r bed of grey moss. But this did not suit the fox at
all.

'One cannot wail properly in this cave,' he said, 'it is much too damp.
You had better take the body to the storehouse. It will sound much finer
there.' So the bear carried his wife's body to the storehouse, while
he himself went back to the cave to cook some pap for the mourner. From
time to time he paused and listened for the sound of wailing, but he
heard nothing. At last he went to the door of the storehouse, and called
to the fox:

'Why don't you howl, godfather? What are you about?'

And the fox, who, instead of weeping over the dead bear, had been
quietly eating her, answered:

'There only remain now her legs and the soles of her feet. Give me five
minutes more and they will be gone also!'

When the bear heard that he ran back for the kitchen ladle, to give
the traitor the beating he deserved. But as he opened the door of the
storehouse, Michael was ready for him, and slipping between his legs,
dashed straight off into the forest. The bear, seeing that the traitor
had escaped, flung the ladle after him, and it just caught the tip of
his tail, and that is how there comes to be a spot of white on the tails
of all foxes.

[From Finnische Mahrchen.]

How The Beggar Boy Turned Into Count Piro

Once upon a time there lived a man who had only one son, a lazy, stupid
boy, who would never do anything he was told. When the father was dying,
he sent for his son and told him that he would soon be left alone in
the world, with no possessions but the small cottage they lived in and a
pear tree which grew behind it, and that, whether he liked it or not, he
would have to work, or else he would starve. Then the old man died.

But the boy did not work; instead, he idled about as before, contenting
himself with eating the pears off his tree, which, unlike other pear
trees before or since, bore fruit the whole year round. Indeed, the
pears were so much finer than any you could get even in the autumn, that
one day, in the middle of the winter, they attracted the notice of a fox
who was creeping by.

'Dear me; what lovely pears!' he said to the youth. 'Do give me a basket
of them. It will bring you luck!'

'Ah, little fox, but if I give you a basketful, what am I to eat?' asked
the boy.

'Oh, trust me, and do what I tell you,' said the fox; 'I know it will
bring you luck.' So the boy got up and picked some of the ripest pears
and put them into a rush bask