68 Make-Behleve

to want things and be unable to get
them.”

“Wait a moment,” rejoined the Visitor.
‘You have your tambourine. In the course
of time the fox found his. There was a
certain vineyard with a high wall around
it, upon whose outer side the sun shone
but little. The fox (who was grown up by
this time), had become rather solitary in
his habits: a man does when he is con-
stantly thinking of something that is not of
any interest to other people. He used to
go alone to get his food, and one quiet
afternoon he happened to pass by the wall
of the vineyard.

“Suddenly his heart almost stood still.
It was at a season when unripe grapes
were rarer than diamonds in that country.
But one of the vines that grew inside
had sent a shoot up to climb over the top
of the wall and hang above the road. The
grapes it bore were green.

“From that time forth the lonely fox
was happier than he had thought it possible