Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 09 (26 page)

'It does not matter a straw how hard the work is,' answered the
bear eagerly, 'I will do it every bit.' And as he spoke he began
tearing up the earth so fast that soon a deep pit was ready, deep
enough to hold him.

'That is all right,' said the fox at last, 'I see I was mistaken
in you. Now sit here, and I will bind you.' So the bear sat
down on the edge of the pit, and the fox sprang on his back,
which he crossed with the willow ropes, and then set fire to the
pitch. It burnt up in an instant, and caught the bands of willow
and the bear's rough hair; but he did not stir, for he thought
that the fox was rubbing the bright colours into his skin, and
that he would soon be as beautiful as a whole meadow of flowers.
But when the fire grew hotter still he moved uneasily from one
foot to the other, saying, imploringly: 'It is getting rather
warm, old man.' But all the answer he got was: 'I thought you
would never be able to suffer pain like those little birds.'

The bear did not like being told that he was not as brave as a
bird, so he set his teeth and resolved to endure anything sooner
than speak again; but by this time the last willow band had
burned through, and with a push the fox sent his victim tumbling
into the grass, and ran off to hide himself in the forest. After
a while he stole cautiously and found, as he expected, nothing
left but a few charred bones. These he picked up and put in a
bag, which he slung over his back.

By-and-by he met a Lapp driving his team of reindeer along the
road, and as he drew near, the fox rattled the bones gaily.

'That sounds like silver or gold,' thought the man to himself.
And he said politely to the fox:

'Good-day, friend! What have you got in your bag that makes such
a strange sound?'

'All the wealth my father left me,' answered the fox. 'Do you
feel inclined to bargain?'

'Well, I don't mind,' replied the Lapp, who was a prudent man,
and did not wish the fox to think him too eager; 'but show me
first what money you have got.'

'Ah, but I can't do that,' answered the fox, 'my bag is sealed
up. But if you will give me those three reindeer, you shall take
it as it is, with all its contents.'

The Lapp did not quite like it, but the fox spoke with such an
air that his doubts melted away. He nodded, and stretched out
his hand; the fox put the bag into it, and unharnassed the
reindeer he had chosen.

'Oh, I forgot!' he exclaimed, turning round, as he was about to
drive them in the opposite direction, 'you must be sure not to
open the bag until you have gone at least five miles, right on
the other side of those hills out there. If you do, you will
find that all the gold and silver has changed into a parcel of
charred bones.' Then he whipped up his reindeer, and was soon
out of sight.

For some time the Lapp was satisfied with hearing the bones
rattle, and thinking to himself what a good bargain he had made,
and of all the things he would buy with the money. But, after a
bit, this amusement ceased to content him, and besides, what was
the use of planning when you did not know for certain how rich
you were? Perhaps there might be a great deal of silver and only
a little gold in the bag; or a great deal of gold, and only a
little silver. Who could tell? He would not, of course, take
the money out to count it, for that might bring him bad luck.
But there could be no harm in just one peep! So he slowly broke
the seal, and untied the strings, and, behold, a heap of burnt
bones lay before him! In a minute he knew he had been tricked,
and flinging the bag to the ground in a rage, he ran after the
fox as fast as his snow-shoes would carry him.

Now the fox had guessed exactly what would happen, and was on the
look out. Directly he saw the little speck coming towards him,
he wished that the man's snow-shoes might break, and that very
instant the Lapp's shoes snapped in two. The Lapp did now know
that this was the fox's work, but he had to stop and fetch one of
his other reindeer, which he mounted, and set off again in
pursuit of his enemy. The fox soon heard him coming, and this
time he wished that the reindeer might fall and break its leg.
And so it did; and the man felt it was a hopeless chase, and that
he was no match for the fox.

So the fox drove on in peace till he reached the cave where all
his stores were kept, and then he began to wonder whom he could
get to help him kill his reindeer, for though he could steal
reindeer he was too small to kill them. 'After all, it will be
quite easy,' thought he, and he bade a squirrel, who was watching
him on a tree close by, take a message to all the robber beasts
of the forest, and in less than half an hour a great crashing of
branches was heard, and bears, wolves, snakes, mice, frogs, and
other creatures came pressing up to the cave.

