at
they had procured the fox's liver. The next day the doctor came and
compounded a medicine for the patient, which at once produced a good
effect, and there was no little joy in the household. As luck would
have it, three days after this the man whom they had commissioned to
buy the fox's liver came to the house; so the goodwife hurried out to
meet him and welcome him.

"How quickly you fulfilled our wishes, and how kind of you to send at
once! The doctor prepared the medicine, and now our boy can get up and
walk about the room; and it's all owing to your goodness."

"Wait a bit!" cried the guest, who did not know what to make of the
joy of the two parents. "The commission with which you entrusted me
about the fox's liver turned out to be a matter of impossibility, so I
came to-day to make my excuses; and now I really can't understand what
you are so grateful to me for."

"We are thanking you, sir," replied the master of the house, bowing
with his hands on the ground, "for the fox's liver which we asked you
to procure for us."

"I really am perfectly unaware of having sent you a fox's liver: there
must be some mistake here. Pray inquire carefully into the matter."

"Well, this is very strange. Four nights ago, a man of some five or
six and thirty years of age came with a verbal message from you, to
the effect that you had sent him with a fox's liver, which you had
just procured, and said that he would come and tell us the price
another day. When we asked him to spend the night here, he answered
that he would lodge with a relation in the next village, and went
away."

The visitor was more and more lost in amazement, and; leaning his head
on one side in deep thought, confessed that he could make nothing of
it. As for the husband and wife, they felt quite out of countenance at
having thanked a man so warmly for favours of which he denied all
knowledge; and so the visitor took his leave, and went home.

That night there appeared at the pillow of the master of the house a
woman of about one or two and thirty years of age, who said, "I am the
fox that lives at such-and-such a mountain. Last spring, when I was
taking out my cub to play, it was carried off by some boys, and only
saved by your goodness. The desire to requite this kindness pierced me
to the quick. At last, when calamity attacked your house, I thought
that I might be of use to you. Your son's illness could not be cured
without a liver taken from a live f