Black Fox’s Wisdom

Black Fox's Wisdom By Orville S. Johnson Dell Bryant moodily stroked his graying hair, with a comb that was losing its teeth with age, as he gazed out over the vast ruggedness of the roughs and gorges leading to the great, muddy Colorado. Miles to the east of him, towered the big Navajo Peak, hazy with summer heat. Old Dell was broke and needed cash. It would be two months before he could profitably set his traps, providing he wanted furs. There was the bounty, but he hated to kill merely for the bounty when the fur was worth three times as much later on. Still it looked as if he had to do it. Rising from the stump where he had been sitting, he picked up his rifle and started down the hill toward his ranch, with a step that lagged wearily. From his shoulder hung a game bag that bulged in spots. Looking down at his hand, as he changed hands with his gun, he idly threw the gun in his el- bow crook and picked from his palm a grouse feather that had adhered to it because of a drop of blood. He surveyed the feather thoughtfully for a moment and then cast it aside. The feather reminded him of a certain head of brown hair, from under which shone a pair of serious brown eyes. They belonged to the Lad, the only son of his nearest neighbor. The Lad held a strong attraction for the old man who had never known the love of a child of his own. Not that the Lad liked the way Dell made his living and encouraged him, for he didn't. But the quiet ways of him won the old man's heart. Many times he had come suddenly upon the statuelike figure of the Lad, watching some woodfolk friends at work or play. Al- most he seemed like the woods quiet, reserved, friendly, with a warm smile that was like the cool greenness of the trees, when the sun was too hot. That was the secret of why old Dell liked the boy, he was like the wild life which he loved and hated at the same time. Hated the cowardly foes of the weaker animals and loved the ones that needed protection. He rarely killed a deer, and sel- dom a bird unless his appetite called for it. But he enjoyed killing the wily wolf and coyote, or the cowardly puma and lynx. He liked to see the big sharp-shinned hawk reel wildly to earth after being hit by a ball from his rifle. He trapped

BLACK FOX'S WISDOM 63 the wicked little weasel with the greatest satisfaction, but hated to kill the harmless rabbit, even when they got so numerous that they prevented him raising many peas or turnips. The Lad never killed anything so far as old Dell knew. He argued against the killing even of the fierce bob cat after it had killed half of his father's chickens. And as for the coyote and other game killing animals, they had been placed upon the earth by a Power higher than man's and ought to be let alone until that Power saw fit to take them away. And reason as he would, Dell could never convince the Lad that they were merely a curse placed upon the earth to torment men for their wickedness. Of late the Lad had seemed to act a little queer. He held aloof from old Dell most of the time, only calling in now and then to ask after his needs from town, when his father was going in. The father never had time to spend upon hermits like old Dell, and the town was too far away for many others to reach him, so the Lad was his only visitor and friend. Thus it made him apprehensive when he felt the spirit of aloofness the Lad brought with him. He feared that he was about to lose even the thread of friendship that bound him to the Lad. He couldn't know until he had started to look for favorable signs of fur bearers that the boy had discovered that a black fox was making his home in the neighborhood. Had he known the fact he might have fathomed the aloofness. The Lad feared that he might be led to tell his secret and that old Dell would gloat over the grand prize he was going to have the next flail. The fox was always the boy's strong point. Old Dell couldn't make him fierce, he was not a destroyer of anything other than rodents and rabbits, with perhaps an occasional bird. For the Lad declared that a fox had never visited his father's coop. But to old Dell the fox meant money. And a black fox would mean much money. The boy's aloofness held until one morning in October when old Dell coming in from his inspection of a nearby cave had discovered the Lad watching him from the door of old Dell's house. "Seen anything unusual, Dell?" Asked the boy with a quissical twitch to his smile. "Been a fox roamin' around that hole last night. I put some scent into it yesterday and he's been attracted to it. Wouldn't go in, though. Perhaps he's waitin' for his mate to inspect it with him." The Lad's face clouded a bit. "Wish you wouldn't go after the foxes, they're positively getting scarce close around here.

