“I really must go down to the brook and wash myself,” said he (though he was perfectly clean), and he went under the bank and hid himself behind a stone. From there he set up the most frightful shrieks, so that the animals fled away in all directions. Only the mouse and the ermine remained where they were, for they thought that they were much too small to be noticed. The fox continued his shrieks till he felt sure that the animals must have got to a safe distance; then he crawled out of his hiding-place and went to the bodies of the reindeer, which he now had all to himself. He gathered a bundle of sticks for a fire, and was just preparing to cook a steak, when his enemy, the Lapp, came up, panting with haste and excitement. “What are you doing there?” cried he; “why did you palm off those bones on me? And why, when you had got the reindeer, did you kill them?” “Dear brother,” answered the fox with a sob, “do not blame me for this misfortune. It is my comrades who have slain them in spite of my prayers.” The man made no reply, for the white fur of the ermine, who was crouching with the mouse behind some stones, had just caught his eye. He hastily seized the iron hook which hung over the fire and flung it at the little creature; but the ermine was too quick for him, and the hook only touched the top of its tail, and that has remained black to this day. As for the mouse, the Lapp threw a half-burnt stick after him, and though it was not enough to hurt him, his beautiful white skin was smeared all over with it, and all the washing in the world would not make him clean again. And the man would have been wiser if he had let the ermine and the mouse alone, for when he turned round again he found he was alone. Directly the fox noticed that his enemy’s attention had wandered from himself he watched his chance, and stole softly away till he had reached a clump of thick bushes, when he ran as fast as he could, till he reached a river, where a man was mending his boat. “Oh, I wish, I wish, I had a boat to mend too!” he cried, sitting up on his hind-legs and looking into the man’s face. “Stop your silly chatter!” answered the man crossly, “or I will give you a bath in the river.” “Oh, I wish, I do wish, I had a boat to mend,” cried the fox again, as if he had not heard. And the man grew angry and seized him by the tail, and threw him far out in the stream close to the edge of an island; which was just what the fox wanted. He easily scrambled up, and sitting on the top, he called: “Hasten, hasten, O fishes, and carry me to the other side!” And the fishes left the stones where they had been sleeping, and the pools where they had been feeding, and hurried to see who could get to the island first. “I have won,” shouted the pike. “Jump on my back, dear fox, and you will find yourself in a trice on the opposite shore.” “No, thank you,” answered the fox, “your back is much too weak for me. I should break it.”