"Why are you weeping thus?" asked she.
At last he sat up in bed and said: "Last spring, when I was out on a
pleasure excursion, I was the means of saving the life of a fox's cub,
as I told you at the time. The other day I told Mr. So-and-so that,
although my son were to die before my eyes, I would not be the means of
killing a fox on purpose, but asked him, in case he heard of any hunter
killing a fox, to buy it for me. How the foxes came to hear of this I
don't know; but the foxes to whom I had shown kindness killed their own
cub and took out the liver; and the old dog-fox, disguising himself as a
messenger from the person to whom we had confided the commission, came
here with it. His mate has just been at my pillow-side and told me all
about it. Hence it was that, in spite of myself, I was moved to tears."
When she heard this, the goodwife likewise was blinded by her tears, and
for a while they lay lost in thought; but at last, coming to themselves,
they lighted the lamp on the shelf on which the family idol stood, and
spent the night in reciting prayers and praises, and the next day they
published the matter to the household and to their relations and
friends. Now, although there are instances of men killing their own
children to requite a favour, there is no other example of foxes having
done such a thing; so the story became the talk of the whole country.
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