64 IMPROVEMENT ERA They don't hurt nothing that don't deserve it. Besides — " "Now see here, Lad, we've gone over this thing a thousand times. And you've never gone off mad. Lately there's been something wrong, and I find it's foxes. If you've discovered a den, and'll tell me where it is, I won't set a trap that one of them will get into unless it's accidentally. And then I'll turn 'em loose." "It isn't a den, though, Dell, it's only one fox. But he's such a beauty. He's been caught once, too, for his front toe is missing on the right front foot." Old Dell looked up quickly from a casual glance at a her- mit thrush in a nearby bush. He suddenly remembered that the track he had seen near the mouth of the little cave, as he called an old puma den about a mile below his house on the bank of the creek bed, about ten feeti higher than the present bed. "So that's it, is it? If he's such a beauty he must be a red. Or else a silver. Which is he?" "He's neither. Dell, if I tell you what kind he is, will you let him alone?" "Can't promise. He might be a black one for all I know, and I've always wanted to catch just one black fox before I die. It's every trapper's whim to catch at least one of the rarest of fur bearers in a lifetime, and mine's been to catch a black fox. It'd put me on easy street for the rest of my life. I could hold him alive for a few weeks while I did a little adver- tisin' and he'd bring me several thousand dollars." "And for mere dollars you'd destroy one of the most beau- tiful of God's creatures? He didn't put many of them here because he wanted people to appreciate them and when one is taken away before its time lots of people who might have seen the wonder in his natural state fail to get their just dues." Old Dell was excited. His eyes sparkled eagerly. "So it is a black fox, is it? Lad, I've dreamed and longed and waited patiently for sixty years for him to come. I've been blue and depressed because of hard times and failures. I've grown old in the long wait for him to come. And you ask me to let him go when I have the chance to get him. No, Lad, I'm going to have that fox before the season's gone no matter how many times he's been caught. If he's been trapped once he'll be shy and hard to get, but wait and see, I'll have him!" The old man's voice grew jubilant at the finish of his speech. His blue days were forgotten. The Lad was even al- most forgotten. The one big thing he had waited for had hap- pened. A black fox had reached his neighborhood. A real wild one. Not one that had been raised upon a farm. He

BLACK FOX'S WISDOM 65 would have scorned one of those, as too much like trapping an innocent dog. He had his old comb out, pulling it through his thinning locks excitedly. He always combed his hair when he was thinking hard regardless of whether the thoughts were bright or dismal. The Lad left him thus, as he walked slowly and thought- fully away. He felt that to interfere would be useless. But he prayed hopefully within himself that the black fox would keep out of Dell's traps and snares. As for the black fox, he was not worried in the least. He was sunning himself not a mile distant, watching curiously the antics of a chicadee as it hunted its breakfast in an old cedar that looked promising. His dark eyes shone with that rare intelligence that means cleverness and cunning to the utmost degree. He was fully acquainted with the Lad and in a way with Dell. He had realized at once that Dell had put the scent, a smell that brought him pleasant tastes and sensations. But he had smelled Dell's scent around there too, so was cautious. He had been in that neighborhood nearly two years and old Dell had never seen him. The Lad never would have seen him, either, had the boy not had that habit of sitting or stand- ing still, watching so long. That had puzzled the black fox and several times he had come within sight of the lad to in- vestigate. But always he grew cautious because of the human scent and slipped away into the great silent woods where he was safe from anything, even traps so long as he kept his wits about him. It was a week later when the Lad came again to see old Dell. And he found the old man in low spirits. "I've tried every one of my best secrets, Lad, and he's wise to every one of them. Keeps all my traps tripped and keeps away from the snares. He won't touch a bait of anykind that has been touched by my hands, or that has been killed by a bullet. There's rab- bits lying out there in those woods that have been there for nearly a week and none of them's been touched by a fox." The Lad smiled. He was immensely pleased because of old Dell's blueness. But he only said, "Stay with it. You've always said there) was a way to catch the wariest animal if you could just have the time to find it." "I'm going to stay with it!" He gritted his teeth and almost snarled the words out. "I'll shoot him. I'll go out into those woods and stay until I get a shot, if it takes a month." The Lad knew that the black fox would be a sure victim if old Dell carried out that threat, and he feared that he would. He decided to compromise. "Say, Dell, I believe I'll help you

