough, from some-
where below in the woods, gave sud-
den warning of danger. Down she
crouched, motionless in a moment; and
without need of further signal, into the
den tumbled the frightened pups.

The mother waited, with ears pointed

24

Ae DEN

to catch the slightest new sound. In
the burrow behind her appeared a small
head with ears cocked in the same way.
Both heard the crack of a breaking twig.

Now the old fox slipped into the
bushes and cautiously circled until she
caught the scent of Farmer Slown and
his friend, and heard their clothes scrap-
ing through the bushes. Amid the
laurel she caught a glimpse of them
sneaking along as noiselessly as they
knew how to, the farmer in the lead,
holding his long gun. They certainly
looked as if they meant mischief.

Between them and the den the
anxious fox ran to lead them away. A
dog would have followed her in a rush,
but the men were so busy in “pussy-
footing’ that they did not see her
pass.

25

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

“Now,” whispered Ben’s friend,
“look for the den right above that bunch
of bushes ahead. Careful!”

Ben looked. First he saw a lot of
white feathers which made him grow] to
himself; then he made out the mouth of
the burrow, and last of all the sharp
nose and bright eyes of the inquisitive
pup. Ben looked at the pup and the
pup looked back at him; neither had —
ever seen the other before, but fate had
already decreed that they should meet
often in the days tocome. And so they
watched each other now, until a fluffy
feather, a beautiful white one, was
picked up by an eddy of wind and
whirled around and around the little
fox’s head.

That reminded Ben of his troubles.

He threw his rifle to his shoulder, only
26

THE DEN

to find that at his first movement the
pup had vanished in the burrow.

mehucks!. You little varmint’’ he
muetercd.’ Well get you all ‘right.
Up with the shovel, John, and let’s see
dirt fly. Remember though, when we
get the pups, that sharp faced one must
be mine. He thinks he’s smart.”

Friend John took off his coat and dug
with a will, while Ben sat on the wheat
sack they had brought along to put the
pups in. Both became greatly excited
at actually having the young red foxes
in their power. After the friend had
dug a long while he looked inquiringly
at Ben.

“When are you going to do a little
digging yourself, Ben?’ he asked
suspiciously. Ben saw that the end
was nearly reached, so took up the

27

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

shovel with a laugh. The bag he
stuffed well into the burrow to stop it
up and to keep any fox from dashing
out.

Meanwhile the four pups were cow-
ering against the wall of earth at the
very end of their home. ‘Three were in
one corner and the inquisitive one in an-
other, all listening to the shovel com-
ing nearer and nearer. [very time it
jarred on a stone, the shivers ran up and
down their spines; but they could do
nothing, the burrow had no outlet be-
sides the one the men were in.

Ben had a very healthy fear of being
bitten; therefore the sight of the first
little fox unnerved him completely.
Fe knew that all of them were lightning
quick, lke bombshells on four legs.

But Ben was cunning. He quickly
28 |

1) DEIN

thought out an elaborate plan of cap-
ture.

First of all he threw several shovels
of earth over them, and pushed it in
solidly so that they were buried tight.
After that they could not move until
Ben’s big hand picked them out by the
scruft of the neck, one at a time.

The first poor, scared little fellow
glared and kicked, but was somehow
stfted mto the empty wheat sack.
Two more followed him in the same
way. Then the exultant farmer felt —
all around in the earth for more, and
found none. He dug a little and felt
around again. His hand slipped along
the flank of the last pup, the inquisitive
one that had crawled into a far corner
of the den.

Suspicious at once, Ben poked a little

29

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

farther. Had the little fox growled or
moved an inch, or even trembled, he
would have been discovered. But the
loose, cold earth was mixed with his fur
and his body was as rigid as the side
of the burrow. Ben’s fingers at last
moved on and the danger was past.

“Have you really got them all?” the
other man asked.

“Every one!” growled Ben, getting
up and giving the bag a shake. “Fill
up the hole a bit, John, so no old cow
can break her leg in it.”

Some minutes later the men reached
the fields with their precious bag.
Here Ben passed it over for his friend
to carry awhile, and the latter took his
first peep inside.

“Why, there are only three here!” he
exclaimed. “I saw at least four when

30

THE DEN

the old vixen carried that hen of yours
to the den. You've certainly left one.
Good thing we buried him. Back we'll
have to go.”

Meanwhile, however, there was
frantic work going on at the den. ‘The
mother, who during the digging had |
been anxiously running to and fro in
cover of the bushes, crept cautiously to
the ruined home as soon as the men had
left. She found a great ugly hole, with
fresh dirt on all sides, but no sign of the
happy pups who used to welcome her.

Around and around the lonely
creature wandered, hunting with all her
mother’s love. At last she jumped into
the partly filled hole and sniffed and
dug a little and then sniffed some more
and listened. Something there sug-
gested to her to dig deeper. So she set

31

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

to work in earnest, tearing up the loose
dirt with her forepaws and pulling it
back in a heap behind her.

Every little while she jumped out to
look around, then whisked back to her
work, until at last she heard the buried
pup sniffing and burrowing in his
prison. Now she dug as she had never
dug before, spurred by noisy activity of
the little fox, who knew perfectly well
that his mother was trying to reach him.

Rip, rip, rip, went her claws through
the last strip of earth, and out popped
the head of the pup, only to be seized
and pulled almost off his body in his
mother’s haste to get him out. She had
heard the men coming.

The heavy pup was almost more than
the old fox could carry; but somehow
she dragged him out of the hole and ©

Be

TLE: DEN

leaped for the bushes, pulling him along
by the loose skin at the back of his neck.
The sudden shouts from the surprised
men only served to spur her on, not, as
taey hoped, to make: her drop. her
burden.

She knew the farmer had a gun.
ange: She was not hurt! .Uhe bullet
only tore up the ground behind her.
Bang! Another shot whizzed past.
And then her jaws slipped on the pup’s
neck and she dropped him.

The little fox rolled over, caught his
balance and began to run entirely on his
own hook. His legs were a bit wabbly,
he did not know just where to go, but
how he did work to get away! Into the
bushes he went and on to more bushes;
and then, right before him, he found his
mother loping along, a safe, loving

33

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

guide. His little heart beat easier
then, but on he went, ever following
that beautiful furry tail with the pure
white tip. On and on and on, the two
ran into the heart of Cranberry Swamp
and to safety.

4

CHAPTER III

LEARNING TO HUNT

HE pup went to sleep beside his,
mother in a bed of leaves under a
fallen tree. With her there, he did not
feel cold nor miss the other pups so
much. He wondered where they were
and would not have been surprised had
they joined him at any moment; but his
mother knew they were gone forever.
Her joy at having this one little fellow
lett to her was almost pitiful. All
through the long night she cuddled and
tenderly licked him.
Just as the sky began to brighten for
the day, she slipped out to get a drink
35

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

and something to eat. A little dis-
tance from the fallen tree was a path.
Here she made her first stop, to examine
the ground and find out what creatures
had passed that way during the night.
Moving slowly, with her keen nose to
the earth, she suddenly became aware
of something following her. Around
she whirled with teeth bared for de-
fense, only to find herself looking into
the mild, half ashamed eyes of the pup
who, too lonely to stay in the bed, had
noiselessly crept after her.

He hung his head now and looked
wistfully at his mother until she licked
his nose to show she forgave him and
would let him come with her. In this
way he started on his first big hunt.

A rabbit: had--travelled the)gaamm

shortly before them, so the mother
36

LEARNING TO HUNT

moved with caution. Whenever she
sniffed at the fresh tracks, the pup, who
followed close at her heels, sniffed too
and understood perfectly well that a
rabbit was near. When she at last
sighted Bunny and crouched, the pup
copied her movement exactly, and when
she leaped he sprang too, all atremble
fem excitement. The old rabbit
jumped quickly enough to get away, but
the pup saw him and enjoyed all the
thrills of his first chase.

rarmher on they met a black and
white skunk ambling home to his den.
The pup, seeing him far ahead, crouched
in readiness for attack. Here was a
beautiful creature, no larger than the
rabbit, actually coming towards him as
though it wanted to be caught for break-
fast. It never occurred to him that the

7

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

skunk was a privileged character in the
woods, whom foxes as well as smaller
and larger animals had learned to let
pass with plenty of room _ between.
The mother, however, knew all about
- skunks and saw that trouble was com-
ing. She rushed at the pup, nipped his
ear and fairly shouldered him out of the
way of the other animal.

The skunk saw at once that all the
disturbance was only over a young fox
who had not sense enough to know that
every path belonged to him. There-
fore, he passed grandly, without even
slackening his pace or changing his di-
rection one inch. |

The pup, sniffing along the trail be-
hind him, caught a disagreeable, musky
smell which told, far better than his eyes

could, that this animal was to be left
38

SS

WG
\
SS

| fp
4,

Ys

ignant

ind

He became

66

LEARNING TO HUNT

alone. He followed him very care-
fully at what seemed a safe distance,
until he became indignant and whirled
half around with feathery tail straight
in the air. That was warning enough
to satisfy even the pup’s inquisitive
mind, so he turned back with a bound
and found his mother sitting in the path
amusedly watching him. She saw that
the little fox had already learned cau-
tion—the most important lesson of the
woods.

A few yards farther they circled a
marshy place where spring frogs were
singing merrily; “peep, peep—peep,”
they sang, over and over again. ‘There
seemed to be one piping from the bank,
almost under the pup’s nose, but he
could not find it, nor could he find any
of the others, for they were in the water

39

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

with only their small noses and eyes
stuck out behind the blades of grass and
twigs.
The old fox examined the mud for
tracks, satisfied herself
MM that those she found were
made by a coon and not by
~~ man or dog, then turned to
look for the pup. He was
in the act of springing on
something he had found in
the grass. Up went his
front paws, and then down
he came right on top of
a mouse which had been
feeding on winter dried
cranberries clinging to
vines near the _ water.
The pup had smelled it
Coon Tracks and found its hiding place
40

LEARNING TO HUNT

all by himself. Now he tussled with
the furry little creature until it had
squeaked its last squeak.

The mother let him eat it all, then led
away to Goose Creek. Here the in-
cautious pup surprised a great blue
heron in the act of catching a minnow.
With a mighty flapping of big wings
the scared bird started over the water,
his long legs tucked up under his tail,
his neck doubled back, so that it seemed
only half its real length. When he got
well away, his angry challenge—
“u-r-g-h-h-, u-r-g-h, urgh, urgh’—could
be heard all over Cranberry Swamp,
warning his mate and all the other birds
and animals, too, that there was danger
lurking near.

A red squirrel ran out on a limb
nearby to see what had disturbed the

Al

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

old fisherman. ‘Two crows circled cau-
tiously in that direction, a pair of wood
ducks sprang from a pool below and
winged their way up the creek towards
a safer feeding ground; the frogs
stopped peeping, and the lone king-
fisher, sitting on a stub in the stream,
enjoying the first rays of the morning
sun, darted away with a rattling scream.

It was a wonderful lesson to the pup.
It taught him that he must be careful
not to disturb any creature that can
spread alarm and excite the whole
wood. It awoke in him the true fox
nature which prompts the wisest of
them to travel with all the noiseless
stealth of a crafty Indian. He found
out then what he saw more and more
clearly the longer he lived, that there
is a bond joining together the woods

42

LEARNING TO HUNT

folk into one great family, for mutual
protection.

He was the one feared, the outcast,
this time; but at another time it might
be a man with a gun, or a big hound,
whom he would flee from, when warned,
with the same dread as Blue Heron.

Now, he slunk back of some bushes
and waited there while the noise and
excitement died down.

Red Squirrel, however, kept his

bright eyes on him, and fussed and

scolded, without a stop. To him the
branches were just like so many paths,
over which he could run like the wind
from one tree to another, until he
reached the little hole in the hollow
cedar he lived in, or dashed to another
safe little hole under the roots of a mag-
nolia, not far away. Therefore, when
43

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

he was off the ground, why should he
fear a fox, especially a young one
like this? “Bur-r-r-r-r-r-r,’ he fairly
shouted as he danced and fumed first
on one limb, then on one nearer, until
so close overhead that the fox could see
the four sharp teeth with which he
enawed nuts so easily.

There was something, however, which
Red Squirrel had not thought about. |
With a young fox, or with any young
animal, there is usually a mother. The
annoying little nut eater had one
glimpse of a red streak flinging itself at
him from behind, then in a fright he lost
his footing on the low limb, fell into
the bushes, and had to run with all his
might to get up the next tree without
being punished. Very quiet after that,
he let the foxes trot off unmolested.

44

CHAPTER IV
OTHER WOODSFOLK

HE mother led the way towards

the nest under the fallen tree, ©

but was stopped in the old path by the

sound of a man’s footsteps. Quickly

she slipped into the bushes. The pup

was not sure what to do. However,

when he saw Farmer Ben’s friend, John,

stalking down the path, he scrambled
out of the way in a hurry.

