For  more  than  six  years  she  lived  steadily  at  the  den
in  the  hillside,  and  gave  all  the  people  of  the  neighbor-
hood a  chance  to  know  something  of  her  habits,  and  of
the  manner  in  which  she  supplied  her  larder.  Nothing
was  more  common  than  to  see  the  "  old  lady  "  trotting
across  the  fields  at  nightfall,  or,  on  going  out  early  in
the  morning,  to  catch  a  glimpse  of*  her  turning  the  cor-
ner of  the  barn  or  shed;  for,  abandoning  the  shyness
usual  to  foxes,  this  one  seemed  to  get  tamer  on  acquaint-
ance, and  to  make  a  regular  business  of  picking  up  old
bones  and  refuse-matter  about  the  farm-houses,  together
with  whatever  poultry  she  could  handily  come  upon.
On  account  of  depredations  of  this  latter  sort,  the
thievish  old  creature  was  repeatedly  shot  at,  and,  on
several  occasions,  chased  to  her  den.  Two  strenuous
attempts  were  even  made  to  unearth  her,  —  once  with
smoke,  and  again  with  shovels.  The  shovelling-party
reported,  that,  after  digging  in  eight  or  nine  feet,  they
came  to  where  the  hole  led  in  between  two  large  rocks,
which  stopped  their  farther  progress.
Traps  were  next  resorted  to  ;  but  no  skill  in  baiting,
or  insidiousness  in  placing  them,  proved  of  the  least
avail.  This  "  mother  of  all  the  foxes,"  as  the  folks  came


216  THE  RED  FOX.
to  call  her,  was  fully  up  to  any  thing  and  every  thing  of
this  sort ;  and  so  it  came  to  be  generally  understood
that  the  "old  fox"  was  something  to  be  accepted  and
endured,  like  droughts  and  freshets.
