After they had gone some distance, Johnnie Green stopped. He unbuckled
Tommy's collar, and gave Tommy a push.

At first Tommy was not quite sure that he wanted to leave his good
master. But there was that fox, yelping and calling. Something seemed
to draw Tommy toward that sound. He just couldn't help himself. And
the first thing he knew he was bounding off over the meadow running as
fast as his legs would carry him, and barking as loudly as he could
bark.

Johnnie Green went slowly home again. He crept into the house and
stole upstairs, and cried himself to sleep. But he was glad of one
thing. Tommy Fox would not be killed the next morning.




XVI

TOMMY BECOMES BOASTFUL


When Johnnie Green turned Tommy Fox loose, out in the meadow, in the
moonlight, Tommy hurried across the fields as fast as he could go. You
remember that he heard a fox barking, near the foot of Blue Mountain,
and he thought it sounded like his mother. So Tommy barked, too. And
as he ran he could hear that other fox coming towards him. Pretty soon
they met, and such a joyful meeting you never saw in all your life.
For it _was_ old Mrs. Fox. And she was so delighted to see Tommy that