the stable
And stood within the stall,
You'd scarce believe so meek a beast
Could run away, at all!

20 Now all the meditations
Of this same Barney Gray
Are only of some future chance
When he may run away.

THE THREE BEARS[M]

Once upon a time there were three bears who lived in a castle in a great
wood. One of them was a great big bear, and one was a middling bear, and
one was a little bear. And in the same wood there was a fox who lived
all alone; his name was Scrapefoot. Scrapefoot was very much afraid of
the bears, but for all that he wanted very much to know all about them.
And one day as he went through the wood he found himself near the Bears'
Castle, and he wondered whether he could get into the castle. He looked
all about him everywhere, and he could not see any one. So he came up
very quietly, till at last he came up to the door of the castle, and he
tried whether he could open it. Yes! the door was not locked, and he
opened it just a little way, and put his nose in and looked, and he
could not see any one. So then he opened it a little way farther, and
put one paw in, and then another paw, and another and another, and then
he was all in the Bears' Castle. He found he was in a great hall with
three chairs in it--one big, one middling, and one little chair; and he
thought he would like to sit down and rest and look about him; so he sat
down on the big chair. But he found it so hard and uncomfortable that it
made his bones ache, and he jumped down at once and got into the
middling chair, and he turned round and round in it, but he couldn't
make himself comfortable. So then he went to the little chair and sat
down in it, and it was so soft and warm and comfortable that Scrapefoot
was quite happy; but all at once it broke to pieces under him and he
couldn't put it together again! So he got up and began to look about him
again, and on one table he saw three saucers, of which one was very big,
one was middling, one was quite a little saucer. Scrapefoot was very
thirsty, and he began to drink out of the big saucer. But he only just
tasted the milk in the big saucer, which was so sour and so nasty that
he would not taste another drop of it. Then he tried the middling
saucer, and he drank a little of that. He tried two or three mouthfuls,
but it was not nice, and then he left it and went to the little saucer,
and the milk in the little saucer was so sweet and so nice that he went