When they heard why they had been summoned, they declared
themselves ready each one to do his part. The bear took his
crossbow from his neck and shot the reindeer in the chin; and,
from that day to this, every reindeer has a mark in that same
spot, which is always known as the bear's arrow. The wolf shot
him in the thigh, and the sign of his arrow still remains; and so
with the mouse and the viper and all the rest, even the frog; and
at the last the reindeer all died. And the fox did nothing, but
looked on.

'I really must go down to the brook and wash myself,' said he
(though he was perfectly clean), and he went under the bank and
hid himself behind a stone. From there he set up the most
frightful shrieks, so that the animals fled away in all
directions. Only the mouse and the ermine remained where they
were, for they thought that they were much too small to be
noticed.

The fox continued his shrieks till he felt sure that the animals
must have got to a safe distance; then he crawled out of his
hiding-place and went to the bodies of the reindeer, which he now
had all to himself. He gathered a bundle of sticks for a fire,
and was just preparing to cook a steak, when his enemy, the Lapp,
came up, panting with haste and excitement.

'What are you doing there?' cried he; 'why did you palm off those
bones on me? And why, when you had got the reindeer, did you
kill them?'

'Dear brother,' answered the fox with a sob, 'do not blame me for
this misfortune. It is my comrades who have slain them in spite
of my prayers.'

The man made no reply, for the white fur of the ermine, who was
crouching with the mouse behind some stones, had just caught his
eye. He hastily seized the iron hook which hung over the fire
and flung it at the little creature; but the ermine was too quick
for him, and the hook only touched the top of its tail, and that
has remained black to this day. As for the mouse, the Lapp threw
a half-burnt stick after him, and though it was not enough to
hurt him, his beautiful white skin was smeared all over with it,
and all the washing in the world would not make him clean again.
And the man would have been wiser if he had let the ermine and
the mouse alone, for when he turned round again he found he was
alone.

Directly the fox noticed that his enemy's attention had wandered
from himself he watched his chance, and stole softly away till he
had reached a clump of thick bushes, when he ran as fast as he
could, till he reached a river, where a man was mending his boat.

'Oh, I wish, I wish, I had a boat to mend too!' he cried, sitting
up on his hind-legs and looking into the man's face.

'Stop your silly chatter!' answered the man crossly, 'or I will
give you a bath in the river.'

'Oh, I wish, I do wish, I had a boat to mend,' cried the fox
again, as if he had not heard. And the man grew angry and seized
him by the tail, and threw him far out in the stream close to the
edge of an island; which was just what the fox wanted. He easily
scrambled up, and sitting on the top, he called: 'Hasten, hasten,
O fishes, and carry me to the other side!' And the fishes left
the stones where they had been sleeping, and the pools where they
had been feeding, and hurried to see who could get to the island
first.

'I have won,' shouted the pike. 'Jump on my back, dear fox, and
you will find yourself in a trice on the opposite shore.'

'No, thank you,' answered the fox, 'your back is much too weak
for me. I should break it.'

'Try mine,' said the eel, who had wriggled to the front.

'No, thank you,' replied the fox again, 'I should slip over your
head and be drowned.'

'You won't slip on MY back,' said the perch, coming forward.

'No; but you are really TOO rough,' returned the fox.

'Well, you can have no fault to find with ME,' put in the trout.

'Good gracious! are YOU here?' exclaimed the fox. 'But I'm
afraid to trust myself to you either.'

At this moment a fine salmon swam slowly up.

'Ah, yes, you are the person I want,' said the fox; 'but come
near, so that I may get on your back, without wetting my feet.'

So the salmon swam close under the island, and when he was
touching it the fox seized him in his claws and drew him out of
the water, and put him on a spit, while he kindled a fire to cook
him by. When everything was ready, and the water in the pot was
getting hot, he popped him in, and waited till he thought the
salmon was nearly boiled. But as he stooped down the water gave
a sudden fizzle, and splashed into the fox's eyes, blinding him.
He started backwards with a cry of pain, and sat still for some
minutes, rocking himself to and fro. When he was a little better
he rose and walked down a road till he met a grouse, who stopped
and asked what was the matter.

