Noel made faces and poetry--he was struck so that morning--and the girls sat stroking the clean parts of the fox's fur till the grave was deep enough.

At last it was; then Daisy threw in the leaves and grass, and Alice and Dora took the poor dead fox by his two ends and we helped to put him in the grave.

We could not lower him slowly--he was dropped in, really.

Then we covered the furry body with leaves, and Noel said the Burial Ode he had made up.

He says this was it, but it sounds better now than it did then, so I think he must have done something to it since: THE FOX'S BURIAL ODE 'Dear Fox, sleep here, and do not wake, We picked these leaves for your sake You must not try to rise or move, We give you this with our love.
Close by the wood where once you grew Your mourning friends have buried you.