17. The Fox Without a Tail

Once a Fox went trot, trot, trot, toward a hen-roost to catch a hen. But the farmer had set a trap in which Mr. Fox caught his long, bushy tail, and it came right off. As he trotted back home, ashamed to be seen without his tail, he said: “I know what I will do; I will tell the foxes tails are ugly and useless. Let us cut them off.” So he called all the foxes in council, but he took good care to hold his back against a tree, so they could not see that he did not have a tail. While he was making his speech, urging them to cut off their tails, one little fox peeped behind the tree and cried, “Oh! Oh! he has lost his tail!” Then another fox gave him a push, and as he ran off in shame, all the foxes laughed, “That is why he wanted us to cut off our tails.”