a light was to be seen but that
of the moon, which shone bright and clear in the sky. The wolf and the
fox crept softly along, when suddenly they stopped and looked at each
other; a savoury smell of frying bacon reached their noses, and reached
the noses of the sleeping dogs, who began to bark greedily.

'Is it safe to go on, think you?' asked the wolf in a whisper. And the
fox shook her head.

'Not while the dogs are barking,' said she; 'someone might come out
to see if anything was the matter.' And she signed to the wolf to curl
himself up in the shadow beside her.

In about half an hour the dogs grew tired of barking, or perhaps the
bacon was eaten up and there was no smell to excite them. Then the wolf
and the fox jumped up, and hastened to the foot of the wall.

'I am lighter than he is,' thought the fox to herself, 'and perhaps if
I make haste I can get a start, and jump over the wall on the other side
before he manages to spring over this one.' And she quickened her pace.
But if the wolf could not run he could jump, and with one bound he was
beside his companion.

'What were you going to do, comrade?'

'Oh, nothing,' replied the fox, much vexed at the failure of her plan.

'I think if I were to take a bit out of your haunch you would jump
better,' said the wolf, giving a snap at her as he spoke. The fox drew
back uneasily.

'Be careful, or I shall scream,' she snarled. And the wolf,
understanding all that might happen if the fox carried out her threat,
gave a signal to his companion to leap on the wall, where he immediately
followed her.

Once on the top they crouched down and looked about them. Not a creature
was to be seen in the courtyard, and in the furthest corner from the
house stood the well, with its two buckets suspended from a pole,
just as the fox had described it. The two thieves dragged themselves
noiselessly along the wall till they were opposite the well, and by
stretching out her neck as far as it would go the fox was able to make
out that there was only very little water in the bottom, but just enough
to reflect the moon, big, and round and yellow.

'How lucky!' cried she to the wolf. 'There is a huge cheese about
the size of a mill wheel. Look! look! did you ever see anything so
beautiful!'

'Never!' answered the wolf, peering over in his turn, his eyes
glistening greedily, for he imagined that the moon's reflection in the
water was really a cheese.

'And now, unbeliever, what ha