So father and Laddie rode around the neighbourhood and talked it over,and the next night they had a meeting at our schoolhouse;men for miles came,and they planned a regular old-fashioned foxchase,and every one was wild about it.
Laddie told it at Pryors'and the Princess wanted to go;she asked to go with him,and if you please,Mr.Pryor wanted to go too,and their Thomas.They attended the meeting to tell how people chase foxes in England,where they seem to hunt them most of the time.Father said:"Thank God for even a foxchase,if it will bring Mr.Pryor among his neighbours and help him to act sensibly."They are going away fifteen miles or farther,and form a big circle of men from all directions,some walking in a line,and others riding to bring back any foxes that escape,and with dogs,and guns,they are going to rout out every one they can find,and kill them so they won't take the geese,little pigs,lambs,and Hoods'Dorking rooster.Laddie had a horn that Mr.Pryor gave him when he told him this country was showing signs of becoming civilized at last;but Leon grinned and said he'd beat that.
Then when you wanted him,he was in the wood house loft at work,but father said he couldn't get into mischief there.He should have seen that churn when it was full of wedding breakfast!We ate for a week afterward,until things were all moulded,and we didn't dare anymore.One night I begged so hard and promised so faithfully he trusted me;he did often,after I didn't tell about the Station;and I went to the loft with him,and watched him work an hour.He had a hollow limb about six inches through and fourteen long.He had cut and burned it to a mere shell,and then he had scraped it with glass inside and out,until it shone like polished horn.He had shaved the wool from a piece of sheepskin,soaked,stretched,and dried it,and then fitted it over one end of the drumlike thing he had made,and tacked and bound it in a little groove at the edge.He put the skin on damp so he could stretch it tight.Then he punched a tiny hole in the middle,and pulled through it,down inside the drum,a sheepskin thong rolled in resin,with a knot big enough to hold it,and not tear the head.Then he took it under his arm and we slipped across the orchard below the Station,and went into the hollow and tried it.
It worked!I almost fell dead with the first frightful sound.
It just bellowed and roared.In only a little while he found different ways to make it sound by his manner of working the tongue.A long,steady,even pull got that kind of a roar.Ashort,quick one made it bark.A pull half the length of the thong,a pause,and another pull,made it sound like a bark and a yelp.To pull hard and quick,made it go louder,and soft and easy made it whine.Before he had tried it ten minutes he could do fifty things with it that would almost scare the livers out of those nasty old foxes that were taking every one's geese,Dorking roosters,and even baby lambs and pigs.Of course people couldn't stand that;something had to be done!
Even in the Bible it says,"Beware of the little foxes that spoil the vines,"and geese,especially blue ones,Dorking roosters,lambs,and pigs were much more valuable than mere vines;so Leon made that awful thing to scare the foxes from their holes that's in the Bible too,about the holes I mean,not the scaring.I wanted Leon to slip to the back door and make the dumb-bell--that's what he called it;if I had been naming it I would have called it the thunder-bell--go;but he wouldn't.He said he didn't propose to work as he had,and then have some one find out,and fix one like it.He said he wouldn't let it make a sound until the night before the chase,and then he'd raise the dead.I don't know about the dead;but it was true of the living.Father went a foot above his chair and cried:"Whoo-pee!"All of us,even I,when I was waiting for it,screamed as if Paddy Ryan raved at the door.Then Leon came in and showed us,and every one wanted to work the dumb-bell,even mother.
Leon marched around and showed off;he looked "See the conquering hero comes,"all over.I never felt worse about being made into a girl than I did that night.
I couldn't sleep for excitement,and mother said I might as well,for it would be at least one o'clock before they would round-up in our meadow below the barn.All the neighbours were to shut up their stock,tie their dogs,or lead them with chains,if they took them,so when the foxes were surrounded,they could catch them alive,and save their skins.I wondered how some of those chasing people,even Laddie,Leon,and father--think of that!
father was going too--I wondered how they would have liked to have had something as much bigger than they were,as they were bigger than the foxes,chase them with awful noises,guns and dogs,and catch them alive--to save their skins.No wonder I couldn't sleep!I guess the foxes wouldn't either,if they had known what was coming.Maybe hereafter the mean old things would eat rabbits and weasels,and leave the Dorking roosters alone.
May,Candace,and Miss Amelia were going to Deams'to wait,and when the round-up formed a solid line,they planned to stand outside,and see the sport.If they had been the foxes,maybe they wouldn't have thought it was so funny;but of course,people just couldn't have even their pigs and lambs taken.We had to have wool to spin yarn for our stockings,weave our blankets and coverlids,and our Sunday winter dresses of white flannel with narrow black crossbars were from the backs of our own sheep,and we had to have ham to fry with eggs,and boil for Sunday night suppers,and bacon to cook the greens with--of course it was all right.
