They filled themselves up on sheep meat, and then walked away through the woods together like old friends.
“Fox,” said the bear, “are you ever afraid of animals?”
“There is not an animal in the world I am afraid of,” said the fox, “except that two-legged creature called Man. Of him I am in constant terror.”
The bear laughed at him. “You are silly to be afraid of that. I am not afraid of a man; only of ptarmigan.”
Then it was the fox’s turn to laugh. “Why, I kill ptarmigan and eat them!”
The bear did not like to be laughed at much by a fox, so he walked quietly along for a while, thinking; then he said, “Well, Fox, I will make a bargain with you. If you will kill two ptarmigan for me, I will kill two men, and give you one.”
The fox looked pleased. “That is easy,” said he. “You wait here.” And off he went trotting out of sight.
I am sure he played some trick again, for ptarmigan are not easy to see in winter against the snow, when they wear their white dresses.
Mr. Fox very shortly came back with a ptarmigan in his mouth. He gave it to the bear, who after eating it said, “Now, Fox, I will go and find a man for you.”
For two whole days the fox waited for the bear, and the bear did not come back. Then the fox felt sure that the bear had been killed, and he wanted to see how the man had killed him.
Closely following the bear’s tracks, he found the tracks of two men also. The fox was really scared at the sight of the men’s tracks. He was terribly afraid of men, and he began to be sorry that he had been so wicked and had killed so many of his friends.
Sneaking through the woods with his tail dragging, he passed near a trap, which he could smell for a long distance, it was so dirty. There was no danger of his being caught in that trap. He said to himself, “That man is lazy; he will never catch any animals in his dirty traps. A lazy man will never catch anything.”
After a while he passed another trap, but this one had been set out hastily, so the fox got the bait without getting caught.
“That man is lazy, too,” said the fox, “for he gets up too late in the morning to put out his trap. These men are stupid creatures anyway. I don’t believe I am afraid of them after all.”
Just as he said this, snap, Mr. Smart Fox was caught at last.