“Well, if there isn’t Ben’s little
sharp-nosed fox!” muttered the man in
moentise. | Bens. fox!) Ela,.. ha, . J
should like to see Ben catch him now!”’
He saw how wonderfully the wild little

45

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

animal melted away among the shad-
ows, then he stalked off with many a
shake of the head as he thought of his
chickens at home.

Everyone he met after that had to be
told the good joke about the den and
Ben’s sharp-nosed fox, so the story
spread, and “Ben’s fox’ became for a
time the special joy of all the village
gossips, who liked Ben none too well. |
Those whom he had angered with sly
bargains in the past, said that he him-
self was like a cunning fox—a black
one; so it was a fox against a fox.
“Black Ben against Red Ben,’ someone
of doubtful wit expressed it. This
amused a number of the boys, and at
once gave the little red fox a nickname.
Through all his later career he was

known as Red Ben.
46

OTHER WOODSFOLK

When people good naturedly teased
Ben Slown, who never could enjoy a
joke on himself, he grew more and more
surly. He soon saw that, until he
caught the foxes, he would always be
plagued, especially when someone lost
a chicken. So he began to scheme and
set more traps. He had always hated
foxes, but never more bitterly than
now.

With little suspicion of this, the
mother was teaching Red Ben the tricks
that every wise fox must know. Night
after night they hunted mice together,
or lay in wait for fat muskrats in the
swamp, or chased big Bun or the other
cottontail rabbits.

Often they played in the moonlight
and wrestled and rolled by the hour in a
sandy hillock near the Ridge. Both

47

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

thoroughly enjoyed this. The usual
game was a mock fight. The mother
would rush at the pup and roll him head
over heels, then hold him to the ground
while he tried with all his might to
break away. Sometimes she would
pretend to bite a foot or a leg, or to tear
an ear, he meanwhile striving to protect
himself.

At first she was very careful not to
hurt him, but as he grew stronger he also
gained a wonderful quickness which
often surprised the mother, whose own
motions, although almost like lightning,
were soon no match for his. Then the
games became wildly exciting. The
pup could escape the old fox’s rushes,
and himself nip and worry and trip and
get away, and then roll over and over
with her, in a lightning battle to get the

ae

OTHER WOODSFOLK

throat-hold which ended every game.

All this was splendid training for
Red Ben. He could practice all kinds
of fighting tricks and learn how to deal
with an animal larger and stronger than
himself. Had his little brothers lived
to be his playmates, he might never
have had this experience, which meant
so much to him later on.

His cleverness and growing strength
made him a wonderful companion for
the old fox. She would go nowhere
without him, and began to rely more
and more on his help in their hunts.

It happened that wild strawberries
were especially good that year, and so
were eaten occasionally by the foxes,
who picked up those the village children
did not find. After them the cherries
ripened, and the big mulberry tree at the

49

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

corner of Ben Slown’s fence began to
drop delicious fruit. Fat robins, star-
lings and black birds picked their share,
but at night, especially after a> fam
heavy enough to knock down a good
supply, the Oak Ridge animals fairly
swarmed around the mulberry tree.

The shy red foxes usually reached it
after the last sign of the sun had left
the sky, so it was not strange that on
one evening they found there ahead of
them one of the deer from Cranberry
Swamp with her two spotted fawns.
The watchful doe scented them, gave
one quick snort and led the fawns away
in great bounds, for fear they were in
danger. All three leaped over the field
fence as if it had been a bush in the
path.

The rush of the deer to cover fright-

50

OTHER WOODSFOLK

ened two rabbits just as the foxes came
cautiously out of the wood. Away
dashed Red Ben to head them off, but
too late. When he returned, a huge
coon hurried to the tree and began to
swallow mulberries as fast as he could
pick them up. The mother fox, how-
ever, took no notice of old Ring Tail,
and he was too busy to worry over the
foxes just then.

Up in the tree, Red Ben heard an oc-
casional squeak, and soon spied a little
brown squirrel which was quite the pret-
tiest creature he had ever seen. While
he watched, it suddenly sprang into the
air with feet outstretched and sailed to
a fence post near the wood; there it
alighted almost as softly as a leaf, look-
ing so much like a clinging piece of bark
that the pup could hardly believe it

51

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

was anything alive. This was Flying
Squirrel, one of the very nicest of the
woodsfolk.

While he was busy with the juicy
mulberries the pup did not keep a very
good watch behind him, and so was sur-
prised suddenly to find White Stripe,
the skunk, nosing around close by.
He, too, liked the mulberries, it seemed.
The fox kept one eye on him, but found
he attended strictly to his own business.

A moment later a furry gray creature,
nearly his own size, came stealthily
along the fence. The pup was worried
and ready to run at the slightest sign
from his mother, but she kept right on
nosing about, and old Possum joined
the feeding. He, however, crawled up
the big tree, where he wandered from
limb to limb, picking off the ripest fruit

52

Flying Squirrel, one of the very nicest of the woodsfolk’’

OTHER WOODSFOLK

and often by mistake knocking down
some to the creatures below.

It was a weird assemblage that the
moon looked down upon that night.
Two small coons came from the swamp
with their mother for a hurried look
around; White Stripe’s mate, a wonder-
ful white skunk, also appeared, and a
brown screech owl sat on a nearby pine
limb to watch and whinny softly, so
that his mate, who was looking for mice
farther along the fence, might always
know where to find him. |

By this time Red Ben knew most of
the wood creatures, and they knew him.
Ringtail, Possum, White Stripe and
Screech Owl were hunters; like himself
they preferred meat to grass, fruit, roots
and nuts. Although each had a scent
entirely his own, each also had the

53

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

“hunter” smell, quite different from the
meadow mice, who lived on seeds and
grass, or from Red Squirrel, who ate
nuts, mushrooms and buds. Quite dif-
ferent too from the deer and from Bun,
the big rabbit who lived near one of the
farm gardens and enjoyed parsnips,
string beans and other vegetables,
whenever the clover was scarce.

The woodsfolk could be divided
into two big families—the first one
made up of those who hunt and the
other of those who are hunted. The
hunters get used to seeing each other
and to running across each other's trails
at night. As long as there 1s food
enough for all, they rarely quarrel; but
jealousy and suspicion keep them from
being real friends. Hed Ben did not
think of playing with the young coons;

54

OTHER WOODSFOLK

nor would young skunks have interested
him at all as playmates.

The four-footed hunters all had teeth
very much like those of a dog or a cat,
while the little animals that they
hunted had gnawing teeth, like those of
the mouse. Even the woodchuck and
the muskrat had gnawing teeth; they
liked to eat grass and tender roots.
Screech Owl and other hunters among
the birds, from big Bald Eagle all the
way down to little Sparrow Hawk, had
hooked beaks and long sharp claws or
talons, with which to catch their prey.

55

CHAPTER V

GRAY FOX

T first Red Ben saw no other foxes,
and rarely came across the tracks
of any, for Ben Slown’s traps did their
work well. There was, however, one
cunning old fellow who paid a visit to
the Ridge whenever there was espe-
cially good hunting weather. With
him, on one never to be forgotten night
in late August, Red Ben had an ad-
venture.
He and his mother had gone to Ben
Slown’s fields to hunt the little short
tailed meadow mice which were so

plentiful there that their paths had been
| gaan

GRAY FOX

enawed through the grass in every dl-
rection. They had caught two, and
were once. more entering Oak Ridge
wood, when Red Ben noticed that his
mother hesitated to go farther and kept
anxiously looking into the shadows.
He heard a deer snort; then, in the half
darkness of the wood, he caught the
glint of two eyes.

This new creature was certainly no
coon or possum; the eyes were higher
above the ground than either of these
would hold its head. Quickly it moved
into the moonlight and showed itself to
be a fox, not unlike the mother in form,
but gray in color, with reddish legs and
a tail entirely lacking the beautiful
roundness of the red fox’s.

Instinctively the pup stood as
straight and tall as he could, while

57

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

along his back the hair fairly tingled
with dislike. He saw his mother try
to slip away, and then crouch suddenly
with ears back and warning whine.
He saw Gray Fox trot up, walk around
her, and then bare his teeth in a snarl
that sent off the soft-eyed mother in a
hurry. How his heart pounded then,
and how the fury welled up in his
breast! |

Gray Fox next turned in the direc-
tion of Red Ben, but stopped short
when he found the young fox facing
him without flinching. Stiff legged
and disdainful he slowly walked for-
ward, and got the surprise of his life as
Red Ben flew at him like a fury, bit him
on the side of the head, again on the
foot when he reared up, and then on the

tip of his precious nose. Back he stag-
58

GRAY FOX

gered, snarling angrily, but scarcely
knowing what to do. .

Then Red Ben, remembering well the
holds his mother had taught in their
games, flew at his thick neck, caught the
heavy, loose skin behind the ear and
closed his sharp teeth until they nearly
met. -

Gray Fox’s red eyes glared back at
him furiously, as he struggled this way
and that, but he could not turn to bite
while those jaws kept their hold. Fear
srew until he was ina panic. What if
the mother fox were to return now and
fall on him from behind? He threw
himself on the ground, then rolled over,
clawing like a cat, and dragging Red
Ben down with him so suddenly that all
the breath was knocked out of him and
his fine hold loosened.

| 59

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

This gave Gray Fox a wonderful
chance. He was the first on his feet.
He leaped for the throat hold.

Red Ben, still gasping, was pinned
to the ground, almost throttled. The
big, heavy enemy had all the advantage
—1it never had been an equal fight, and
now Red Ben was down.

Oh, if his mother would only come!
That wonderful, faithful, swift little
mother who could be so very fierce when
he was in danger. Somehow the very
thought of her gave him courage. He
made one mighty kick and at the same
instant snapped at the fat ear of the
beast above.

Luck was with him; he nipped its
tender edge, and Gray Fox gaye a
scream. ‘The jaws were loosened, and

in that instant Red Ben’s lightning
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WH,

GRAY FOX

speed saved him. He rolled over,
leaped to his feet and shot away. Dziz-
zily he circled some bushes, with the
other close behind; then something
warned him to stop. Gray Fox had
vanished.

Had he not been a red fox, raised by
one of the wisest of mothers, Red Ben
would probably have made a fatal mis-
take, for, well hidden behind the bushes,
Gray Fox was waiting to trap him when
Mev came around. The thing was
planned so well that had Red Ben kept
on, he would almost have walked into
the other’s mouth.

Just in time he guessed the trick and
crouched to look all around. He was
out of breath; he could hardly stop his
panting to listen. His neck ached and

Strained muscles quivered, but what
61

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

mattered that, when he was free and
able to match wits against wits?

Often his mother had hidden this way
to catch him in their games. He re-
membered now that she had always lain
in wait somewhere ahead, therefore
Gray Fox would do the same—the
safest road was that by which he had
come. |

Dodging bushes and shadowy places
he started back. There was no sound,
no movement anywhere ahead; the noise
and fury of the fight had scared away
the other wild things and even quieted
the night singing insects. Red Ben
himself felt the awe of it all. He
moved without stirring a leaf, at first
in a cautious trot, then a gallop and at
last a full run. Faster, faster—until

on the hard woods path he let out every
62

GRAY FOX

ounce of speed he had. It was the
wonderful speed of the red fox, no
longer just a cub.

Gray Fox was left far behind: and to
prevent his following the trail, Red
Ben made circles in the dense swamp,

Red Ben

circles that went around and around
with apparently no end, for he leaped
far to one side before shooting away to
his old haunt by the fallen tree.

Here he crouched, waiting for what-
ever might happen next. Had Gray

Fox been able to follow him, Red Ben
63

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

would have fought to the death. He
was on home ground here; he would run
no more. His spirit had not been
broken; far from it! From the bottom
of his heart he despised the big gray
bully. He hated the strong smell of
him still lingering in his nostrils. But
he knew Gray Fox was the stronger.

When, after hours of searching, his
mother at last found him, the fierce
glitter was still in his eyes. He was
crouching in the same spot, watching
with all the intense excitement of the
young creature which, for the first time,
is forced to take care of itself in a big
world.

Anxiously sniffing his head and neck,
the old fox quickly learned through the
scent much of the story of the fight.

She found the cuts about the throat and
64

GRAY FOX

licked them free from poison. She also
licked off the dirt that still clung to his
soft fur, looked him all over for other
scars, and then mothered him until his
high strung nerves were soothed and he
limped stiffly after her for a sleep under
the fallen tree.

While he curled up in a round ball,
with head buried between his fluffy tail
and the even softer fur of his flank, the
mother kept watch. She too was curled
up in a tight, comfortable little ball,
but she kept her chin resting on her
fluffy tail so that her nose and eyes as
well as both ears could be on guard.

