the
road.

Now there were so many sledges that the Lapp did not notice for a long
while that one was missing; indeed, he would have entered the town
without knowing if snow had not suddenly begun to fall. Then he got down
to secure more firmly the cloths that kept his goods dry, and going to
the end of the long row, discovered that the sledge containing the fish
and the fox was missing. He quickly unharnessed one of his reindeer and
rode back along the way he had come, to find the sledge standing safe in
the middle of the road; but as the fox had bitten off the cord close to
the noose there was no means of moving it away.

The fox meanwhile was enjoying himself mightily. As soon as he had
loosened the sledge, he had taken his favourite fish from among the
piles neatly arranged for sale, and had trotted off to the forest with
it in his mouth. By-and-by he met a bear, who stopped and said: 'Where
did you find that fish, Mr. Fox?'

'Oh, not far off,' answered he; 'I just stuck my tail in the stream
close by the place where the elves dwell, and the fish hung on to it of
itself.'

'Dear me,' snarled the bear, who was hungry and not in a good temper,
'if the fish hung on to your tail, I suppose he will hang on to mine.'

'Yes, certainly, grandfather,' replied the fox, 'if you have patience to
suffer what I suffered.'

'Of course I can,' replied the bear, 'what nonsense you talk! Show me
the way.'

So the fox led him to the bank of a stream, which, being in a warm
place, had only lightly frozen in places, and was at this moment
glittering in the spring sunshine.

'The elves bathe here,' he said, 'and if you put in your tail the fish
will catch hold of it. But it is no use being in a hurry, or you will
spoil everything.'

Then he trotted off, but only went out of sight of the bear, who stood
still on the bank with his tail deep in the water. Soon the sun set and
it grew very cold and the ice formed rapidly, and the bear's tail was
fixed as tight as if a vice had held it; and when the fox saw that
everything had happened just as he had planned it, he called out loudly:

'Be quick, good people, and come with your bows and spears. A bear has
been fishing in your brook!'

And in a moment the whole place was full of little creatures each one
with a tiny bow and a spear hardly big enough for a baby; but both
arrows and spears could sting, as the bear knew very well, and in his
fright he gave such a tug to his tail tha