just as clearly as if it had been daylight.

Smirre Fox left the ice where it touched the shore. And just as he was
working his way up to the land-edge, the boy shouted: "Drop that goose,
you sneak!"

Smirre didn't know who was calling to him, and wasted no time in looking
around, but increased his pace. The fox made straight for the forest and
the boy followed him, with never a thought of the danger he was running.
All he thought about was the contemptuous way in which he had been
received by the wild geese; and he made up his mind to let them see that
a human being was something higher than all else created.

He shouted, again and again, to that dog, to make him drop his game.
"What kind of a dog are you, who can steal a whole goose and not feel
ashamed of yourself? Drop her at once! or you'll see what a beating
you'll get. Drop her, I say, or I'll tell your master how you behave!"

When Smirre Fox saw that he had been mistaken for a scary dog, he was so
amused that he came near dropping the goose. Smirre was a great
plunderer who wasn't satisfied with only hunting rats and pigeons in the
fields, but he also ventured into the farmyards to steal chickens and
geese. He knew that he was feared throughout the district; and anything
as idiotic as this he had not heard since he was a baby.

The boy ran so fast that the thick beech-trees appeared to be running
past him--backward, but he caught up with Smirre. Finally, he was so
close to him that he got a hold on his tail. "Now I'll take the goose
from you anyway," cried he, and held on as hard as ever he could, but he
hadn't strength enough to stop Smirre. The fox dragged him along until
the dry foliage whirled around him.

But now it began to dawn on Smirre how harmless the thing was that
pursued him. He stopped short, put the goose on the ground, and stood on
her with his forepaws, so she couldn't fly away. He was just about to
bite off her neck--but then he couldn't resist the desire to tease the
boy a little. "Hurry off and complain to the master, for now I'm going
to bite the goose to death!" said he.

Certainly the one who was surprised when he saw what a pointed nose, and
heard what a hoarse and angry voice that dog which he was pursuing
had,--was the boy! But now he was so enraged because the fox had made
fun of him, that he never thought of being frightened. He took a firmer
hold on the tail, braced himself against a beech trunk; and just as the
fox opened hi