'
"'Hi! open the door,' cried Flaps, who saw something was wrong; 'you've
got another King Stork, I'll be bound.' But though he rattled and shook
the door, no one unbolted it. 'Ah!' sighed Flaps, 'before long the whole
pack of idiots will be killed and eaten.' So he scratched open an old
hole in the wall that had been stopped up, and crept in. He arrived just
in time to hear the old hens giving orders that no more eggs were to be
given him, and that the door was to be kept bolted, in order that he
might be obliged either to leave the place or to starve.
"They were all talking at once, and so eagerly, that no one noticed the
dog come up behind them. He gave one spring and seized the fox by the
throat. The attack was quite unexpected, but the fox fought, writhed,
and wriggled like an eel, and just as he was being borne down, he made
one desperate snap, and bit off the dog's ear close to the head.
"'Well, my ear is done for, but so is this blood-thirsty villain,' said
Flaps, looking down at the fox, which lay dead at his feet; 'and as for
you, you pack of ungrateful fools, one ear is quite enough to listen to
you with. Here have I been your faithful comrade for all these years,
and yet you believe that I have turned murderer in my old age on the
word of this rogue, who did the evil deed himself last night.
Pages:
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142