The moon had gone down, and
around them now were the blackness
and the stillness of that weird part of
the night which comes just before the

light of day. Night prowlers, large
65

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

and small, were resting, waiting for the
Sun’s signal which would drive them to
their beds. Day loving creatures felt
the coming of the dawn, but dared not
stir yet. The red fox’s eyes drowsily
closed, then opened with a snap: from
far away floated the clear baying of a
hound.

CHAPTER VI

A LONG CHASE

ELL the mother knew what that

baying meant. Months before

she had left her own hills beyond the

big river, to escape the keen scented

hounds and to raise her family here in

the Pine Barrens, unmolested by them.

fiad one at last traced her? Was he

on her trail now, following her foot-
prints unerringly to the fallen tree?

She looked at the sleeping pup. He
certainly could not take care of himself
in a long chase. If the hound found
where they were, she would have to run

for both of them. But she must wait
67

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

until there was no doubt that he was on
her trail and not following Gray Fox or
some other woods creature.

For an hour she lay there, while the
musical notes of the hound rang out in
the breezeless morning air. He was
working out a difficult trail, the one left
by Red Ben in his night escape. How
well those circles had been made! But
circles could only delay, not stop a
trailer like this hound. ‘The oftener he
found himself going around in aimless
rings, the more determined he grew,
until at last he was working along the
swamp dangerously near the foxes.

Red Ben was wide awake, but under-
stood that he was to hide there while
his mother took care of the dog. He
had never seen a hound, so was full of

curiosity. Just as he had once watched
G8

A LONG CHASE

Ben Slown from the mouth of the bur-
row, he now peeped between the limbs
of the old tree to see the lanky black and
white creature with the flapping ears
come roaring up the trail.

Behind the hound came Farmer
Slown’s woolly dog Shep and a white
fox terrier. Their noses were not keen
enough for trailing, so they encouraged
the hound to do the work while they en-
joyed the fun of it. Red Ben had seen
them before; they usually accompanied
the farmer in his walks.

Instinctively he knew then that
Farmer Slown was somehow connected
with the hound and this hunt. He was
instantly more than ever on the alert;
undoubtedly the farmer was somewhere
mean.

Through the bushes came the clumsy
69

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

dogs, with a great crashing of dry twigs,
quite different from Red Ben’s silent
way of moving. He could see the ex-
cited glare of their eyes, the red tongues
and white teeth. ‘The hound, a huge
creature, seemed to guess the fallen tree
was a “foxy” place: nose in air, he
turned to it, full of suspicion. The
other dogs followed expectantly.

Red Ben’s heart beat against his ribs.
Should he run? Did they see him?
Something inside him seemed to warn,
“wait, wait, don’t move!”

And then a wild cry of joy came from
the little fox terrier. He had seen the
mother. She had deliberately run past
him to draw attention from the pup, but
he did not have sense enough to guess
that. With another yell he bounded
after her, and after him came Shep.

70 |

A LONG CHASE

The hound alone stood there doubtfully,
but he could not bear to be left alone.
With a mighty bellow from his deep
lungs he too rushed after the old fox,
and went crashing towards Oak Ridge
on the fresh trail.

-_ Again Red Ben had escaped. He
heard the hound go farther and farther
into the Barrens; fainter came the bay-
ing, always fainter until it died away
entirely.

The swamp once more breathed freely
and naturally. Blue jays called, flick-
ers whinnied, two of Red Squirrel’s
cousins came out of their hole under a
cedar root, Gray Squirrel was calling
out, “Fee-we-e-e-e-k, kek, kek, kek, fee-
wee-e-e-e-k’’—everywhere within sight
things seemed peaceful and happy.

Yet, somewhere in the Pine Barrens,

ya

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

Red Ben knew his mother was running
on and on, with death on her trail. One
slim red fox against three dogs. Would
she ever come back?

Red Ben crept from under the tree
and looked all around. ‘The red squir-

=~ as: — a ae
Red Ben’s Mother

rels scolded at him, but he did not notice
them; he had made up his mind to fol-
low his mother. Full of trouble and
scarcely knowing where to go, he at last
wandered to Oak Ridge. Through its
leafy tangles he trotted, in the direction
he had last heard the hound. A branch
72

A LONG CHASE

of the old woods path ran here, and with
the instinct of the fox to take always the
best road, he followed it.

Suddenly, however, something un-
familiar appeared ahead and caused him
to stop as if frozen. It did not move,
he could not make out what it was, but
he knew that never before had it been
there when he followed this path.

Cautiously he slipped into the woods
and circled until he caught the scent on
the faint breeze. One sniff was enough.
It was Farmer Slown!

Away ran Red Ben, not knowing,
however, how narrow had been his
escape. Ben Slown, gun in hand, was
sitting there watching the trail. At that
moment he was looking in the other di-
rection, whence he expected the mother
to run ahead of the hound.

73

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

Red Ben knew now the danger of
moving about in daytime. At night —
man is asleep or else blundering about
blinded by the dark. His traps and his
poisoned baits may do harm then, but he
himself is made harmless. ‘There is not
a creature of the wild that does not
learn this.

To Red Ben the world seemed full
of enemies. He dared not go farther, -
nor wander back; so he crouched in the
laurel bushes and waited. And then
he heard, far away, the baying of the
hound. Nearer it came. It thrilled
the young fox: he knew his mother was
not far off.

74

CHAP TT. Vii

RED BEN IS ALONE

ERVOUSLY Red Ben wandered
out,of the laurel) and) up the
Ridge. Something seemed to lead him
in that direction. Ahead rang the clear
notes of the eager hound and another
sound, the sharp yelp of Shep; the fox
terrier had dropped far behind. Then
Red Ben caught a glimpse of a bril-
liantly red body weaving its way
among the laurel clumps, his mother, at
last! | |
Down the Ridge he loped to meet
her, into her path, directly before her.
75

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

Joyfully he sprang to lick her lips in
greeting.

She stopped, but only for an instant.
Her mouth was open, the hot breath
came in quick pants, and her beautiful
tail dragged the ground. ©

Had something gone wrong? Red
Ben had only to listen to the coming
hound to know. In her own hilly
country beyond the river, the mother |
could have dodged the dogs and lost
them among the rocks, but on this luck-
less morning in the flat Barrens, when
there was no wind, and when the damp
ground held the scent no matter how she
broke and twisted the trail, they could
not be shaken off.

She loped bravely on, with Red Ben
close behind. On the Ridge, every

part of which she knew so well, it might
Poy au

RED BEN IS ALONE

be possible to fool the hound before her
strength gave way. She went to the
top, then tried the trick of making two
circles and running back on her trail
until there was a good chance to leap
far to one side. If the dogs did not see
her, nor find where the trail began again
after her great leap, she would be safe.
Up to this time Red Ben had stayed
with her, listening, watching, scheming
as he ran. Now he deliberately went
in the other direction, leaving the
‘double track just in time to miss being
seen. Up the Ridge behind him rushed
the dogs in full cry. But suddenly
there was quiet; they were trying to un-
ravel the trail at the place where the
foxes doubled back.

When next Red Ben heard them they
were strangely near. He ran to the

77

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

other side of the Ridge, but heard them
still—they were following him! No
longer was the mother between. It was
Red Ben now who had to show his cun-
ning. |

Down to Cranberry Swamp he ran
and through it to a log he knew about,
which lay across Goose Creek. Beyond
this was more swamp and then another
long stretch of the Pine Barrens.

Red Ben, hot, mud splashed and
winded, was loping through the Bar-
rens, clambering under fallen trees, run-
ning along the tops of logs and doing
everything else he could think of to
make the trail hard to follow, when all
at once an animal sprang up from its
bed almost under his nose.

Red Ben whirled back as he recog-

nized the furious snarl of Gray Fox!
78 |

RED BEN IS ALONE

The hound and Shep could be no worse
than this enemy. What ill luck had
brought him here? He ran the way he
had come, dodging under the fallen
trees as before, until close ahead he
heard the dogs, coming surely and fast.
Then with a mighty leap to one side,
such as his mother had made, he left a
gap in the trail and ran in a new direc-
tion. The hound lost his trail, found
the fresh one of Gray Fox, and after a
moment's hesitation followed it straight
away into the Pine Barrens. Red Ben
was saved!

Now he could rest and enjoy the
music of the chase and wonder how Gray
Fox liked it all; but soon he started
back to find his mother. Fear was
gone. He had done big things.

Night found Red Ben still alone.

79

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE
The old fox had not come to the bed

under the fallen tree in Cranberry
Swamp, so all alone he curled up and
slept. Towards morning he crawled
stifly out and wandered over to the
Ridge. It was strangely quiet and de-
serted there too. Red Ben stood beside
a great oak and called. It was just a
short, lonely cry, but had the mother
heard it she would have answered and
come bounding to find him.

For a long time he waited there, hope-
fully.» Then he called .agam Sage
waited, and still again; but that time
there was such a lonely wail in the cry
that Jim Crow and his mate came fly-
ing over, to find out what was going on.
They saw Red Ben crouching miserably
against the butt of the old oak, and at
once set up a great cawing.

eg

RED BEN IS ALONE

If there is anything unusual happen-
ing in the woods, a crow will call to-
gether all the other crows within hear-
ing, to look into the matter. ‘That ts
why every crow knows so much; what
one finds, all are given a chance to see.

Red Ben, sick at heart and more
lonely than ever, slipped into the
bushes and hid. ‘This was the best
thing he could have done, for when the
flock of crows could no longer see him,
they feared he might be playing some
trick on them. Up they flew with more
cawing and scolding; but there was no
fun in scolding an animal that could not
be seen, so one after another drifted
away and left him.

He called no more, but wandered
about the Ridge where he had last seen

his mother. In this way he came to the
81

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

place in which Ben Slown had crouched
with his gun the day before. He ex-
amined the spilled tobacco and tracks in
the path, then sniffed them all over
again. Impossible as it seemed for his
mother’s and Ben Slown’s tracks to be
found together, he had nevertheless
caught a trace of her scent here.

He did not know that while he led the
hound into the Barrens beyond the
Swamp, the tired mother had started
after him along the path where crouched
the waiting, sinister figure of the farmer.
He only knew that she had gone, leav-
ing him—the fatherless, brotherless,
playmateless little fox pup of Oak
Ridge—alone.

82

CHAPTER VUtt
THE WOODS AWAKE

HE moon was shedding its silvery
light in checkerboard patches
under the high oaks on the Ridge. In
the fields below hung a heavy mist, and
eeerywhere was the glitter of wet
leaves, for a thunder storm had only re-
cently passed.

All the woodsfolk were out playing or
feeding, while the insects drummed and
sang their loudest, since the moisture
had refreshed the whole woods world.

Under one of the oaks sat Red Ben.
This new feel of the air and ground,

after many hot, dry days and nights, had
83

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

awakened in him too a longing to play
or rather, perhaps, a longing to have
someone to play with. Three miser-
able, lonely days had passed since he
lost his mother, three nights of watching
and waiting and hoping for her return.

Now he could find nothing better to
do than watch the other creatures en-
joying themselves in the moonlight.
Already a few acorns were sweet enough
to be eaten by the little animals that
gnaw, and already the hunters, knowing
this, were wandering from tree to tree
searching for any little nut eater that
was unwary enough to be caught.

So still was Red Ben that the others
scarcely noticed him. One tiny shrew
mouse after another went skipping by,
in their search for insects; sometimes

one would burrow swiftly under the
B45

THE WOODS AWAKE

leaves and come out at quite another
spot. Restless little creatures they
were, with long =
noses and eyes so
small they could
scarcely be seen. Se S&S

If they had flat
ment feet — like
those of the mole, and were not the tini-
est little furry creatures in the woods,
they would often be taken for moles.
Their fur is almost the same.

The mole, living entirely in his nar-
row burrows under the ground, has no
need for eyes and so has lost the use of
those nature first gave him; the shrew,
living partly above the ground but
mostly in burrows, needs to see a little,
and so has very small eyes; the active

deer mouse which scorns burrowing and
85

The ale

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

usually lives in hollow trees like the
squirrels, needs sharp eyes and so has
immense ones.

To protect his big
eyes from twigs and
briars in the dark, .
Deer Mouse has
a repular fence
of whiskers, while
Shrew’s little eyes
only need a few small whiskers and
old Mole needs no
whiskers at all.

In his habit of
running around in
the woods at night,
Red Ben was very
much like “Deer
Mouse, and so had many long whis-

kers. Some stuck up from each side
86 7

Deer Mouse

THE WOODS AWAKE

of his nose and curved over the eyes;
some, and these were really eyebrows,
started above his eyes and curved down.

Therefore, on the darkest night, Red
Ben could safely wander through the
woods. Before a hidden briar could
_ touch either eye, it would hit one of the
hairs and give warning in time for the
fox to shut his eyes quickly and also
duck his head. ‘The long whiskers were
often very useful to him.

