After he had looked at the cubs playing merrily, how, with soft stealth, one would creep behind another to bounce out and startle him, a thought came into Mr. Tebrick’s head, and that was that these cubs were innocent, they were as stainless snow, they could not sin, for God had created them to be thus and they could break none of His commandments.  And he fancied also that men sin because they cannot be as the animals.

Presently he got up full of happiness, and began making his way home when suddenly he came to a full stop and asked himself:  “What is going to happen to them?”

This question rooted him stockishly in a cold and deadly fear as if he had seen a snake before him.  At last he shook his head and hurried on his path.  Aye, indeed, what would become of his vixen and her children?

This thought put him into such a fever of apprehension that he did his best not to think of it any more, but yet it stayed with him all that day and for weeks after, at the back of his mind, so that he was not careless in his happiness as before, but as it were trying continually to escape his own thoughts.

This made him also anxious to pass all the time he could with his dear Silvia, and, therefore, he began going out to them for more of the daytime, and then he would sleep the night in the woods also as he had done that night; and so he passed several weeks, only returning to his house occasionally to get himself a fresh provision of food.  But after a week or ten days at the new earth both his vixen and the cubs, too, got a new habit of roaming.  For a long while back, as he knew, his vixen had been lying out alone most of the day, and now the cubs were all for doing the same thing.  The earth, in short, had served its purpose and was now distasteful to them, and they would not enter it unless pressed with fear.

This new manner of their lives was an added grief to Mr. Tebrick, for sometimes he missed them for hours together, or for the whole day even, and not knowing where they might be was lonely and anxious.  Yet his Silvia was thoughtful for him too and would often send Angelica or another of the cubs to fetch him to their new lair, or come herself if she could spare the time.  For now they were all perfectly accustomed to his presence, and had come to look on him as their natural companion, and although he was in many ways irksome to them by scaring rabbits, yet they always rejoiced to see him when they had been parted from him.  This friendliness of theirs was, you may be sure, the source of most of Mr. Tebrick’s happiness at this time.  Indeed he lived now for nothing but his foxes, his love for his vixen had extended itself insensibly to include her cubs, and these were now his daily playmates so that he knew them as well as if they had been his own children.  With Selwyn and Angelica indeed he was always happy; and they never so much as when they were with him.  He was not stiff in his behaviour either, but had learnt by this time as much from his foxes as they had from him.  Indeed never was there a more curious alliance than this or one with stranger effects upon both of the parties.