he had
firmly believed that not a soul could guess it. When she had recovered
herself she said, 'Don't fancy you have won me yet, there is something
else you must do first. Below in the stable is a bear with whom you must
spend the night, and if when I get up in the morning I find you still
alive you shall marry me.'

She quite expected to rid herself of the tailor in this way, for the
bear had never left anyone alive who had once come within reach of his
claws. The tailor, however, had no notion of being scared, but said
cheerily, 'Bravely dared is half won.'

When evening came on he was taken to the stable. The bear tried to
get at him at once and to give him a warm welcome with his great paws.
'Gently, gently,' said the tailor, 'I'll soon teach you to be quiet,'
and he coolly drew a handful of walnuts from his pocket and began
cracking and eating them as though he had not a care or anxiety in the
world. When the bear saw this he began to long for some nuts himself.
The tailor dived into his pocket and gave him a handful, but they were
pebbles, not nuts. The bear thrust them into his mouth, but try as he
might he could not manage to crack them. 'Dear me,' thought he, 'what
a stupid fool I must be--can't even crack a nut,' and he said to the
tailor, 'I say, crack my nuts for me, will you?'

'You're a nice sort of fellow,' said the tailor; 'the idea of having
those great jaws and not being able even to crack a walnut!' So he took
the stone, quickly changed it for a nut, and crack! it split open in a
moment.

'Let me try again,' said the bear; 'when I see the thing done it looks
so easy I fancy I _must_ be able to manage it myself.'

So the tailor gave him some more pebbles, and the bear bit and gnawed
away as hard as he could, but I need hardly say that he did not succeed
in cracking one of them.

Presently the tailor took out a little fiddle and began playing on it.
When the bear heard the music he could not help dancing, and after he
had danced some time he was so pleased that he said to the tailor, 'I
say, is fiddling difficult?' 'Mere child's play,' replied the tailor;
'look here! you press the strings with the fingers of the left hand, and
with the right, you draw the bow across them, so--then it goes as easily
as possible, up and down, tra la la la la--'

'Oh,' cried the bear, 'I do wish I could play like that, then I could
dance whenever the fancy took me. What do you think? Would you give me
some lesson