The shrews interested Red Ben, but
because they had the hunter smell, he
did not try to catch them. They were
so small that worms and beetles were
their chief prey.

On the damp ground the woods
creatures could jump about without a
rustle. That is what they like to do.

The mice wait at the entrance of their
87 |

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

homes until the way seems safe, then ©
dash to the nearest bush and hide. If
they see no owl or other hunter they
make a dash to the next bush and so on
until they safely reach the feeding
sround. A rustle would catch the at-
tention of any waiting owl and bring
him swooping down.

Red Ben saw deer mice watching in-
quisitively from the edges of laurel |
clumps, also little burrowing pine mice
whose sharp eyes fairly twinkled in the
moonlight. He saw Brown Weasel
chase a nimble deer mouse up an oak,
and then he saw Flying Squirrel and his
family having a rollicking game of tag
around the largest limbs. Fat toads sat
about, lazily watching for beetles.
The pleasant rain had been taken in

through the pores of their skin instead
88 |

THE WOODS AWAKE

of through their mouths, but they had
had enough to satisfy them.

On all sides there were little things
moving, even from up in the air and
down in the ground came squeaks of
various kinds. Everyone seemed to
have a play fellow—except Red Ben.

At last, however, a little possum came
ambling through the wood all alone.
Red Ben watched him sniff about and
climb among some fallen branches.
When the gray creature, with little
bright eyes, caught sight of the in-
terested fox, he crouched on one of the
limbs and gazed back just as interest-
edly.

Red Ben’s playfulness surged over
him; he pranced forward, reared on his
hind legs and waved his front paws en-

ticingly in front of the little possum’s
89

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

nose. But Possum fell over backwards,
terror in his eyes. Once on the ground
he scurried for a tree, and climbed up in
a panic. Red Ben, however, was just
as quick. ‘Thinking it was all a game,
he chased after him, leaped high into
the air and caught the scaly tail just as
it was getting out of reach.

Down plumped the little possum,
with wide open, hissing mouth. But
instead of running, he lay where he had
fallen.

Red Ben was greatly surprised. He
had meant no harm. Carefully he
sniffed and pawed the motionless
creature. Yes, his playfellow was cer-
tainly dead. For a minute or two he
walked around. There was nothing he
could do, so he decided to leave the
place. |

90

Possum fell over backwards’’

ce

THE WOODS AWAKE

Just as he reached the next tree, how-
ever, he heard a scraping noise and
whirled around in time to see the ap-
parently dead possum go up the oak’s
trunk even faster than the first time.
Sticking his sharp little toe nails into
the crevices of the rough bark, he could
get a good hold where Red Ben's toes,
which were formed for running, could
not have gripped at all. When nearly
at the top of the tree, he stopped to look
down at Red Ben, grinning. The fox
had at first fooled the little possum, but
now the little fellow had done some
fooling himself.

Red Ben looked around for the mice
and other little creatures, but found
that they had vanished. Being the
color of the dead leaves and limbs near
which they played and fed, and know-

QI

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

ing all the holes and how best to reach
the nearest one, all of them could hide
quickly. They had been frightened.
Many minutes would pass before they
dared to crawl out again.

92

CHAPTER IX

STUDYING THE ENEMY

HEN Red Ben was trotting
back to the Swamp, he heard
Farmer Slown’s hound baying. He
stopped at once to listen. It was not
the joy cry that comes with the scent of
a fresh trail; there was, indeed, a wail at
the end that puzzled him. He listened
a while in silence, then, pointing his
sharp nose in that direction, barked back
ie denance. “Yap, yap, yYa-rrirr.
After a pause he barked again.
The hound, who was tied in the barn-
yard and howling simply because he
93

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

felt lonely, heard the fox and at once
grew quiet. Farmer Slown heard him
too, through his open window. He,
however, did not remain quiet. He
fussed and fumed the rest of the night,
and made more plans to catch the fox
which was so bold as to bark at him.

Red Ben, meanwhile, stole along the
fence towards the farm buildings. He
was drawn by an irresistible curiosity.
It was here his greatest enemy lived, the
one who was somehow connected with
the disappearance of his mother and of
his brothers.

The farm was very quiet in the dark-
ness. The chickens were still asleep on
their roosts, and no animal stirred.
Even the windmill over the well had
stopped turning, and so gave forth none
of its usual creaks and groans.

94

SEM DYING ‘THE ENEMY

The damp air, however, was laden
wien scents. The fox’s keen nose
picked out the odor of perspiring horses,
of sheep and of pigs. It caught, too,
the peculiar smell of man and the smell
of smoke and cooked food and slops,
which always is found where man lives.
There was also a dull, nameless scent
made up of a hundred different things,
like the grease on wagon axles, old
harness, rusting iron, clothes out to dry
and other things about which Red Ben
knew nothing.

This was indeed a new world to the
young fox, who had often wandered
near the place with his mother, but
never before ventured so close. Weird
shapes of wagons made him keep away
from the barn shed. He feared, too,
the windmill, which he had once seen

95

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

move in a suspicious way. Nor did he
care about coming closer to the pigs,
lying in filthy sties and grunting in their
sleep. Altogether he much preferred
the clean woods, where sweeter scents
filled his nostrils and no weird creations
of man lay strewn about in all their
ugliness.

It was the chicken house that in-
terested Red Ben most. From its open
windows came occasional sleepy clucks
and murmurs as the closely packed
fowls jostled each other in their dreams.
Suddenly, too, a rooster crowed, so
sharply that the fox leaped to one side.
Other roosters in the little house took
up the challenge and crowed. They
were heard by roosters at the next farm,
who thereupon crowed too and woke up

the roosters in the village, who also felt
96

SPUDYING THE ENEMY

like crowing. Day had not yet come,
however; it was only the moonlight they
saw, so all promptly went to sleep again.

Red Ben knew very well that each
crow came from a toothsome fowl, so he
took a most natural interest in this
chorus. When once it was over, how-
ever, he felt uneasy. Instinct warned
him he was being watched. He looked
all around and then, happening to
glance up, caught the hostile eye of a big
gray cat, watching him from the hen
house roof.

He had never before seen a cat, and
sO was suspicious at once, especially as
this one now opened its mouth to give
vent to a yowl of indignation. He
sidled off towards the wood, keeping a
watchful eye on grim pussy.

There was straw scattered around on

97

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

the ground, and from a bunch of this
he startled a feathered whirlwind, in the
shape of a guinea hen who had been
sitting there on a nest of hereggs. Red
Ben jumped backwards, ready for a dash
in any direction.

“Chah! Che, che, chahhh!” screamed
the guinea as she ran about. “Chah!
Chah!” came shrilly from thej¢ggeee
nearby where all the other guineas were
roosting. The chickens awoke and cac-
kled, the hound bayed, Shep barked from
the locked stable, and in the midst of it
the little fox, the innocent cause of all
this hubbub, slipped away towards the
quiet, friendly wood.

His anxiety lest something follow
made him careless and brought him face
to face with a cow, lying down in the

meadow. Dodging her surprised snort,
98

STUDYING THE ENEMY

he ran full tilt into another who, in turn,
drove him to a third, and so on until he
had somehow escaped the herd and was
fairly flying towards the wood. Not
till he was in its cool shadows, among
the silent woodsfolk, could he once more
feel safe.

From the farm still came the
“chahhh” of the excited guineas, and
when, with the first rays of the sun, Ben
Slown stepped out of his house, a mass
of guinea feathers met his gaze. They
were strewn all about the half eaten
body of the guinea hen who once had
faithfully sat on her nest back of the hen
house.

Farmer Slown did not look for
feathers on the nose of the big cat. He
never found out that the sight of the
guinea running about in the dark was

99

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

too much for the hunter instinct of his
pet. Instead, he remembered only the
barking of the fox in the night, and
shook his fist in the direction of the
Ridge.

100°

CHAPTER X
JIM CROW’S SIGNAL

NSTEAD of sleeping under the
fallen tree in Cranberry Swamp,
where the fleas had become too lively for
comfort, Red Ben had made it a practice
to pick out a new place nearly every
day. ‘This time he chose a laurel clump
on the top of Oak Ridge. There was
an advantage in this high bed; he could
keep an eye on Ben Slown’s farm,
whence he now expected trouble of some
kind to come.
He had lately paid special attention

to the danger signals of all the wild
IOI

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

creatures, and on them relied for first
warning, so he curled up in his usual
tight ball, with eyes closed, but ears un-
covered to take in every sound.

The “check, check” of red wing black-
birds, the rasp of brown thrashers, the -
screech of sparrow hawks and the rust-
lings of a great wood full of happy life
went through his ears unheeded. ‘The
bark of Red Squirrel made him look up
for a moment, to make sure that the
little fellow was only talking to his
mate; so also did the whirring of a
grouse that some prowling hunter had
scared up nearby; but during most of
the time he could doze.

From a pine, near the fields below,
came an occasional reassuring “caw”
from Jim Crow, who was keeping guard

while the crow flock fed in the sheep
FOZ,

JIM CROW’S SIGNAL

pasture. Everything seemed all right
tohim. To be sure there were two red-
tail hawks soaring high in the sky, but
they were not worth bothering over at
that distance. All at once, however, a
man, followed by dogs, came from be-
hind the farm buildings.

“Caw, caw!” called the old crow
sharply, to tell the others that some-
thing suspicious was in sight. A
moment later he recognized Ben Slown
and instantly flew out of his tree with
fie’ real danger call. “Cawr, cawr,
cawr!” repeated again and again, as the
other crows flew up too and scattered in
the direction of the Barrens.

The first call awoke Red Ben, and the
second brought him to his feet in a
bound. All he needed was the sight

of the crows, flying towards the Barrens,
103

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

to convince him that it was Ben Slown
who was coming. Only the approach
of a well known gun carrier could make
those wise birds leave the neighborhood
of the Ridge like that.

He watched the farmer and his three
dogs, then trotted down the far side of
the Ridge, crossed Cranberry Swamp
and entered the Barrens. There was a
definite plan in all this. Gray Fox had
freed him from Ben Slown’s dogs once
before, now he could do it again.

Red Ben knew the old bully’s range
rather well, and wasted no time in
reaching the most likely thicket. Sure
enough, the smell of Gray Fox was there
in plenty, the smell Red Ben had such
reason to fear and dislike. He sneaked
cautiously up wind and spied the sleep-
ing fox curled up under a pepper bush.

104

JIM CROW’S SIGNAL

He stood there undecided what to do.
It was dangerous to trifle with Gray
Fox. But matters were decided for him
by an eddy of wind which carried his
own scent into the thicket.

Gray Fox’s nose twitched; he looked
up, recognized Red Ben and sprang to
his feet with a snarl. Back dashed the
young fox, and after him came the angry
gray. Through the woods they sped to-
wards Cranberry Swamp where, Red
Ben felt sure, the farmer was already
hunting for him.

The gray bully was bent on revenge
this time; he would teach the red up-
start a thing or two! But just as they
neared the log that crossed Goose Creek,
the bay of a hound floated through the
woods from straight ahead. Red Ben
dashed across the log, but Gray Fox

105

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

hung back and finally sneaked away to
hide. And so it happened that when
the black and white hound, Shep and
the fox terrier crossed the log on Red
Ben’s trail from the Ridge, they found
the fresh, straight-away track of Gray
Fox, and followed it.

While Ben Slown sat on the Ridge
waiting for a shot and while Red Ben
lay comfortably in the Swamp, Gray
Fox, rage in his heart, was leading the
dog chorus on a wild chase far into the
Barrens, to a deep hole he knew about.
The entrance was too narrow to admit
the large dogs, and the little fox terrier
could be held at bay. It was well for
Gray Fox that this hole was so far from
the Ridge that Ben Slown could not
hear the hound baying there.

All this time Jim Crow was keeping
Pee) 4

JIM CROW’S SIGNAL

his eye on the whereabouts of the
farmer. Silently he would circle the
Ridge, high over the trees, until he saw
the crouching figure, then he would
alight in a tall tree at some distance in
the Swamp and by his “cawr, cawr,
cawr,’ keep back all the crows that
started to return in the direction of the
Ridge. By watching him Red Ben, too,
knew where the enemy was lying in
wait.

When later Jim Crow saw the dis-
gusted farmer start for his home, he
flew joyously over the woods spreading
the news with a “caw—caw—caw.”
Soon afterwards he drew all the crows to
the meadow by calling as rapidly as he
could get out the sounds, ‘“‘Cehr, cehr,
cehr, cehr, cehr.”’

