Money-making Game

The fox lighted onto a nearby tree stump -- pretty smoothly, the owl thought. "You've heard of the term 'con man,' right?" the fox asked. The owl nodded in affirmation. "It's short for 'confidence man,'" continued the fox. "I learned that recently in a book I read. The confidence man gets the other party's confidence and then betrays it. Wham! Just like that."

Something was wrong here, the owl ascertained. Foxes can't read. The owl hadn't heard that anywhere, but the owl thought it stood to reason, and the owl knew that owls were wise, so he trusted his own judgment. The owl also knew that foxes were sly, so the owl was on his highest alert.

The fox relaxed her hind legs and sat up straight on the tree stump with perfect fox posture. (Fox posture is different from human posture on account of their reliance on four legs. You'd get a backache if you practiced good fox posture.) "Out of curiosity," the fox said, "do you trust me?"

"Yes," lied the owl. Is it wise to lie to one's friends? the owl inquired to himself, but determined that since he had done it and he was wise, it was necessarily and consequently the wisest thing to do. After all, the fox -- who was sly -- was probably lying as well, and to catch her in her web (metaphorically, obviously!), he had to spin his own. Fight fire with fire (again, all metaphorical).

"Good," exclaimed the fox, then paused and raised a thoughtful paw to her chin. There was a long pause, followed by another exclamation, "Let's play a game!"

"What game?" chirped the owl, who loved games.

"I just thought of this game. It is excellent. It starts by you giving me a penny--"

"What! I dislike this game already," balked the owl, who had gone off-guard at the mention of a game, but now became distrustful once more.

"Fine," the fox interjected, then paused as she appeared to count numbers on her paws. "Fine," she repeated. "Then the game starts by me giving you a penny."

"Delightful!"

"Isn't it? Next, you give me two pennies."

The owl grunted, then held up and examined two of his feathers. "I don't know about this game, either."

"Hold on! You'll surely like the next bit. Once I receive your two pennies, I give you three."

"Oh!" the owl cried, with a joyful hop. The machinery started turning in the owl's upstairs, who then gasped and covered his mouth with feathers in suspicion: "But then I suppose I have to give you four pennies!"

"Yes, but--"

"But then you give me five!" The owl bounced about with delight. This did sound like a fun game. And since the fox had to give up a penny first -- "Let us start playing this game immediately."

"Very well," said the fox, reaching into her pouch and depositing a single penny into the owl's outstretched wing. But as paw touched feather, the owl dimly recalled arriving at the conclusion that the fox was up to some trickery. His train of thought was interrupted by a curt "Your turn."

"Oh! Of course." Without thinking, the owl pulled a penny from his own pouch and gave the two pennies to the fox. Oh! That was it. The fox was surely going to try to escape with his money. What nerve!

"Ahem."

"I beg your pardon!" The owl took the three pennies from the fox and returned four. Back came five before the owl had a chance to think further on it, and the owl was so flustered that he accidentally added two coins to the pile.

"This is seven coins. You can't fool me."

"I'm terribly sorry! I've never played this game before."

"It's all right. Here, I'll add two more coins of my own."

The owl thought this quite generous. Not to be outdone, he added three more coins from his pouch.

"Now what are you doing!" growled the fox. The owl, embarrassed by his mistake, dropped all the coins on the ground.

"Oh, but I!" stammered the owl. "It's just, I -- could we possibly play a different game? I'm awful at this one."

"Oh very well," grunted the fox.

Shocked back to reality, the owl analyzed his whereabouts and recalled something about the fox and the money. "Wait! But what of the coins?" He was on guard, ready for anything. Although he couldn't quite remember how many coins he'd dropped or how many of those were his, he was ready to challenge the fox if she tried anything.

"Here, let me help you put them back into your pouch."

"All of them?"

The fox shrugged. "Why not? It was just a dumb game."

"I'm sorry," said the owl, shoulders drooping. "I ruined it."

"Not at all. Your pouch, if you will?"

The fox helped the owl pick up all of the coins and put them into his pouch. As the owl picked up one coin at a time, the fox sloppily scooped up piles of coin, dirt, and rock, until the pouch was fat and would hardly close. The owl leaned to his left from the weight of the pouch and was quite pleased with himself.

The fox interrupted his thoughts once again. "What shall we play now? How about a game of hide and seek?"

The owl loved hide and seek very much, and especially when played with flightless creatures. "But I have to hide first," the fox stipulated. This was generally disagreeable to the owl, who would have refused, but then he remembered his bulging pouch and the fox's generosity and gave his consent after all. He fluttered to a nearby tree, covered his eyes with his wings, and started counting.

"One..." He heard some rustling. This was going to be so easy! The fox was a complete amateur.

"Two..." The rustling grew faint, but the owl could still determine that it was coming from behind.

"Three..." The rustling stopped.

"Four..." Silence. The owl paused to listen before remembering to proceed to five.

"Five..." Perhaps he had underestimated his opponent?

"Six..." A quick patter from somewhere behind him. What was that?

"Sev--" Seven was interrupted by the weight of a fox on the owl's back. His face slammed against the tree in front of it, only barely cushioned by his wings.

Betrayal! The owl felt the sting of teeth on his shoulder as he made as if to fly off. He braced himself against the tree and pushed with all his might, which succeeded in pushing back his oppressor and giving his wings enough room to flap. The owl flapped his wings with all strength and began to fly away.

But that was all. He gently floated down to earth, only a little behind the tree and to its left.

Left! Oh no! The owl frantically attempted to remove the greedily-stuffed pouch at his side, but the fox interrupted him in this, too.

"I liked this game," the fox said to no one in particular when she had finished her meal and cleaned out the owl's pouch.