"Why not, Dad?"
"Because it means more digging and we aren't any of us strong enough for that after three days and nights without food."
"Yes we are, Dad!" cried the Small Foxes, jumping up and running to their father. "We can do it! You see if we can't! So can you!"
Mr. Fox looked at the four Small Foxes and he smiled. What fine children I have, he thought. They are starving to death and they haven't had a drink for three days, but they are still undefeated. I must not let them clown.
"I … I suppose we could give it a try," he said.
"Let's go. Dad! Tell us what you want us to do!"
Slowly, Mrs. Fox got to her feet. She was suffering more than any of them from the lack of food and water. She was very weak. "I am so sorry," she said, "but I don't think I am going to be much help."
"You stay right where you are, my darling," said Mr. Fox. "We can handle this by ourselves."
10
Boggiss Chicken House Number One
"This time we must go in a very special direction," said Mr. Fox, pointing sideways and downward.
So he and his four children started to dig once again. The work went much more slowly now. Yet they kept at it with great courage, and little by little the tunnel began to grow.
"Dad, I wish you would tell us where we are going," said one of the children.
"I dare not do that," said Mr. Fox, "because this place I am hoping to get to is so marvellous that if I described it to you now you would go crazy with excitement. And then, if we failed to get there (which is very possible), you would die of disappointment. I don't want to raise your hopes too much, my darlings."
For a long long time they kept oil digging. For how long they did not know, because there were no days and no nights down there in the murky tunnel. But at last Mr. Fox gave the order to stop. "I think," he said, "we had better take a peep upstairs now and see where we are. I know where I want to be, but I can't possibly be sure we're anywhere near it."