'Have you a pair of eyes anywhere about you?' asked the fox
politely.

'No, I am afraid I haven't,' answered the grouse, and passed on.

A little while after the fox heard the buzzing of an early bee,
whom a gleam of sun had tempted out.

'Do you happen to have an extra pair of eyes anywhere?' asked the
fox.

'I am sorry to say I have only those I am using,' replied the
bee. And the fox went on till he nearly fell over an asp who was
gliding across the road.

'I should be SO glad if you would tell me where I could get a
pair of eyes,' said the fox. 'I suppose you don't happen to have
any you could lend me?'

'Well, if you only want them for a short time, perhaps I could
manage,' answered the asp; 'but I can't do without them for
long.'

'Oh, it is only for a very short time that I need them,' said the
fox; 'I have a pair of my own just behind that hill, and when I
find them I will bring yours back to you. Perhaps you will keep
these till them.' So he took the eyes out of his own head and
popped them into the head of the asp, and put the asp's eyes in
their place. As he was running off he cried over his shoulder:
'As long as the world lasts the asps' eyes will go down in the
heads of foxes from generation to generation.'

And so it has been; and if you look at the eyes of an asp you
will see that they are all burnt; and though thousands and
thousands of years have gone by since the fox was going about
playing tricks upon everybody he met, the asp still bears the
traces of the day when the sly creature cooked the salmon.

(Lapplandische Mahrchen.)

Once upon a time there lived a queen who had a beautiful cat, the
colour of smoke, with china-blue eyes, which she was very fond
of. The cat was constantly with her, and ran after her wherever
she went, and even sat up proudly by her side when she drove out
in her fine glass coach.

'Oh, pussy,' said the queen one day, 'you are happier than I am!
For you have a dear kitten just like yourself, and I have nobody
to play with but you.'

'Don't cry,' answered the cat, laying her paw on her mistress's
arm. 'Crying never does any good. I will see what can be done.'

The cat was as good as her word. As soon as she returned from
her drive she trotted off to the forest to consult a fairy who
dwelt there, and very soon after the queen had a little girl, who
seemed made out of snow and sunbeams. The queen was delighted,
and soon the baby began to take notice of the kitten as she
jumped about the room, and would not go to sleep at all unless
the kitten lay curled up beside her.

Two or three months went by, and though the baby was still a
baby, the kitten was fast becoming a cat, and one evening when,
as usual, the nurse came to look for her, to put her in the
baby's cot, she was nowhere to be found. What a hunt there was
for that kitten, to be sure! The servants, each anxious to find
her, as the queen was certain to reward the lucky man, searched
in the most impossible places. Boxes were opened that would
hardly have held the kitten's paw; books were taken from
bookshelves, lest the kitten should have got behind them, drawers
were pulled out, for perhaps the kitten might have got shut in.
But it was all no use. The kitten had plainly run away, and
nobody could tell if it would ever choose to come back.

Years passed away, and one day, when the princess was playing
ball in the garden, she happened to throw her ball farther than
usual, and it fell into a clump of rose-bushes. The princess of
course ran after it at once, and she was stooping down to feel if
it was hidden in the long grass, when she heard a voice calling
her: 'Ingibjorg! Ingibjorg!' it said, 'have you forgotten me? I
am Kisa, your sister!'

'But I never HAD a sister,' answered Ingibjorg, very much
puzzled; for she knew nothing of what had taken place so long
ago.

'Don't you remember how I always slept in your cot beside you,
and how you cried till I came? But girls have no memories at
all! Why, I could find my way straight up to that cot this
moment, if I was once inside the palace.'

'Why did you go away then?' asked the princess. But before Kisa
could answer, Ingibjorg's attendants arrived breathless on the
scene, and were so horrified at the sight of a strange cat, that
Kisa plunged into the bushes and went back to the forest.