4 The Terrible Shovels¹
Down the hole, Mrs Fox was tenderly licking the stump² of Mr Fox’s tail to stop the bleeding. ‘It wasthe finest tail for miles around,’ she said between licks.
‘It hurts,’ said Mr Fox.
‘I know it does, sweetheart. But it’ll soon get better.’
‘And it will soon grow again, Dad,’ said one of the Small Foxes.
‘It will never grow again,’ said Mr Fox. ‘I shall be tailless for the rest of my life.’ He looked veryglum.
There was no food for the foxes that night, and soon the children dozed³ off. Then Mrs Fox dozedoff. But Mr Fox couldn’t sleep because of the pain in the stump of his tail. ‘Well,’ he thought, ‘Isuppose I’m lucky to be alive at all. And now they’ve found our hole, we’re going to have to moveout as soon as possible. We’ll never get any peace if we . . . What was that?’ He turned his headsharply and listened. The noise he heard now was the most frightening noise a fox can ever hear – thescrape-scrape-scraping of shovels digging into the soil.
‘Wake up!’ he shouted. ‘They’re digging us out!’
Mrs Fox was wide awake in one second. She sat up, quivering all over. ‘Are you sure that’s it?’
she whispered.
‘I’m positive! Listen!’
‘They’ll kill my children!’ cried Mrs Fox.
‘Never!’ said Mr Fox.
‘But darling, they will!’ sobbed⁴ Mrs Fox. ‘You know they will!’
Scrunch⁵, scrunch, scrunch went the shovels above their heads. Small stones and bits of earthbegan falling from the roof of the tunnel.
‘How will they kill us, Mummy?’ asked one of the Small Foxes. His round black eyes were hugewith fright. ‘Will there be dogs?’ he said.
Mrs Fox began to cry. She gathered her four children close to her and held them tight.
Suddenly there was an especially loud crunch⁶ above their heads and the sharp end of a shovelcame right through the ceiling. The sight of this awful thing seemed to have an electric effect uponMr Fox. He jumped up and shouted, ‘I’ve got it! Come on! There’s not a moment to lose! Why didn’tI think of it before!’

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