"Oh! ho!" said the fox, "I will soon make that stupid fellow get up." So he found the man's shoes, and putting them into the fire, wondered if that would make the enemy move. [Illustration] "I shan't get up for that, my fine gentleman," cried the Tod-hunter. Stockings followed the shoes, coat and trousers shared the same fate, but still the man sat over the hole. At last the fox having set the bed and bedding on fire, put a light to the straw on which his jailer lay, and it blazed up to the ceiling. "No! that I cannot stand," shouted the man, jumping up; and the fox, taking advantage of the smoke and confusion, made good his exit. But Master Rory did not always have it his own way. One day he met a cock, and they began talking. "How many tricks canst thou do?" said the fox. [Illustration] "Well," said the cock, "I could do three; how many canst thou do thyself?" "I could do three score and thirteen," said the fox. "What tricks canst thou do?" said the cock. "Well," said the fox, "my grandfather used to shut one eye and give a great shout." "I could do that myself," said the cock. "Do it," said the fox. And the cock shut one eye and crowed as loud as ever he could, but he shut the eye that was next the fox, and the fox gripped him by the neck and ran away with him. But the wife to whom the cock belonged saw him and cried out, "Let go the cock; he's mine." "Say, 'Oh sweet-tongued singer, it is my own cock,' wilt thou not?" said the cock to the fox. Then the fox opened his mouth to say as the cock did, and he dropped the cock, and he sprung up on the top of a house, and shut one eye and gave a loud crow. But it was through that very fox that Master Wolf lost his tail. Have you never heard about that? One day the wolf and the fox were out together, and they stole a dish of crowdie. Now in those days the wolf was the biggest beast of the two, and he had a long tail like a greyhound and great teeth. The fox was afraid of him, and did not dare to say a word when the wolf ate the most of the crowdie, and left only a little at the bottom of the dish for him, but he determined to punish him for it; so the next night when they were out together the fox pointed to the image of the moon in a pool left in the ice, and said: "I smell a very nice cheese, and there it is, too." "And how will you get it?" said the wolf. "Well, stop you here till I see if the farmer is asleep, and if you keep your tail on it, nobody will see you or know that it is there. Keep it steady. I may be some time coming back." So the wolf lay down and laid his tail on the moonshine in the ice, and kept it for an hour till it was fast. Then the fox, who had been watching, ran in to the farmer and said: "The wolf is there; he will eat up the children--the wolf! the wolf!"