Part 17 (1/2)

”'Well,' said Reynard, 'it's all fair and right no doubt, but all I say is, if I win, you shall be bound ”to tear” off the bristles where I am to bite.'

”'Of course,' said Bruin, 'I'll help you as you can't help yourself.'

”So they were to begin and name the trees.

”'FIR, SCOTCH Fir, SPRUCE,' growled out Bruin, for he was gruff in his tongue, that he was. But for all that he only named two trees, for Fir and Scotch Fir are both the same.

”'_Ash_, _Aspen_, _Oak_,' screamed Reynard, so that the wood rang again!

”So he had won the wager, and down he ran and took the heart out of the pig at one bite, and was just running off with it. But Bruin was angry because he had taken the best bit out of the whole pig, and so he laid hold of his tail and held him fast.

”'Stop a bit, stop a bit,' he said, and was wild with rage.

”'Never mind,' said the fox, 'it's all right; let me go, grandsire, and I'll give you a taste of my honey.'

”When Bruin heard that, he let go his hold, and away went Reynard after the honey.

”'Here, on this honeycomb,' said Reynard, 'lies a leaf, and under this leaf is a hole, and that hole you are to suck.'

”As he said this he held up the comb under the Bear's nose, took off the leaf, jumped up on a stone, and began to gibber and laugh, for there was neither honey nor honeycomb, but a wasp's nest, as big as a man's head, full of wasps, and out swarmed the wasps and settled on Bruin's head, and stung him in his eyes and ears, and mouth and snout. And he had such hard work to rid himself of them that he had no time to think of Reynard.

”And that's why, ever since that day, Bruin is so afraid of wasps.”

THE HARE AND THE HEIRESS.

”Once on a time there was a hare, who was frisking up and down under the greenwood tree.

”'Oh! hurrah! hip, hip, hurrah!' he cried, and leapt and sprang, and all at once he threw a somersault, and stood upon his hind legs. Just then a fox came slouching by.

”'Good-day, good-day,' said the hare; 'I'm so merry to-day, for you must know I was married this morning.'

”'Lucky fellow you,' said the fox.

”'Ah, no! not so lucky after all,' said the hare, 'for she was very heavy handed, and it was an old witch I got to wife.

”'Then you were an unlucky fellow,' said the fox.

”'Oh, not so unlucky either,' said the hare, 'for she was an heiress.

She had a cottage of her own.'

”'Then you were lucky after all,' said the fox.

”'No, no! not so lucky either,' said the hare, 'for the cottage caught fire and was burnt, and all we had with it.'

”'That I call downright unlucky,' said the fox.

”'Oh, no; not so very unlucky after all,' said the hare, 'for my witch of a wife was burnt along with her cottage.'”

SLIP ROOT, CATCH REYNARD'S FOOT.