WORLD OF STORIES FOR KIDS
NORWEGIAN FOLK TALES
Bear andfox
THE big bear and the clever fox had once bought a firkin of butter
together; they were to
have it at Christmas-tide, and hid it till then under a thick spruce bush.
After that they went a little way off and lay
down on a sunny bank to sleep. So when they
had lain a while the fox got up, shook himself, and bawled out "yes."
Then he ran off straight to the firkin and ate a
good third part of it. But when he came
back, and the bear asked him where he had been since he was so fat about
the paunch, he said,
"Don't you believe then that I was bidden to a
childbed feast."
"So, so," said the bear. "What was the young's
name?"
"Just-begun," said the fox.
So they lay down to sleep again. In a little
while up jumped the fox again, bawled out
"yes," and ran off to the firkin.
This time, too, he ate a good lump. When he came
back, and the bear asked him again where
he had been, he said,
"Oh wasn't I bidden to a naming childbed party
again, don't you think."
"And pray what was the young's name this time?"
asked the bear.
"Half-eaten," said the fox.
The bear thought that a very queer name, but he
hadn't wondered long over it before he
began to yawn and gape, and fell asleep. Well, he hadn't lain long before
the fox jumped up
as he had done twice before, bawled out "yes," and ran off to the firkin,
which this time he
cleared right out. When he got back he had been bidden to childbed feast
again, and when the
bear wanted to know the young's name he answered,
"Licked-to-the-bottom."
After that they lay down again, and slept a long
time; but then they were to go to the
firkin to look at the butter, and when they found it eaten up, the bear
threw the blame on
the fox, and the fox on the bear; and each said the one had been at the
firkin while the
other slept.
"Well, well," said Reynard, "we'll soon find this
out, which of us has eaten the butter.
We'll just lay down in the sunshine, and he whose cheeks and chaps are
greasiest when we
wake, he is the thief."
Yes, that trial the big bear felt ready to stand;
and as he knew in his heart he had never
so much as tasted the butter.
Then Reynard stole off to the firkin for a morsel
of butter, which stuck there in a crack.
Then he crept back to the bear who now lay without a care, sleeping in the
sun, and greased
his chaps and cheeks with it. Then he, too, lay down to sleep as if
nothing had happened.
So when they both woke, the sun had melted the
butter, and the bear's whiskers were all
greasy; so it was the bear after all, and no one else, who had eaten the
butter.
BACK