Jim Crow’s language was becoming
107

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

well known to Red Ben. Before the
sun rose each morning, Jim would talk
to the other crows. ‘“‘Caw—caw,” he
would begin. Another would answer,
‘““Caw—cehr, cehr, cehr,” and then from
all over the Ridge would come other
caws of various kinds. No two crows
spoke at once. If Jim had something
important to tell, all the rest listened.
By the time the sun was nearly showing —
above the horizon the band had started
towards the feeding ground. Usually
this was in one of the fields, but visits
to the river flats and to cranberry bogs
were not uncommon. | |
If a large hawk, or owl, was discov-
ered by a crow, he called, “Caw, caw,
caw, caw, caw,’ and brought to the spot
every full grown crow within hearing.

One after another would then dive at
108 |

JIM CROW’S SIGNAL

the big bird and harass him until he
escaped from the neighborhood.

Once when Red Ben had discovered a
dead crow and had pulled it out for
inspection, another crow, flying over,
caught sight of the apparently murdered
bird and shot down with a furious
“Cahrrrr,’ which others, appearing from
all sides at this harsh call, repeated until
the woods resounded.

Sometimes a crow would vary his
caws with a melodious ““Kruck—kruck,”’
which resembled one of Blue Jay’s
favorite notes, but was much louder.

As Red Ben now rolled himself into
the usual tight little ball, for sleep, he
heard once more the joyous “Caw—caw
—caw of the old black sentinel and,
with that ringing in his ears, content-
edly closed his eyes.

109

CHAPTER XI

HOW OTHERS HUNT

ITH the first signs of darkness,

Red Ben uncurled himself and

took a long stretch. Then he gaped —
until nearly every tooth in his head was
bared. After that he realized how
ravenously hungry he felt, also how bad
this dry, hot night would be for hunting.
Far away he heard a great horned
owl hooting. “Who—who, who—
whoo,” it said, over and over again.
Nearby, Screech Owl was crooning to
his little mate, very softly. They, too,

were hunters and knew that there was
1IO |

HOW OTHERS HUNT

little use in settling down to work until
the dew had gathered in the fields and
made the withered grass luscious enough
to entice the rabbits and mice into the
open. All had to have water, and for
most of the little creatures that gnaw, it
was safer to sip the dew than to take the
long trip to Goose Creek.

Suddenly a weird scream filled the
woods. It had scarcely ceased when an-
other pierced the air, this time much
closer to Red Ben. The fox cowered
back and waited. Again the scream,
and then a ghostlike, whitish shadow
flitting between the trees.

Barn Owl, strangest of all the
creatures of the night, was flying to his
hunting ground. Many a silly ghost
story has been started by a glimpse of

him—innocent old mouse eater—in his
eel

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

moonlight travels through the woods.
By day he rested in a hollow tree, or hid
in dense tangles high above the ground.
Now and then he found a roosting
place on the rafters of some tumble
down barn. By night he searched the
meadows for mice and moles, doing
great good to the lands of the farmers.

Red Ben had often seen Barn Owl’s
white form, but never before heard his
call so near at hand. In the summer he
had come across two of the old bird’s
youngsters squatting forlornly beside
the stump of an old hollow tree, which
had been their home until a woodcutter
had felled it the day before.

The fox had come too close to the
suspicious birds and had nearly been
caught by the quick blow both aimed

at him with their long talons. One
I12

on spuvy PIPY pue S| Tey AT9Y} UO Jes Ady

De)

\
SG

Sark

HOW OTHERS HUNT

reached out so far that he lost his bal-
ance and toppled over. Struggling vio-
lently to get on his feet, he clawed his
brother, by mistake, and received a
sound whack in punishment.

Forgetting brotherly love and fear of
the fox pup, they then flew at each other
in a fury and had a good fight. At last,
exhausted, they sat on their tails and
held hands while hissing defiance at each
other in a comical way.

Red Ben was very much interested in
the strange pair, and made a practice of
taking a look at them every night. The
devoted old mother fed them regularly,
often leaving beside them several more
mice than their stomachs had room for.
These, however, they ate during the
day, swallowing fur, tails, feet and

everything, but later spitting up in neat
113

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

balls all the bones and undigestible
parts.

At last a day came when they were
not to be found near the tree. Over-
head, however, sounded a rasping call.
Red Ben looked up and saw two monkey
faces, rimmed in white, looking down at
him froma high limb. ‘Their wings had
grown long and they had learned to fly.
Soon four big barn owls, instead of two,
would be quartering the meadows in
moonlit nights.

The pangs of hunger soon drove Red
Ben to begin to hunt along Goose Creek.
In daytime, rows of mud turtles, coiled
water snakes and greenish black bull
frogs were usually to be found there on
floating logs, warming themselves in the
sunshine. At night, some of these ven-
tured to come ashore after insects.

114

SS

ora

ing up

rat was busy pull

Musk

¢¢

HOW OTHERS HUNT

Picking his way cautiously along the
water's edge, Red Ben noticed a musk-
rat swimming in the middle of the slug-
gish stream. Hoping it would land
near him, he hid, but the wily rat went
ashore on the far bank where he was safe
from the fox, but not from a brown mink
whose fierce eyes were also watching.

Mink was a swift swimmer whose
thick fur shed water quite as well as that
of Muskrat. He dove into the stream
as noiselessly as a snake, swam under the
surface until at a point below Muskrat,
who just then was busy pulling up grass
which he expected to carry to the stream
and wash before eating.

Red Ben, in his excitement, leaped
out on a bar of sand where he could see
the chase more easily. Screech Owl,
too, having caught a glimpse from a dis-

115

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

tant cedar, flew to a limb over the
stream. All the creatures within that
angle of the creek except poor old Musk-
rat seemed to know that something was
going to happen. Even the bats flitted
about without their usual dips and
rushes after low flying bugs.

Muskrat, with mouth full of grass
and roots, turned back just as Mink’s
head came above the steep bank. For
one breathless second the two furry
creatures looked at each other, then the
rat plunged headlong for the stream.
Like a football player he charged down
the bank, throwing the small but fierce
Mink head over heels into the water.
Muskrat dove and vanished so quickly
among the stems of the spatterdocks and
golden clubs that Mink was confused,

and actually lost him.
116

HOW OTHERS HUNT

A swirl near Red Ben showed him
where Muskrat entered the under-water
burrow in the bank, leading to his home.
Iy the clear stream the fox had a
glimpse of the brown body with fore-
paws held against its sides, driving it-
self through the water by great strokes
of its webbed hind feet. Its long, flat,
almost hairless tail acted as a rudder to
guide its course.

Seeing nothing more of either animal,
Red Ben trotted on. Ahead was a dead
tree on which were large, black objects.
These he knew were turkey buzzards
which by day soared far and wide over
the Barrens, searching for any dead
animals that would afford them a feast.
Here they gathered in the evening, a
gruesome, ill smelling assemblage.

The fox avoided the tree and swung

117

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

into the old wood path. It was the best
thing he could have done that night, for
it brought him face to face with a meal.
Trotting along quite unconcernedly, his
attention held by the buzzard tree, he
was met by an explosion of rage, almost
under his nose. He leaped wildly, to
avoid he knew not what. Almost at
the same moment he recognized the big
gray tom-cat which had treated him so.
uncivilly when he visited Ben Slown’s
farm.

His dignity had been badly jarred,
and’ ‘he’ felt angry all ‘over:¢qaimaE
stealthy, hostile creature, which be-
longed at the farm, had no right to dis-
pute his way in the wild Barrens. Be-
sides which it had a freshly killed wild
rabbit under its paws.

As the two eyed each other, Red Ben
118

HOW OTHERS HUNT

felt the fur tingling along his spine.
The alluring scent of the rabbit filled
his hungry nostrils. He stepped closer
—yes, the rabbit certainly was a fat one!
Still nearer he went, always watching
the furious eyes that glared at him.
How the cat could growl! Now his
nose was within a few inches of the rab-
bit. His eyes dropped for the fraction
of a second, just to have one good look
at it, and in that instant the raging cat
struck with both front paws.

But Red Ben was not there. He had
been quick enough to leap away from
those claws. Back he circled and again
dodged a furious blow. The hateful
growl of the cat rose into a high pitched
shriek of rage. Losing all caution, he
made a spring after the fox, who neatly
side stepped it and picked up the rabbit

119

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

on the run. A yowl followed him, but
as he looked over his shoulder, he saw
the cowardly cat actually turn tail and
dash for home.

This was the beginning of Red Ben’s
rule over Oak Ridge and Cranberry
Swamp. Before October ended, every
animal who lived there had learned not
to trifle with him. He knew them all
by that time and respected their rights,
but woe to the one that tried any mean
tricks onhim. He was growing big and
strong, and very wonderful looking, in
his orange-red fur, which, responding to
the first frosts, was becoming long and
rich. ‘The most conspicuous thing to be
seen on the Ridge was Red Ben, but he
took care that he seldom was seen.
Nevertheless his fame was growing.

I20

CHAPTER XII

BENS HUNDRED DOLLAR FOX

EN SLOWN had a good many
days of corn husking ahead of him
that Autumn. Every morning he car-
ried his gun out to the field, turned
loose the eager black and white hound
with instructions to “sick ’em,’’ then
busied himself in the profitable task of
stripping the long yellow ears.

The hound would hunt through the
woods, and, by the manner of his yelp-
ing, tell Ben Slown what he was finding
there. A quick short yelp or two meant

he had scared up a rabbit. An angry,
I2I

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

loud baying in one spot meant that Gray
Squirrel, or Red Squirrel, had been treed
and was making fun of him from a safe
height.

When the hound ran Woodchuck, or
Muskrat, into a burrow, his baying was
muffled, on account of his nose being in
the mouth of the hole. But when he
rushed full tilt through the woods with
a musical “wu—uh, wu-uh, wu—uh” at
regular intervals, that meant fox; and,
near the Ridge, fox meant Red Ben.

Ben Slown no sooner would hear that,
than down he would throw the corn
bundle and off he would run for his gun,
which was never left very far from his
hands. Off, too, would dash Shep and
the fox terrier, who ordinarily busied
themselves with digging for mice

around the corn shocks. |
122

BEN’S HUNDRED DOLLAR FOX

In the excitement, Red Ben always
managed to get away, usually by hunt-
ing up Gray Fox, or some other member
of the gray family, whom he had learned
to find in the Pine Barrens a mile down
Goose Creek. The hound had discov-
ered that any other fox was easier to fol-
low than Red Ben, so he gladly changed
trails.

On one occasion, after a long, hard
run, Red Ben, circling back by a new
route, came across the scent of a fox en-
tirely a stranger to him. With his
usual caution he looked about and
presently caught sight of a red creature
like himself, watching him intently.

For a full minute he and the other
fox studied each other without moving.
Not since his mother vanished had Red

Ben seen a red fox, and never before had
123

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

he seen an animal quite so unkempt
looking as this one. The red fur was
all mangy and torn, the tail almost a
stick.

Red Ben, in all the magnificence of
his perfect coat, seemed like a different
kind of animal from this wretched little
_she-fox. And yet there was a bright-
ness of eye, as well as an alertness about
her which commanded attention. |

The baying of the hound close by
changed the scene all too quickly. Red
Ben went on his way in graceful bounds,
the little she-fox watching him till out
of sight, then herself vanishing in the
wood.

This kind of daily persecution by Ben
Slown and his hound wore heavily on
Red Ben. The sleepless days, hard

runs and constant worry made him unfit
124

BEN’S HUNDRED DOLLAR FOX

for hunting during the night. Often he
went hungry. He quickly became em-
bittered and reckless. Instead of run-
ning after swift rabbits and spending
hours in digging out mice, he fell into
the easy habit of catching the fat, stupid
chickens and ducks that could be picked
up at any farm yard without his expend-
ing much energy.

His cunning in work of this kind
seemed endless. He learned how to
catch the guinea hens in the gray light
of early morning, how to climb over and
under chicken yard fences and how to
enter hen houses through windows.
He became the vexation and terror of
every poultry man within three or four
miles of the Ridge. Bounties were
offered in three villages for his capture.

One hundred dollars in all hung over
125

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

his head; and still he somehow managed
to live on his much loved Ridge—the
only place he knew as home.

To children Red Ben naturally be-
came a real hero; stories of his cunning
took the place of fairy tales, besides
which he seemed to have a friendly as
well as inquisitive feeling towards them
which led him to follow them about in
the woods on their winter-green and
holly picking expeditions, cautiously of
course, but showing in one so wild an in-
teresting trustfulness. |

Sometimes he would be glimpsed as
he watched them from some thicket, far
enough away to satisfy his shyness; at
other times his orange colored form
would slip past as silently as a shadow,
to be swallowed immediately in the

tanglesallabout. So the children, with
126 ;

BEN’S HUNDRED DOLLAR FOX

their sharp eyes, had the thrill of seeing
him more often than anyone else; and
of all the hungry woods creatures he
had first choice of crusts and lunch
scraps they dropped.

