ened his carpet bag, and took out
his all-rounder collar, his lemon-colored kid gloves, and his pork pie
hat, to wear at the fox's party.

"But what has become of Titehugge?' he asked, suddenly noticing that his
brother was not there.

"'Oh, never mind _him_,' said the fox, 'I saw the selfish little wretch
gobbling away at some honey as I came along, and you see he was too
greedy to ask you to share it.'

"This was enough for Stubtail, who was too hard at work drawing on his
tight gloves to think of anything else, and away he trotted with the
fox; who took him to a lonely hollow in the wood, where, sure enough,
there were about fifty other foxes clustered together, but who looked at
Stubtail as he came among them, in anything but a pleasant manner.

"'Now, my friends!' exclaimed master fox himself, in a furious tone,
'you see before you the son of that old scoundrel Grumpy-growly, who
nearly killed me last year. At him, my dear cousins! scratch his eyes
out! ahaaa!' and with a long growl of rage the fox made a sudden jump at
poor Stubtail before he had time to run away, followed by all the
others.

"Stubtail fought like a perfect Zouave, hugging, scratching, and biting
his enemies with might and main; but after all, one poor little cub
could not do very much against a whole army of foxes, and Stubtail would
have been killed outright before long, when suddenly a tremendous
growling was heard! and up dashed Grumpy-growly himself, who most
fortunately happened to be passing, and came to see what the row was,
followed by Longclawse and Bushyball, full tilt! They didn't stop to
inquire whether this was a free fight or not, but pitched in like a
thousand of bricks, and demolished the foxes in a way which astonished
them considerable.

"As to master fox, he was making off first of anybody, leaving his
friends in the lurch; but Grumpy-growly saw him, and catching him by the
ear, made him confess all the mischief he had been about that morning;
and as soon as he had finished, Grumpy-growly gave him one good hug,
which killed him as dead as a coffin nail.

"After the grand battle was over, Grumpy-growly marshalled the three
cubs before him, hanging their heads, and looking perfectly miserable
with shame and fatigue, and started off to find Titehugge; scolding and
beating them all the way for their naughty conduct, though they were
punished enough already; for Longclawse and Bushyball had gone to the
election, where they