It is shoulder to shoulder, heart to heart, business." The clamour in the meadow arose above our voices and brought us back to the foxes.
"There goes another!" I said, the tears beginning to roll again.
"It is heathenish business," said mother.

"I don't blame you! If people were not too shiftless to care for their stuff, the foxes wouldn't take their chickens and geese.

They never get ours!" "Hoods aren't shiftless!" I sobbed.
"There are always exceptions," said mother, "and they are the exception in this case." The door flew open and Leon ran in.

He was white with excitement, and trembling.
"Mother, come and see me take a fence on Pryor's Rocket!" he cried.
Mother had him in her arms.
"You little whiffet!" she said.

"You little tow-haired whiffet!" Both of them were laughing and crying at the same time, and so was I.
"I saw you take one fence and the creek, Weiscope!" she said, holding him tight, and stroking his hair.