him all respect." (Now I should tell you that this bird was
after all no other than the Tomtit.)

"If that is the case," said the Bear, "I should like to see the royal
palace; so pray come along and show me it."

"Gently, my friend," said the Wolf, "we cannot see it just yet, we must
wait till the queen comes home."

Soon afterward the queen came with food in her beak, and she and the
king began to feed their young ones.

"Now for it!" said the Bear; and was about to follow them.

"Stop a little, Master Bruin," said the Wolf, "we must wait now till the
king and queen are gone again." So they marked the hole where they had
seen the nest, and went away. But the Bear, being very eager to see the
palace, soon came back again, and, peeping into the nest, saw five or
six young birds lying at the bottom of it.

"What nonsense!" said Bruin, "this is not a royal palace: I never saw
such a filthy place in my life; and you are no royal children, you
little base-born brats!"

As soon as the young tomtits heard this they were very angry, and
screamed out: "We are not base-born, you stupid bear! Our father and
mother are honest, good sort of people; and, depend upon it, you shall
suffer for your rudeness!"

At this the Wolf and the Bear grew frightened, and ran away to their
dens. But the young tomtits kept crying and screaming; and when their
father and mother came home and offered them food, they all said: "We
will not touch a bit; no, not though we should die of hunger, till that
rascal Bruin has been punished for calling us base-born brats."

"Make yourselves easy, my darlings," said the old king, "you may be sure
he shall get what he deserves."

So he went out to the Bear's den, and cried out with a loud voice,
"Bruin, the bear! thou hast been very rude to our lawful children. We
shall therefore make war against thee and thine, and shall never cease
until thou hast been punished as thou so richly deservest."

Now when the bear heard this, he called together the ox, the ass, the
stag, the fox, and all the beasts of the earth. And the Tomtit also
called on his side all the birds of the air, both great and small, and a
very large army of wasps, gnats, bees, and flies, and indeed many other
kinds of insects.

As the time came near when the war was to begin, the Tomtit sent out
spies to see who was the leader of the enemy's forces. So the gnat, who
was by far the best spy of them all, flew backward and forward in the
w