ook! the ox has brought us a
bear. Come out and kill it!" Then the old man jumped up, tore off the
bear, tied him up, and threw him in the cellar.

Next morning, between dark and dawn, the old woman took her distaff
and drove the ox into the steppe to graze. She herself sat down by a
mound, began spinning, and said, "Graze, graze away, little ox, while
I spin my flax! Graze, graze away, little ox, while I spin my flax!"
And while she spun, her head drooped down and she dozed. And, lo! from
behind the dark wood, from the back of the huge pines, a grey wolf
came rushing out upon the ox and said, "Who are you? Come, tell
me!"--"I am a three-year-old heifer, stuffed with straw and trimmed
with tar," said the ox.--"Oh! trimmed with tar, are you? Then give me
of your tar to tar my sides, that the dogs and the sons of dogs tear
me not!"--"Take some," said the ox. And with that the wolf fell upon
him and tried to tear the tar off. He tugged and tugged, and tore with
his teeth, but could get none off. Then he tried to let go, and
couldn't; tug and worry as he might, it was no good. When the old
woman woke, there was no heifer in sight. "Maybe my heifer has gone
home!" she cried; "I'll go home and see." When she got there she was
astonished, for by the palings stood the ox with the wolf still
tugging at it. She ran and told her old man, and her old man came and
threw the wolf into the cellar also.

On the third day the old woman again drove her ox into the pastures to
graze, and sat down by a mound and dozed off. Then a fox came running
up. "Who are you?" it asked the ox.--"I'm a three-year-old heifer,
stuffed with straw and daubed with tar."--"Then give me some of your
tar to smear my sides with, when those dogs and sons of dogs tear my
hide!"--"Take some," said the ox. Then the fox fastened her teeth in
him and couldn't draw them out again. The old woman told her old man,
and he took and cast the fox into the cellar in the same way. And
after that they caught Pussy Swift-foot[16] likewise.

[16] The hare.

So when he had got them all safely, the old man sat down on a bench
before the cellar and began sharpening a knife. And the bear said to
him, "Tell me, daddy, what are you sharpening your knife for?"--"To
flay your skin off, that I may make a leather jacket for myself and
a pelisse for my old wife."--"Oh! don't flay me, daddy dear! Rather
let me go, and I'll bring you a lot of honey."--"Very well, see you
do it," and h