And then the fox went away, because he didn't know when she would wake up, and he didn't want to wait! You see how sly she was! "But once it happened she was not so sly as she might have been.

You see, after all, in spite of her fierce eyes, she was still only a _kitten_ of a lynx; and she _had_ to _play_ once in a while.

At such times she would pounce on a leaf as if it were a mouse, or just tumble all over herself pretending she had a real tail and was trying to catch it.

So, of course, when she happened to pass under a low, bushy branch and caught sight of a slim, smooth, black tip of a tail, no bigger than your little finger, hanging down from it, she naturally couldn't resist the temptation.

She pranced up on her hind legs and _clawed_ that black tip of a tail--clawed it hard! "The next instant, before she could prance away again, the _other_ end of that slim, black tip swung out of the branch and whipped itself round and round her body, and a black head, with sharp fangs in it, hit her _biff, biff, biff_! on the nose.