The Coming of the Unicorn Read Free Page B

in company,” because there was a second little cobblestone maker chipping away on the hillside.
    So, the two little cobblestone makers became great friends. And the little cobblestone maker never complained in the morning. He said, “Now I’ve got something more important than all the important things in the world – a little friend.”

The Dog and the Fox
    The old fox had lain in his den all day and he was hungry, because the days before he had been out hunting he had got very little to eat. In fact, he was terrified, because he had been hunted twice by gamekeepers. Nightfall was approaching and he said to himself, “Well, I will have to get something before night, because when it gets dark I’m not going to have much of a chance – all the birds will be roosting and all the rabbits will be in their burrows – I had better go out and get something to eat!”
    So away went the old fox. He wandered here, he wandered there, he wandered everywhere that he thought he could find some game for himself to kill. But he could find nothing. He travelled on all his familiar paths, all his old hunting places. But not a hare, not a rabbit, nothing could he find. And the more he wandered the hungrier he got. Evening was approaching fast. So he sat down, considered for a while; he knew that he wasn’t going to find anything to eat that night.
    He said to himself, “There is only one thing I’ll have to do.”
    He knew it wasn’t very far away to the nearest farm because he could see the lights in the distance. But he was kind of afraid to go near the farm in case the farmer was around with his gun – might shoot him for hunting some of his hens.
    “If I could only see my old cousin the dog,” he said to himself. “He probably has an old bone lying about, or maybe he has not finished his evening meal and would share it with me.”
    So, he finally made up his mind to go as quietly as he could, goand visit his old friend Cousin Dog at the farm. He knew there was no other way he was going to get anything that night.
    Away he went walking up the lane as stealthily as he could so that nobody could see him. Finally, he came to the farm and round to the front where he knew his old cousin Dog had his kennel. By good luck he never encountered the farmer. As he came round the corner to the front of the farm the first person he met was his old cousin Dog! And the farmer was just after bringing the old dog his supper. It was lying in a little dish beside the dog’s kennel – there were bones and pieces of meat, all kinds, lying in the dog’s dish. The fox saw this and it just made his mouth water!
    So, he said, “Hello, Cousin Dog, how are you?”
    And the dog said, “Oh, it’s yourself, Old Fox!”
    “Aye,” he said, “it is.”
    “And what puts you down here at this time of night? I thought you would be away hiding out in your old den up in the cliffs for the night,” said Old Dog.
    “Well, to tell you the truth,” said the fox, “the only reason I’ve come to visit you – and you know it is not often I come to see you – I’m asking… I just came to ask you a favour.”
    “Well,” said the dog, “we’re friends, we’re relations. And you never trouble me very often. If there is anything you want and I can help you out, I’ll try my best. What is your favour?”
    “Well,” the fox said, “I have been hungry all day. In fact, I am so hungry I am no able to hunt. The gamekeeper hunted me all day yesterday, never gave me a chance to eat. I am so hungry I can barely walk. I just came down to see you, to see if you had an old bone lying about and any bits of scraps of food you could spare a poor hungry cousin.”
    “Oh,” the dog says, “if that’s all that’s troubling you, there is plenty here! There’s my supper, I’ve had plenty to eat and I’m no hungry. I’m just about to go for a sleep for the night, and ifI dinna eat it up the farmer will think, what’s wrong with him? And he’ll no give me