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The Fox Hunt

The sound of the horn broke the still of the dawning;
The cold autumn wind brought the feared scent of men.
The mother fox watched on that November morning
While hunters and hounds headed straight for her den.

She thought of her puppies contentedly playing
In their snug burrow beneath the cold ground,
Then with a sharp yap, her position betraying,
She leaped out in front of a fast charging hound.

She led them away from her den in the meadow,
The hounds and the hunters in desperate chase;
She ran through the grassland in sunlight and shadow,
While heaven looked down on her life or death race.

She ran many miles with death all around her,
Completely exhausted she fell on the hill,
And there by a thicket the field master found her,
And hunters and fox hounds came in for the kill.

He skinned the dead fox and admired his treasure,
Then high on the wall the stuffed vixen he hung,
But found underneath it these words with displeasure,
"A GALLANT FOX MOTHER HAS DIED FOR HER YOUNG."

She ran many miles with death all around her,
Completely exhausted she fell on the hill,
And there by a thicket the field master found her,
And hunters and fox hounds came in for the kill.

He skinned the dead fox and admired his treasure,
Then high on the wall the stuffed vixen he hung,
But found underneath it these words with displeasure,
"A GALLANT FOX MOTHER HAS DIED FOR HER YOUNG."

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