Every fox is likely sooner or later to
do something foolish that gets him into
trouble, but Red Ben’s wonderful luck
seemed unending. He was often seen
when running ahead of the dogs. Per-
haps some old farmer would be driving
home his cows, when into the country
road ahead would plunge the fox, his
bright fur and big, bushy tail leaving no
doubt as to his identity.

“Ah; there goes a hundred dollars,”
the old man would sigh, as he thought of
the reward, then he would admiringly
watch the graceful fox until out of sight

around the bend in the road, and pray
127

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

that the dogs might not get him after
all.

Red Ben of course jumped into the
road ahead of the cows so that these big
footed creatures, which kicked up the
dust so plentifully as they walked,
would spoil his trail before the dogs
would get there. It was one of his ways
of eluding them.

Everyone who saw the red fox talked |
about it and about the reward, and
though to the children he was always
Red Ben, to the farmers he was now
Ben’s Hundred Dollar Fox.

‘“He’s the most valuable thing on
your old farm, Ben,” some neighbor
would tell Farmer Slown.

“And he won’t be there much longer,”
Ben would answer in his usual ugly

manner.
128

BEN’S HUNDRED DOLLAR FOX

“How’s that? Are you going to try
_ sticky fly paper next?” But Ben would
stalk off without answer.

The answer came when five of the vil-
lage dogs died from some mysterious
poison for foxes they had picked up in
the fields. After that people began to
pass Ben Slown on the road without
speaking.

129

CHAPTER XIII

RED BEN TRAVELS

N the first very chilly night of the
season, Red Ben, trotting briskly

along the woods path towards Cranberry
Swamp, came face to face with Gray
Fox. According to the law of the
woods the old fellow had no right to
hunt on another fox’s home ground; but
what cared he, where the despised red
fox was concerned? This time, how-
ever, he did grow a trifle worried. Red
Ben was beginning to look very differ-
ent from the thin, Sa legged pup he

used to be.
130

RED BEN TRAVELS

Each slowed down to a cautious walk
and resolved that the other should get
out of his way. The result of course
was that they met, and in an instant
were locked in furious battle. On their
hind legs and on the ground, they tus-
sled and rolled and bit and scratched
until fur flew.

Mice acain Red Ben's training
helped him. He fought with the speed
of lightning—the kind of fighting his
mother had taught him. He tore Gray
Fox on this side and that, mauled and
pummeled him, threw him down; and
when the snarling old enemy tried to get
away, Red Ben followed with speed that
was irresistible, nipping, worrying and
driving him on. There had probably
never been a more bitter fight in the
history of the Barrens.

131

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

When the completely whipped gray
reached his own range there was not a
particle of courage left in him. Never
would he dare to face again the Red Fox
of Oak Ridge. But Red Ben was not so
happy as he might have been. As his
enemy vanished in the woods, he felt
more than ever before the loneliness of
his life.

This feeling surged over him until
it became unbearable. He wandered
over to Cranberry Swamp, and finally
to the very end of his hunting territory,
where he had seen the mangy little she-
fox; but this time she was not there, so
he did not stop. Something drove him
on, into the land of the unknown in the
direction of the rising sun, whence the
faint night breeze was coming, bearing

innumerable scents. It was then he
132

ce : |
A turkey buzzard had been circling over him’’

RED BEN TRAVELS

heard, far behind him, probably all the
way from the Ridge, the bay of a hound.
He stopped to listen; sitting there in the
lonesome Barrens, he picked out, one
after another, the joy notes of Farmer
Slown’s big brute, following his trail.
That decided him. There would be no
turning back.

Full of bitterness now, he hastened
on until broad daylight came. For-
tunately he had caught a few crickets
and two deer mice on the way. These
had helped to sustain his strength, but
he was very tired. For nearly an hour
a turkey buzzard had been circling over
him; now close, now far, but always
within sight. It was like a bad omen.

Badly as he needed a rest, it was not
for him to enjoy one that day. Scarcely
had he found a soft bed in a pepper bush

133

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

thicket, when once more he heard the
hound. Evidently the patient dog had
been unravelling the trail for hours;
now he was coming close.

Up jumped Red Ben and once more
loped off towards the East. He was
soon skirting farms he had never seen
before, and crossing cement roads lined
with prickly hedges, or wire. Behind
him the noise was growing. Other
dogs, picked up from the farms, were
joining in the chase. Each time he
looked back over the fields he could see
several of them, running in loose pack
formation, with Ben Slown’s black and
white hound in the lead.

Red Ben suddenly realized he was
getting tired out. A kind of desper-
ation seized him. He crossed barn
yards, where the children delightedly

134

RED BEN TRAVELS

shouted at him; dodged down roads in
plain sight of people in automobiles,
and in his ignorance of the country, did
other things which in the old days on the
Ridge would have seemed impossibly
reckless.

Everyone shouted and cheered and
followed as well as they could, until
Red Ben lost them in a friendly wood.
Here he threw himself down, panting as
never before. His limbs ached all over
and smarted where he had been bitten
in the fight with Gray Fox; he felt in-
deed as if he could never get up. But
when the dogs came over the meadow in
plain view, he somehow jumped up once
more and circled the wood; then he
found the scent of another fox.

With new hope he turned into the
wind and followed it unerringly until

135

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

he reached long rows of wire pens in
which were a number of creatures that
seemed to be foxes, but were black.
He had stumbled upon a fox ranch, kept
by a dealer who raised the beautiful
black ones for their pelts, which he sold.
Every fox Red Ben saw there was worth
many hundreds of dollars.

Scarcely knowing what to do, he fol-
lowed the outer fence a short distance,
then slipped to a thicket where he could
hide and watch what would happen.

The dogs came soon in a long line,
five of them, with Ben’s big hound still
in front. ‘They blundered into the first
line of wire, looked up, and saw the
foxes running in all directions. At this
sight, one mighty yell burst from every
one of them. ‘They leaped around the

outer enclosure in frantic effcrts to get
136

RED BEN TRAVELS

in. Trails were forgotten now that
foxes were actually in sight. Indeed
the one idea of each was to catch a fox
before the others got him; so they
jostled each other and scrambled and
fought, with such a din that the ranch
owner came running out with his gun
and broke up the party with two sting-
ing loads of bird shot, one of which pep-
pered the black and white hound in a
way he would not soon forget.

Quiet instantly followed. The
black foxes were so well protected by
the double line of fencing that they
were not in the least hurt, or even much
scared. They soon slipped out of their
shelters and basked in the sun, while
Red Ben in his thicket sprawled out flat
and slept. Hus first day of travel had
been an eventful one.

137

CHAPTER XIV

BLACKIE

N the afternoon, soft snow, the first
that Red Ben had ever seen, fell for
several hours. He did not fear it, but
wondered at its whiteness, which soon
wiped out the green and brown colors
of his thicket and deadened all the
woodland scents he was used to.
Nevertheless, as soon as darkness made
it safe to move about, he crept out of
his hiding place and again visited the
fox ranch. On three sides he found
thickly planted spruce trees, which
sheltered the yards, and made them so

secluded and cozy that the timid ani-
138

BLACKIE

mals could live there almost as happily
as in the North Woods, whence those
came which had not been born in cap-
tivity.

The whole ranch was enclosed with
the strong wire which had kept out the
dogs. Inside this fence were the pens,
each holding a pair of the wonderful
silver black foxes. A shed ran along
their northern side, giving protection
against rain and the coldest winds.

Red Ben moved stealthily between
the snow laden spruce boughs, climbed
the outside fence with the ease of a cat,
and approached the first pen. Here
stood watching him a beautiful fox, jet
black to the tip of her tail, which was
pure white. Blackie seemed mightily
interested in Red Ben. She even stuck
her dainty black nose through the wire

139

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

for him to touch, which he did rather
shyly.

This friendliness was such a new
thing to him, used as he was to the in-
tensely suspicious, shy creatures of the
woods, that it thrilled his every nerve.
He scarcely looked at the other foxes,
preferring to romp about Blackie’s pen
in a spirited game, thought out on the
spur of the moment, in which they had
races and tag, in spite of the wire be-
tween. |

When the fun was at its height there
was a sudden rush: Red Ben found him-
self facing, instead of gentle Blackie, a
tall, lean, black fox, whose jealous snarl
at once showed him to be a rival.

Only the fence between prevented a
furious fight. As it was, indeed, they

tore at each other through the wire, Red
140

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Kaas

~~

MAK
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DA

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AK GQ

WK

Courtesy Black Fox Magazine

i 3 : 7?
They tore at each other through the wire

BLACKIE

Ben charging against it again and again
in vain attempt to break through.
There was an over-hang of wire at the
top which stopped him from climbing
over, and wire laid along the ground ina
way to make digging-under nearly im-
possible, so he, a creature of the wild,
could not get in.

The black rival meanwhile did all he
could to tease and anger him; but worst
of all was the way he bossed and mal-
treated poor Blackie, who seemed to live
in constant fear.

Red Ben was fairly raging. He felt
as he had long ago, when Gray Fox
treated his mother so badly. Somehow
he would get in! But whenever he
tried to climb up the wire, the other fox
bit his toes cruelly and gloated over his
helpless fury.

141

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

It was after one of these climbs that
he found a ladder leaning against the
shed. He had never before seen one,
but was clever enough to guess that it
might be climbed. One foot at a time,
his big tail helping to balance him, he
moved up the slippery rungs. Almost
at the top he lost his footing and fell
all the way down with a thud, but, none
the worse for this, he tried again, and
actually reached the roof.

Now, at last, he could look down on
Blackie and know that one jump would
bring him to her side, where he could
give the lean, black bully the thrashing
he deserved.

Proudly he stood there, while all the
foxes in the row of pens watched and
waited. Something was warning him

not toleap. If he did, could he get out
142

- BLACKIE

again? Was not this a kind of trap?

Although Blackie was coaxing him,
his caution held him back. He climbed
down the same way he had come up
and trotted away, not however without
first taking a last jolly romp with
Blackie and giving a good growl of
warning to her disagreeable, black
companion. He had three mice for
supper. They had been overtaken by
the snow away from home, and were
rushing back in long leaps when he
found them. As soon as dawn came he
was again cozily hidden in the thicket.

Later in the morning he noticed ex-
citement among the foxes and saw a boy
wheeling a barrow laden with things
which he put in the pens. He saw that
this boy somehow entered without
climbing over the wire.

143

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

Red Ben was exceedingly interested
in this, so interested that he did not note
how carefully the boy walked around
Blackie’s pen, looking at the tracks in
the snow, nor how long a time he spent
fixing something in the pen. Red Ben,
indeed, had not yet learned that snow
holds footprints and tells the story of
the night travels of every creature that
touches it. How, therefore, could he
guess that everything about his visit was
plain to this wide awake boy, who,
thrilled by the idea of a big, wild fox
being near, was plotting to catch him?

The sun melted very little of the
snow, so when he started out that night,
the ground was still white and cold.
He hurried to Blackie, who frisked

about in great excitement at seeing him
again. Eagerly he tried the spot where
144

BLACKIE

the boy had entered with food and
water, but of course was stopped by the
peg on the door. Blocked in that hope,
he turned to the ladder, and soon was
once more on the shed roof, looking
down at Blackie’s companion, who was
in his usual disagreeable, jealous mood.
It was then that he noticed, for the
first time, a ladder leading from the
roof into the pen—a ladder very much
like the one he had just climbed. He
went towards it cautiously. It had not
been there the night before. There was
also about it the scent of the boy, but
no more noticeably than on other things,
such as the gate. Still, he feared it.
Perhaps he would have left the place
without venturing to set foot on it, if
at that moment Blackie had not given
a shrill whine of fear. She was crouch-
145

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

ing in a corner of the pen with the black
fox standing menacingly before her.

Down the ladder sprang Red Ben, his
heart fairly afire. Before the snarling
black knew what had happened, he was
rolling in a whirlwind of snow, with
jaws like iron closing on his furry neck.
His snarl suddenly changed into a
whine of abject fear; then Red Ben let
him up.

However, the black one was treacher-
ous. He sneaked around the pen, and
when Red Ben was looking with wild
eyes at the ladder which had suddenly
fallen, rushed up and caught him in the
flank. Down went Red Ben, but so
quickly that the other was also thrown
off his feet.

How they fought, eid in the dark,

on the trampled snow! How fur flew!
146

BLACKIE

Little tufts of it dotted the yard; black
tufts they were, worth many dollars
apiece. But what cared Red Ben ?—as
soon as the ladder fell he knew he had
been trapped—he, who had laughed at
all the traps on Oak Ridge. Baitterly
he fought until the black one had more
than enough and cowered like a scared
rat in the farthest corner of the shed.
Then Red Ben let loose his muscles in
the wildest leaps and the most frantic
m@iehes of his life. Madly he ran
around and around the enclosure, or up
the quivering wire.

