winter, and cool
in summer, and safe all the year round.'

'That is a sensible little pig,' replied his mother, looking fondly at
him. 'I will see that the three houses are got ready at once. And now
one last piece of advice. You have heard me talk of our old enemy the
fox. When he hears that I am dead, he is sure to try and get hold of
you, to carry you off to his den. He is very sly and will no doubt
disguise himself, and pretend to be a friend, but you must promise me
not to let him enter your houses on any pretext whatever.'

And the little pigs readily promised, for they had always had a great
fear of the fox, of whom they had heard many terrible tales. A short
time afterwards the old pig died, and the little pigs went to live in
their own houses.

Browny was quite delighted with his soft mud walls and with the clay
floor, which soon looked like nothing but a big mud pie. But that was
what Browny enjoyed, and he was as happy as possible, rolling about all
day and making himself in such a mess. One day, as he was lying half
asleep in the mud, he heard a soft knock at his door, and a gentle voice
said:

'May I come in, Master Browny? I want to see your beautiful new house.'

'Who are you?' said Browny, starting up in great fright, for though the
voice sounded gentle, he felt sure it was a feigned voice, and he feared
it was the fox.

'I am a friend come to call on you,' answered the voice.

'No, no,' replied Browny, 'I don't believe you are a friend. You are the
wicked fox, against whom our mother warned us. I won't let you in.'

'Oho! is that the way you answer me?' said the fox, speaking very
roughly in his natural voice. 'We shall soon see who is master here,'
and with his paws he set to work and scraped a large hole in the soft
mud walls. A moment later he had jumped through it, and catching Browny
by the neck, flung him on his shoulders and trotted off with him to his
den.

The next day, as Whitey was munching a few leaves of cabbage out of the
corner of her house, the fox stole up to her door, determined to carry
her off to join her brother in his den. He began speaking to her in
the same feigned gentle voice in which he had spoken to Browny; but it
frightened her very much when he said:

'I am a friend come to visit you, and to have some of your good cabbage
for my dinner.'

'Please don't touch it,' cried Whitey in great distress. 'The cabbages
are the walls of my house, and if you eat them you