ape, and hurt his head so severely that he
was given over by the doctors.

Grannonia, who thus heard her own onions spoken of, asked if there was
any cure for this injury. The fox replied that there was none other
than by anointing his wounds with the blood of those very birds that
had been telling the story. When Grannonia heard this, she fell down on
her knees to the fox, entreating him to catch those birds for her, that
she might get their blood; adding that, like honest comrades, they
would share the gain. "Fair and softly," said the fox; "let us wait
till night, and when the birds are gone to bed, trust me to climb the
tree and capture them, one after the other."

So they waited till Day was gone, and Earth had spread out her great
black board to catch the wax that might drop from the tapers of Night.
Then the fox, as soon as he saw all the birds fast asleep on the
branches, stole up quite softly, and one after another, throttled all
the linnets, larks, tomtits, blackbirds, woodpeckers, thrushes, jays,
fly-catchers, little owls, goldfinches, bullfinches, chaffinches, and
redbreasts that were on the trees. And when he had killed them all they
put the blood in a little bottle, which the fox carried with him, to
refresh himself on the road.

Grannonia was so overjoyed that she hardly touched the ground; but the
fox said to her, "What fine joy in a dream is this, my daughter! You
have done nothing, unless you mix my blood also with that of the
birds"; and so saying he set off to run away. Grannonia, who saw all
her hopes likely to be destroyed, had recourse to woman's
art--flattery; and she said to him, "Gossip fox, there would be some
reason for your saving your hide if I were not under so many
obligations to you, and if there were no other foxes in the world. But
you know how much I owe you, and that there is no scarcity of the likes
of you on these plains. Rely on my good faith. Don't act like the cow
that kicks over the pail which she has just filled with milk. You have
done the chief part, and now you fail at the last. Do stop! Believe me,
and come with me to the city of this King, where you may sell me for a
slave if you will!"

The fox never dreamed that he could be out-forced by a woman; so he
agreed to travel on with her. But they had hardly gone fifty paces,
when she lifted up the stick she carried and gave him such a neat rap
that he forthwith stretched his legs. Then she put his blood into the
little b