Blackie could not be made to under-
stand what was the matter. She was a
ranch bred fox; this washerhome. But
to Red Ben, reared in the wild tangles
of the Ridge and Swamp, freedom
meant everything. He would have it!

147

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

In the morning he was still climbing
or digging, still pushing and pulling at
the door, or tearing up and down the
yard. Even the coming of the de-
lighted boy did not calm him for an in-
stant. With red fur standing on end,
eyes flashing, sharp teeth bared as he
panted from exertion, he was the wild-
est looking creature seen on the ranch
for many a day.

Finally he dropped to the ground,
exhausted, but not _ discouraged.
Blackie came timidly to him then and
licked his bruised and torn feet, and the
bites on his ears which, without her care
in taking out the poison, might have
turned into angry sores.

With her so close, Red Ben seemed
to forget the wire that held him in; but

the instant he heard a footstep ap-
148

BLACKIE

proaching, all his fears awoke and he
was once more the untamed, splendidly
active creature so admired by the boy.

In the afternoon, the boy’s father,
who owned the ranch, came home from
a long trip he had made the day before.
After seeing his family, his first thought
was of the valuable foxes, so the boy,
hoping to give him a pleasant surprise,
said nothing about having trapped a
new fox, but eagerly led him to the
pens.

As these two came through the spruce
trees, Red Ben flattened himself against
the ground under the shed, hoping to
be passed unseen. But the man
noticed the tufts of fur lying about the
pen and strode over there.

“Why, what’s all this, son?” he asked.
‘Have Blackie and her friend had a dis-

149

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

agreement? ‘This looks pretty bad.
They are the best pair of all. If any-
thing happened to one of them, I don’t
know what I should do.”

At this the boy began to feel mighty
uncomfortable. All the joy of the sur-
prise was suddenly gone. He hung
back, fearful of what his father would
say when he found out what really had
happened.

“This is awful!” his father went on.
‘Something has gone wrong. What
could it be?” And then, as if in answer
to the question, Red Ben sprang up in
all his wildness and dashed up the wire
like a cat, only to be thrown down by the
netting at the top.

The old rancher stepped back in a
dazed way, then with sudden suspicion,

looked at his son. He read part of the
150

BLACKIE

story in the poor boy’s unhappy face,
and drew out the rest ssjuive a few ques-
tions.

He was a sensible father. He
gulped down all his disappointment
about the injury to one of his favorites,
gave the boy a hearty slap on the
shoulder, just to show it was all right,
and congratulated him on his cleverness
in outwitting a fox.

“You were mighty smart to cut the
three bottom rungs off that ladder to
keep the blacks from climbing out be-
fore the other fox knocked the ladder
down. Suppose you see, now, whether
you can set a trap in the pen that will
catch that big, red scalawag and not the
others. His fur is wonderful, the long-
est ever saw. We'll make him into a
fine rug for the parlor.’ With that he

I51

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

strode off without noticing what a woe-
ful glance the boy gave the “fine rug,”
so wonderfully alive at that moment.

152

CHAPTER XV
FREEDOM IS SWEET

ED BEN’S doom seemed sealed.
Even if he scorned the box trap
set for him by the dutiful boy, he was
still in the rancher’s power. He knew
all about box traps. Instead of get-
ting caught himself, he drove Blackie’s
companion into it and every now and
then looked in through a crack to see
how the black fellow was enjoying the
mlace. Shut in there, the other fox
could growl and be as nasty as he chose.
After that, Red Ben once more began
his attacks on the wire. He never lost
153

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

hope of getting away. The gate, too,
he worked over nearly half the night.
It shook when he struck it. It seemed
the weakest part of the penjjtae
pawed its edges, climbed up its sides,
and then all at once felt it give; igiae
had sawed the peg until it moved back.
The gate swung open, he was free!

Cautiously he slipped out and started
for the spruce trees, then stopped sud-
denly and looked back. Blackie was
not following. She stood on _ the
threshold of the pen looking after him.
Instantly he turned back and began to
coax her. He would run towards the
thicket, and then back agam.) Bie
pulled at her velvety ears and played in
front of her. Still she would not ven-
ture out.

At last, however, she very carefully

154

\

ime

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2

Courtesy Black Fox Maga

She stood on the threshold of the pen’’

c¢

FREEDOM IS SWEET

took a few steps, and then a few more.
With Red Ben beside her, almost shov-
ing her along, she came to the tall out-
side wire, under which a hole was soon
dug. Once past this she had the whole
Gcountry before her, the Pine Barrens,
the swamps, everything that delighted
Red Ben. But the farther they went
from the ranch, the more nervous she be-
came. ‘Twice she started back, only to
be coaxed forward again by her ever
faithful companion. Every bush and
tree was something new to her, every
shadow and strange scent a cause of
fear. In all her life she had never gone
farther than around and around her
little pen, and now she wanted to go
around and around in the same way, in-
stead of straight ahead with Red Ben.

A dog barked from a nearby farm

155

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

house. Blackie instantly stopped.
The dog barked again; the wind had
brought to him the scent of the foxes.
He was coming nearer to investigate.
Red Ben did not move. He knew it
was a small dog he had seen several
times froma distance. Again the bark,
very near and very loud.

Blackie crouched for an instant, then
turned. Red Ben could not stop her.
She was panic stricken in this strange
new place. Over the snow she sped,
back to the pen and to her favorite bed
in the old shed. ‘This was home to her.
Here she felt safe. Red Ben could
love his woods, but she was a ranch bred
fox.

Red Ben stood at the entrance of the
pen and waited, but she would not

move. He wandered out to the spruce
156

FREEDOM IS SWEET

trees and called, but she did not come.
Out in the woods he called again.
Mournfully the woods echoed it.
Oiap, Yarrrrir—_Yap,’!) Yarrrrrr.”
There was no answer.

Into the woods he wandered, scarcely
knowing where. On and on in the
steady lope he always used when get-
ting away from his enemies. ‘The
rancher could come now and fuss and
fume all he wanted to. He would find
a fox in his trap all right, but not the
Red Fox of Oak Ridge.

And Blackie? Long after Red Ben
had vanished, she became uneasy. Per-
haps he would not return. She once
more stood on the threshold of the pen,
looking out at the woods where she had
leet ‘Seen him. Poor,’ silky ‘ Blackie!
For once in her life she too felt lonely.

157

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE
Raising her head she barked, and then

barked again, until her lonesomeness af-
fected the other foxes in the nearby
pens and they too barked. It was a
wonderful chorus, a goodby to the big,
wild fox.

Many miles from the ranch, Red Ben
lay down to rest and lick his wire torn
feet. He was in a small swamp, where
a stream of brownish water flowed be-
tween soft masses of sphagnum moss.
The first signs of dawn were in the sky.
Hardly had he made himself comfort-
able when a swishing of wings made
him look up in time to see a flock
of black ducks going over. They
swerved, threw out their feet, and with
a lot of splashing settled in a shallow
pool nearby.

New strength seemed to shoot into
158

FREEDOM IS SWEET
Red Ben’s tired limbs. He was

almost famished, and here was meat.
Stealthily he slipped along the ground
towards the water, guided by the soft
quacks of the drakes, which were steer-
ing the flock carefully nearer to the
bank. There, more water weeds and
snails could be found.

- Soon Red Ben could see the dark
forms and hear the water being filtered
through the fringes of their bills as they
sitmed out all that was eatable. The
feeding was good; they were having a
fine time.

Nearer to shore they came, the wary
drakes examining its edges and seeing
nothing to alarm them. One climbed
up on the bare mud near some bushes.
He flapped his wings and then began
to oil his feathers. First he rubbed his

159

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

bill on the oil that every duck has at the
point on his back where the tail feathers
begin; then he rubbed his oily bill over
his feathers. This kept water from
soaking them and made him able to
swim or dive a long time without get-
ting his feathers wet. Another duck
joined him and began to arrange its
feathers in like manner. |

Suddenly a red streak shot out of the
bushes. ‘The first duck saw it and, with
a startled quack, leaped into the air; but
the second duck, being behind the other,
did not see it in time. It leaped, but
the streak leaped too and _ brought
it down. Amid wild quacking and
splashing as the flock flew up, Red Ben
proudly carried off the first real meal he
had tasted for two days.

After that he scraped away the snow
160

FREEDOM IS SWEET

from the leaves in a clump of laurel and,
with nose buried in his fur and coy-
ered by his warm, bushy tail, slept
through the long day. Downy wood-
peckers hammered the old limbs over-
head, hawks screeched, and quail, run-
ning past to get a drink at the stream,
rustled the leaves where the snow was
thin; but still Red Ben slept on.

All the terrors of his day in the pen
were wiped out by that sleep. Even
beautiful Blackie, whom he had played
with and loved, became fainter in his
memory, like part of a wonderful
dream.

CHAPTER XVI

THE ROAD TO THE SEA

OWARDS evening clouds began

to gather; then a gentle wind

from the South brought the first signs

of thawing weather. Later a warm

rain drenched the woods, washing away

the snow and leaving the swamps
cloaked in vapor.

This was the kind of winter weather
the woodsfolk preferred to any other.
Nearly all of them came out. Even the
raccoons and the skunks, who sleep in
cold weather no matter how long it
lasts, crept forth to have a good hunt

before the next cold spell began.
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Two coons, who were having a loud altercation

6¢

THE ROAD TO THE SEA

They had never before seen Red Ben,
so each eyed him very carefully and left
plenty of room between. As usual, the
coons followed the water, the possums
wandered along the edges of the swamp,
and the skunks roamed the open places.
None of them seemed sociable. The
only ones Red Ben saw together were
two coons who were having a loud alter-
cation in the top of a hollow hickory.
Each wanted the hollow entirely for
himself, but neither could throw the
other out of the tree.

In the stream a mink suddenly ap-
peared. He had a frog in his jaws
which he carried ashore and left on a
tussock of grass. Returning to the
water he dove, searched the muddy
bottom, found another frog that was

hibernating there, and laid it on the tus-
163

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE
sock beside its fellow. When he had

collected four fat ones he finished his
meal, leaving what he did not need, for
other less expert hunters, like the
possum, to find, if they could.

A larger animal than the mink also
came swimming down the stream; it had
a flatter head and lighter color. Red
Ben, who was sitting on a high part of
the bank watching all that was going
on, saw at once that this was a creature
not to be found in Goose Creek and
Cranberry Swamp. It was an otter, on
its way to winter quarters farther down
the stream. Like most of the other
woodsfolk, it had to find a snug, safe
hole to live in during the many cold
days ahead.

Even the big owls always sought

holes when the leaves fell from the trees
164

THE ROAD TO.1THE SEA

and the North Wind began to moan in
the woods. They hunted out hollows
in trees; so did the animals that could
climb; but the others, the mink, the
skunk, the muskrat and the weasel, slept
in holes in the ground. These they
dug themselves, if they had to; but gen-
erally it was possible for them to find
old holes that would do very well.
They were very lazy about that kind of
thing, far different from animals like the
squirrels, which built such snug nests
for themselves in summer as well as in
winter.

Red Ben found a possum carrying his
bed along with him. Instead of hold-
ing the grass in his mouth as a squirrel
would, he wrapped his queer tail around
a big pile of it. Whenever he came

across some more material that was suit-
165

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

able, he stopped, picked it up with a
front foot and, reaching under his body,
tucked it also into the bundle. The
tail was curved down and then under his
body, so the ends of the
~Gye0 grass stuck out on each
S27". ade, making bee
from the rear, like a lit-
tle haystack wandering

e @ 4 about.
e “Susce =: It _ was not difficult to
get food. ‘There 27a
still acorns under the
oaks and fruit under the
wild apple and persimmon trees. Red
Ben, who of course knew nothing of this
part of the country, found the trees by
following the trails of the creatures that
lived in the neighborhood. He looked

for wild ducks as he later travelled down
166

Possum Tracks

THE ROAD TO THE SEA

the edge of the stream, but found them
too wild to be caught. ‘The farther he
went the more ducks he saw. The
stream was joining other streams and
getting wider and wider, until suddenly
it came out of the woods and wound
through a flat stretch of grass land.

There was now a different scent in
Red Ben’s nostrils, a dull roar always
in his ears. He had reached the salt
marshes, close to the ocean; just beyond
them were the waves of the Atlantic
hurling themselves on the hard beach of
sand. Here were coon tracks in all di-
rections, but no signs of other woods
- animals.

Red Ben trotted cautiously to the big
sand dunes that edged the _ beach.
Beyond them was the roar he had heard

all the way from the woods. Climb-
167

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

ing the soft sand, he looked over the
top of the dunes and saw before him
the Ocean, stretching as far as his eye
could travel. Fora long while he stood
there watching the waves. Then he
saw a fox, a gray, trotting along the
beach. It was not afraid; why should
he be cautious? |

Down the dune he loped and over the
hard, shell studded beach, to the very
edge of the water. The gray walked
forward to meet him, saw he was a
stranger and at once put on all the
hostile airs he could.