66 IMPROVEMENT ERA catch him." The old man looked as if a dog had suddenly ac- quired speech. It was incredible. "There's conditions to my offer," the Lad hastened to say, "You know I can catch him. Why I've had him in my power several times. I could go right now and have him in an hour. Have him boxed ready for shipment." "I'll do it, no matter what the conditions are, providing we really sell him. Let's hear the conditions." "We'll go partners on the proceeds, and I'm to say whether or not we'll sell to the ones you bring around to buy. I can tell better than you whether or not he'll get kind treatment." Old Dell suddenly burst out laughing. "You're a good joker, but you can't quite go so far as to make me believe any such yarn as that. You must have a wasp's nest you want to lead me into while we're on the hunt. I'll tell you what I'll do, Lad, if you can bring that fox here, bound, alive and not harmed in any way more than a trap would hurt him, we'll turn him loose and I'll trap on the other side of the canyon. I've never seen his tracks over there." "Done!" shouted the Lad. "Shake!" They shook and the Lad left. He left in such a hurry that old Dell began to think that he did know his business and was really going to fill his part of the bargain. At any rate old Dell decided to follow him. The boy went up the hill and into the woods. A deep hol- low on the other side of the first heavy wood was where Dell had trouble in finding out where he had gone. He soon discov- ered that he had gone up the hollow. And the hollow got deeper and deeper. About a mile and it widened out into a box canyon about fifteen feet from wall to wall. Half mile farther and it ended abruptly in a fall from a shallow wash above. Nothing could go up the fall or either of the walls. Old Dell knew that. He had trapped a bob cat in there once. There was no water in the place, it was merely a cavity made by sum- mer and spring floods. Just before reaching the fall, there was a sharp turn in the box. Old Dell paused there and listened. Not a sound could he hear. Slowly he began to go forward until he could see around the bend. When he finally got so he could see he drew up with a start of real surprise. From a small cavity in the wall of plaster of paris, the boy was dragging the black body of the fox. It seemed lifeless. Old Dell could contain himself not at all. He rushed forward to make sure. The boy turned surprisedly, but laughed when he discovered who it was. "I've known about this for weeks," he confided, "I've seen him go in there lots of times, and often wondered if he would play possom is I went in their after him. He

BLACK FOX'S WISDOM 67 did sure enough. Do I have to take him clear to your place, Dell?" Old Dell was incredulous. He was sure the fox was dead or else the boy could not have caught him napping. With all his cleverness, he felt that the boy held something more prec- ious. Possibly it was reason. Old Dell didn't know what it was, but he stood in awe of it a little later. Slowly he bent over and stroked the glossy, rich fur. Felt of the body carefully. The fox never flinched. Old Dell decided that the Lad had shot him with a small caliber rifle at close range. But he wanted to call the lad's bluff. "No, Lad, you won't have to take him any farther. I give up to you here and I'll live up to my part of the bargain. Turn him loose." There was a note of triumph in the old man's voice that the Lad noted. He fancied he knew the reason. Reaching into his pocket he took therefrom a pocket knife and cut the cord he had tied about the front and hind legs of the fox before bringing him out of the cave. Not a sign of life yet. He laid him gently down upon the warm sandy bottom of the gorge, and walked slowly toward old Dell. Just as he reached his side, Old Dell saw a streak of black race past. A low delighted chuckle beside him reminded him that at least he still had the Lad's good will in other things. And together they quietly wended their way to old Dell's home where they spent their first real happy hour for months, talking as they usd to talk. CannoTwille, Utah The Service Seal A CHEERY CHRISTMAS— SERVICE IS MY CREED People know me as the 1922 Christmas Tuberculosis Seal, but I like to be called the Service Seal. Three hundred and sixty-five days a year I go forth into the realms of misery and misfortune — carrying with me a blessing of health and happiness. I belong to Utah — I am the product of noble thoughts and high ideals — I am always ready to serve you for I am the Messenger of Good Health, I announce the dawn of a New Day of Right Living and Happiness. I come to you on Thanksgiving day — buy of me liberally until the time I will leave you on Christmas Eve, for my work of mercy will go forever onward, scattering the rays of perfect peace and health. — A HEALTHY NEW YEAR.