The Farmer and the Fox

        One day, Farmer Froggit got up early to feed his chickens, and found that half of them had been killed.
        "Oh drat," he said to his wife. "It's that fox again. I'm afraid I'll have to shoot him now. Pass my my spoon, er, I mean my shotgun, please, dear."
        He went out hunting, and found the fox in a field. He had to chase him around a bit, but finally trapped him in a corner.
        "I'm going to shoot you now for killing half of my chickens," said Farmer Froggit.
        "But why?" asked the fox. "It won't bring them back to life, will it? Why should I have to die too?"
        "Oh," said Farmer Froggit. "Well, you might kill the other half of my chickens if I don't shoot you."
        "I promise I won't do that," said the fox. "I'm very sorry for what I did, and I won't do it again."
        Farmer Froggit thought for a moment, and decided to let the fox off. After all, he seemed nice enough really.
        That night, the fox came back to Farmer Froggit's farm and killed the rest of his chickens.
        Farmer Froggit was rather upset about that. He took his shotgun, and hunted down the fox a second time. Eventually, he trapped him again in the same field.
        "This time, I really am going to shoot you," he said.
        "But why?" replied the fox. "I definitely can't kill any more of your chickens now. What good would shooting me do?"
        Farmer Froggit scratched his head. "I suppose you're right," he said, wearily. "But there's something I'd really like to know. Why did you go back and kill the rest of my chickens when you'd promised me that you wouldn't?"
        "That's because I'm a fox," answered the fox. "Foxes just do that sort of thing."
        "Oh, I see!" laughed Farmer Froggit. "Well I'm a farmer..."

So

He shot the fox stone dead.

Illustration by Roy Bartle
Image size: approx. 39K.