But, in shorter time than it takes to tell it, the fox and his pursuer had disappeared in the deep woods, where Redcoat soon gave the Buck the slip.
"Dad," said Bud Holcome to his father when he returned to the farmhouse an hour later, "Scottie has got to stop his playfulness or he will lose his skin one of these days. I saw him up in the pasture just now. I suppose he thought he was teasing the bull, but instead he was hectoring a big Buck, and he mighty near got him."
"Why," said Mr. Holcome, "that is strange, Scottie has been in the garden with me all the time you were gone."
It was Bud's turn to look astonished.
"But I saw him with my own eyes, Dad, and he and the Buck had a regular's 'set-to.'"
"I can't help it, Bud," returned Mr. Holcome, "he's been here with me all the time you were gone."
Perhaps the strangest and most interesting thing that came under the observation of Redcoat during his entire life was the
