THE FOX THAT WANTED
NINE GOLDEN TAILS
“The most beautiful girl he had ever seen stood before him.”
The Fox That Wanted
Nine Golden Tails
BY
Kathleen Gray Nelson
THE DEVIN-ADAIR COMPANY
NEW YORK
Copyright, 1915, by
THE DEVIN-ADAIR COMPANY
All rights reserved
THE FOX THAT WANTED
NINE GOLDEN TAILS
CHAPTER I
HE WAS a Japanese fox, and althoughhe looked just like any otherfox, he knew a few things that his Americanbrothers have never heard about evento this day. One of these things was thatif he lived to be one hundred years oldwithout ever being chased by a dog, hecould become a beautiful woman; if helived for five hundred years and never adog pursued him, he could be changed intoa mighty wizard who would know morethan any man on earth; but, better thanall, after a thousand years of peace he[Pg 6]would turn into a celestial fox and havenine golden tails.
Now a beautiful woman does very wellin her place and it is a great honor to bea wise man, but a fox with nine goldentails is the most wonderful thing in all theworld. For that reason when the fox wasvery young, only about sixty or seventy-five,he thought he would refuse to bechanged into either a woman or a wizardand would wait for his thousandth birthday.
“There are enough pretty women andwise men in the world now,” he explainedto his friends of the forest. “The prettywomen make the trouble and the wise mentry to straighten it out, and they are bothkept busy. They don’t have half as muchfun as a fox.” But as the years went byhe grew so tired of skulking and hiding[Pg 7]about, and being nothing but a common,every-day, bushy-tailed gray fox that healmost decided to compromise the matter.
“After all, there are worse things in theworld than pretty women,” he said,scratching his ear, “and wise men havetheir uses.”
What settled the question quite suddenlywas a most exciting adventure hehad just when he had begun to think hewas cunning enough to outwit all the dogson the Island of Japan. Now, he had hada great deal of experience in this line, andit was no wonder he flattered himself hisdodging tactics were perfect. His ear wasso trained he could hear a dog barkingmiles away, and he could smell a pack ofhounds even further than he could hearthem. Besides, when he looked at theirtracks he knew exactly how long it had[Pg 8]been since they passed that way, and ashe had many acquaintances among thebirds and bees and butterflies, they, too,often gave him timely warning.
He had also traveled extensively andknew all the safe places for a fox to stop.At last, after enduring many hardshipsand sleeping in swamps and on b