While the Indian was hard at work pulling, the old fox pushed off two or three good fish and rolled off himself. In a minute he was out of sight with the fish. The fox met a wolf who asked him, “Where did you get the fish?” The fox did not like the wolf, but told him the trick he had played on the Indian. “It is easy. Go and do it,” said the fox. The stupid wolf ran away, and after seeing the Indian, lay down and waited as the fox had told him. The Indian found him, but he was not to be fooled twice by the same trick. He pounded the old wolf with the stout stick he used for a cane. The wolf jumped up very sore and ran away to find the fox. He did not find him. A bear saw the fox eating the fish while the wolf was gone. “Where did your fish come from?” asked the bear. “Follow that road down to the river and you will find a fishing place. Put that long bushy tail of yours into the water. Wait until the fish bite it, then snatch them out.” The bear ran down to the river and did just as the fox had told him, but the fishing place froze over while the bear waited for the fish to bite. The bear did not know this, for his back was turned to the water. It was a very cold day, and the bear thought he would walk and get warm. He tried to get up, and his tail broke off short in the ice. The bear ran so fast that he found the fox, and he wanted to fight him. “I have done nothing,” said the fox. “It is all because you are so slow.” The bear never had a long tail after that time. The fox never lost his fine one. Kaanerwah, Iroquois Chief. XIII. THE BLUE HERON AND THE WOLF (Algonquin) A big blue heron was standing in a marsh near a river. Two weasels wanted to cross the river. The weasels talked with each other. “That is a beautiful bird,” said the mother weasel, “see how high he carries his head.” “He is as tall as a tree,” said the little weasel. “If I were as tall as he, I would carry you across this little river.” The big blue heron was pleased, for he liked to be called tall. He was proud and could carry his head very high, but he stooped and spoke to the two weasels. “I cannot carry you over this little river, but I will help you. You must follow me to the end of the old tree that lies almost across the river; then I will lie down and stick my bill in the bank, and you walk on my legs and body for a bridge.” The weasels followed the blue heron, and when he lay down they ran across over his body to the river bank. They were very light and quick. They did not wet their feet. An old wolf was watching them all. He wanted to cross the river, and when the blue heron came back the wolf asked him to do the same thing that he had done for the weasels. “I have always wondered what use you were in the world. Now I see that you and your family would make good bridges. Your long neck is very thin, but it might hold if one were as quick as a weasel. Come, my friend, help a poor wolf that is hungry and in trouble.”