Red Ben, however, was not surprised.
By this time he knew a good deal about
gray foxes. He walked around the
other, eyeing him sharply, but giving
him every chance to attack if he wanted

to. The gray was fooled. With a
162

THE ROAD TO: THE SUA

snarl he leaped at the apparently stupid
red, only to be met by a blaze of teeth.
The fight was over in a moment. The
gray did not stop running until he had
the big sand dunes between him and
that red whirlwind.

Red Ben found crabs, fish, snails and
clams washed up on the beach. He had
never seen so much food. Some he ate,
and some he carried to the dunes and
buried for future use. He did not
know that a new supply was washed
in by every tide. Soon, however, he
gave up the idea of burying all the fish
he found; there were hundreds of them!
Here indeed was the place in which to
live and hunt—no traps, no hounds, no
hunger. Red Ben sprang into the air
in pure joy and raced down the beach

and back again, and in and out of the
169

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

dunes, and then off to the woods to find
a resting place for the day.

All through January and the first
weeks of cold February he lived by the
sea. Then one warm night the lone-
liness came upon him again. The
woods were wet and sweet, the ground
was thawing; Spring seemed in the air.
Instead of going to the beach, he
wandered about the woods and then
started West, towards the Pine Barrens.
Often he stopped, but always trotted on
again; something was calling him.
Was it the sunny Ridge, so far from the
angry winds and mists of the ocean?
Red Ben did not know, but each hour
brought him nearer.

With day came a change in the air.
Snow began to fall, very softly, but very
thick. Nearly blinded, Red \aaem

170

THE ROAD TO THE SEA

curled up under a laurel bush and
waited, while inch by inch the flakes
rose on the ground around him. No
creature was stirring. ‘There was some-
thing so determined in the way the snow
fell that they were cowed and glad to
hide in their snug beds. All night, too,
it snowed, and all the next day. Red
Ben lay now in a room of snow; on all
sides and on top, except where his
breath had thawed a hole, was the white
blanket. He was completely snowed
in.

171

CHAPTER XVII

THE OTHER FOX

N the second night the snow

stopped falling, but the icy
northwest wind came in_ shrieking
blasts, whirling the flakes in every di-
rection. It was a terrible time for any
creature without a snug home.

Red Ben’s’ snow’ covering was
whipped away; in the height of the
storm he floundered through the drifts
until glad to stop behind a pile of brush ©
which offered some shelter. Here he
came across a mink, also snow bound

and also half famished. ‘There was an
172

THE OTHER FOX

ominous glitter in the old mink’s eye.
Hunger was making him dangerous.
Red Ben crouched warily at the edge of
the brush. The mink curled up inside
it, fairly bristling with bad temper.
Each hungrily watched the other. If
the storm kept up there would be a cruel
fight, and one of them might never be
seen again.

They were still watching each other
when morning came. Both had made
short trips into the deep snow, only to
return disheartened. But the sun at
last appeared and turned the world into
a shimmering wonderland. It warmed
the air and melted the top of the snow
so that 1t would pack under the feet of
the small woods creatures. The squir-
rels came out of their holes in the hollow
oaks and rushed to the nearest places in

173

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

which they remembered having hidden
nuts. Crows cawed and walked along
the edges of the streams where the
water had melted the snow. Wherever
tall weeds grew, there was great feast-
ing. Flocks of little juncos and chick-
adees were picking the seeds out of the
dry tops.

The sour old mink slipped out of the
brush pile, gave Red Ben a last wicked
look, then went bounding away. Now
that the snow was melting and heavy,
instead of powdery as at first, his wide
spreading toes kept him from sinking
out of sight. |

Red Ben was much heavier and could
not spread his toes. He therefore sank
up to his middle at every step. The
squirrels laughed and barked at him
from safe perches; the little birds flew

174 |

THE OTHER FOX

away ahead of him; the crows set up a
great racket and swooped at his head
as if to pick out his eyes; but still he
kept on, hunting for something to eat.
Following the bed of the nearest stream,
he escaped some of the deepest snow
and went a long distance before night.
Never before had he travelled so long
in daylight, but never had he been so
hungry, nor found so little to eat.

The snow froze as soon as the sun
sank. Where it had been thawed on
top, a hard crust quickly formed. On
this, Red Ben could walk cautiously,
but not run, because it broke with him
so easily. Again and again he saw rab-
bits and tried to catch them, only to find
himself floundering in the snow at the
first big jump. After losing one par-
ticularly fat one, and seeing its white

175

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

tail go bobbing away, he suddenly
noticed that something was following
his own trail. There were shadows
that slunk about wherever he went.
Ouickly slipping behind a snow cov-
ered holly bush, Red Ben waited. A
gray form, and then another, came
cautiously along, nosing his tracks and
looking ahead: a gray fox and his mate.
Red Ben sprang up, and the pair floun-
dered back in a panic. But every time
he looked around again, they were still
following him, watching his every move
with a hungry gleam in their eyes such
as was in those of the old mink, such as,
indeed, was now also coming into his
own eyes. Were they hoping he would
catch some creature which they could ©
share in eating, or were they hoping to

eat him when his strength gave out and
176

THE OTHER FOX

he dropped helpless in the treacherous
snow ¢

When hunter grimly hunts hunter in
the woods, it is indeed a time of starva-
imoni.. Not) fer, years ‘had there been
such a snow in the Pine Barrens. Red
Ben longed for the country he had
learned to know so well, the Ridge,
Cranberry Swamp and the edge of Ben
Slown’s farm lands. ‘There he would
know just where to dig for mice under
the snow, or to hunt for frozen apples.
He stopped every now and then to rest
and to flash his keen, white teeth at the
two grays. How he would punish
them when the show went away!

Suddenly he found that the grays
mere.) slinking, |nearer. They. were
lighter than he and could walk much
more easily on the snow crust. When

177

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

he growled, they growled back. Their
sharp teeth and hungry eyes showed
plainly, when they were close. It was
two against one, and Red Ben was no
longer the tireless, iron muscled fox
which had so often outrun the hounds.
His limbs ached, his empty stomach
burned his very heart, his tail dragged
through the snow. And yet he was as
proud as ever. He threw up his head
and stood his full height. The grays
shrank back, just a few feet.

They let him plunge further into the
woods; their time would come, they
could wait. They had not travelled a
long distance and were not yet weak-
ening from the hunger.

Red Ben felt.the ground slope
sharply; suddenly he slipped headlong

into the bed of a stream. He knew the
178

THE OTHER FOX

grays would come now. If he would
only get up quickly enough to meet
them both! With a great struggle he
threw off the masses of loose snow and
stood with feet wide apart, waiting.
Every hair stood on end, his big tail
waved menacingly, he was for the
moment as formidable and wonderful
as ever.

The grays stood cautiously watching.
Why did they not give him a chance to
fight? He would show them! But it
was not he they were watching. A
shadow was stealing along the stream
bed—a shadow like Red Ben’s. He
saw it and whirled around. The
shadow stopped. Facing him, at a
little distance, stood a splendid red fox.

Red Ben noted the perfect form, rich
fur and fresh look of this newcomer.

179

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

Three against one it would be now!
The grays waited expectantly. Red
Ben and the new fox looked at each
other. None moved.

The wind sighed in the pines over-
head and beat brittle oak twigs against
each other. The grays circled suspi-
clously; something was wrong. Red
Ben watched them out of the corners of
his eyes. [he wind had brought to him
clearly the scent of the red fox. Huis
nose was telling him more truly than his
eyes that this beautiful creature was the
same as the mangy, wretched little red
fox he had once seen in the Barrens
months before, when Ben Slown’s
hound had driven him some distance
from the Ridge.

He walked slowly towards her.

There was no unfriendly snarl at his ap-
180

THE OTHER FOX

proach. Her eyes sparkled; she frisked
up to him, shyly, indeed, but quite as if
he were an old friend who had come
back after a long journey. She had not
forgotten him. And Red Ben? His
big heart began to pound against his
ribs. Long ago, in his loneliness, he
had looked for her—one of his own kind
—a red fox like his mother.

He looked around for the two grays;
the cowards had already gone, taking
for granted that the newcomer was Red
Ben’s mate. Would she be his mate?
How pleasantly different the bleak
woods seemed all of a sudden as these
two wandered away together to food
stores the pretty she-fox had collected
in times of plenty, just as Red Ben had
collected and hidden the first fish he had

found on the beach. First he would
181

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

follow her, then she would follow him,
and so they broke a new path into the
silent woods.

182

CHAPTER XVIII

HOME AGAIN

HE great snow stayed in the

woods for weeks. All that time
and longer Red Ben and his new
found comrade kept near the stream
where they had met. She knew no
other home land, and he cared only to
be where she was. On moonlight
nights they went hunting together, then
hurried back to romp and play like two
big cubs. Red Ben seemed suddenly
young again, carefree, happy beyond
words.

When April brought the first flowers
183

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

and the hum of bees, when the summer
birds began to fill the woods, and all
the little animals to go about with the
Spring joy in their hearts, two and two,
wherever they were seen, Red Ben and
his little mate started on a journey—a
long night’s journey—to Oak Ridge.
Again the longing for home was tugging
at Red Ben. Once started, he could
hardly stop an instant to rest.

Just as the sun rose they crossed the
log over Goose Creek, trotted up the old
woods path and looked from the Ridge ©
over Ben Slown’s broad fields, lying so
peacefully under the morning mist.
Jim Crows “‘caw——caw——caw, ——ane
well—echoed through the woods quite
in the old way. White Stripe, too, was
lumbering along the path just as he had

when Red Ben first saw him and nearly
184

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HOME AGAIN

got into troub]>. Bun, the big farm
rabbit, passed ahead of the old skunk,
and far down the Ridge, Red Ben saw
a possum cautiously shuffling along.

There was something familiar about
the possum. Red Ben watched for a
moment, then playfully pranced to meet
him. It was the little possum, now
grown very big and fat, who had been
so frightened when Red Ben tried to
play with him. And now, too, he al-
most went over backwards with fright
and scuttled up the first tree he could
find, holding to a limb with all four feet
agit his life depended. on it. Poor,
scared, little possum!

Red Ben and his mate did not stop
there; they were hunting something
very important, a snug, safe den.

They found just what they wanted in
185

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

a tumbled down old mill on Goose
Creek. Parts of the walls still stood,
but enough big stones had fallen to
make a great pile of rock, under which
a burrow was run without much dig-
ging. On the top of one of the walls
they could le in the pleasant sun and
look down at the water rushing by, and
at the fish coming up the creek to spawn
in the shallows, where the young ones,
when they hatched, would be safe.
First came the long nosed, slim pike,
then the fat suckers and last of all the
silver sided herring, hundreds of them,
fresh from the ocean.

Here four little fox pups were born—
Red Ben’s children. ‘They looked like
him, and like him they were strong and
wise and merry. With their parents

keeping guard on the top of the old
186

HOME AGAIN

wall, they could play all through the
long days. Many were the romps they
had together, but none so exciting as
those in which Red Ben joined; then
all four would pile on top of him and
bury their little noses in his soft fur try-
ing to hold him down; but somehow
he would suddenly roll them all off and
go dashing about the old mill with all of
them close at his heels, yelping with de-
light.

Care free days were these: indeed, a
change had come over the Ridge. Red
Ben had noticed it at once. ‘There were
no gun shots, no hounds, no grim signs
of Ben Slown’s work. The farmer had
moved away, disgusted with the place
and with his neighbors. His poison
baits and traps, set for Red Ben, his big

brute of a hound, all had gotten him
187

RED BEN, THE FOX OF OAK RIDGE

into trouble with the villagers. The
foxes had won, Ben Slown had to move.

The man who bought the farm had
no use for a gun. He let the Somge
rows grow up with weeds and berries for
the birds, so that his corn and fruit
would not be disturbed by them. He
let the woodchucks and the children of
Bun feed at will in his meadows, and
grow so plentiful that no fox would
ever need a chicken for a meal.

Once in a while—very seldom—he
would steal into the woods, come, up
wind, towards the old mill and cau-
tiously peep at the little red foxes.
Only Red Ben saw him, and Red Ben
seemed to understand. He never gave
an alarm to stop their play.

Year after year Red Ben, with his

faithful, pretty mate, raised little red
188

HOME AGAIN

foxes in the old mill. Year after year
he hunted on the Ridge and on clear
_ nights barked his defiance to any and all
the gray foxes of the Barrens. “Yap,
yap.:yirriir, over the farmlands, it
would echo, and all the people who
heard it would stop their work, or read-
ing, for an instant to say to each other
pxertediy, Listen! Vhe Fox of Qak
Ridge!”

THE END

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