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Why the Bear Has a Stumpy Tail. Once the Bear met the Fox, who came slinking along with a bunch of fish he had stolen. “Where did you get those?” asked the Bear. “I’ve been out fishing, Mr. Bear!” answered the Fox. Then the Bear wanted to learn to fish too, and asked the Fox to tell him how to go about it. “It’s a simple trick for you,” answered the Fox, “and soon learned: all you have to do is go out onto the ice, cut yourself a hole, and stick your tail down into it; then you must keep it there a good long while.

You mustn’t mind if it stings a little: that means the fish are biting; for the longer you can keep it there, the more fish you’ll catch. Then, all at once, you must give it a sharp tug!” So the Bear did as the Fox had told him, and kept his tail down in the hole for a long, long time, until it was frozen fast; then he gave it a sharp tug—and snapped it clean off, and to this very day he goes about with a stumpy tail.

II. The Fox Cheats the Bear out of His Christmas Fare. Once the Bear and the Fox bought a little keg of butter between them; they meant to keep it for Christmas, so they hid it under a thick spruce bush. Then they went a little way off and lay down on a sunny slope to sleep. When they had lain there a while, the Fox got up and called, “Yes!” Then off he ran, straight to the butter keg, and ate a good third of it.

But when he came back, and the Bear asked where he had been to get his muzzle so greasy, he said, “Would you believe it? I was invited to a christening feast!” “Oh, indeed! What was the child’s name?” asked the Bear. “Just-Begun!” said the Fox.

With that they lay down to sleep again. A little while later, the Fox sprang up once more and called, “Yes!” and ran off to the butter keg. This time too he ate a good helping. When he came back, and the Bear again asked where he had been, he answered, “Oh! Would you believe it, I’ve been invited to another christening feast!” “And what was this child’s name?” said the Bear.

“Half-Eaten,” answered the Fox. The Bear thought it a curious name, but before he had wondered about it for long, he yawned again and fell asleep; and scarcely had he lain there a little while when the same thing happened as on the two previous occasions. The Fox sprang up again, called, “Yes!” and ran to the butter keg, where this time he ate up what was left. When he came back, he had been to yet another christening feast; and when the Bear wanted to know what that child was called, he answered, “Licked-to-the-Bottom!” Then they lay down to sleep again and slept a good while; but at last they went to look at the butter, and when they found it all eaten up, the Bear blamed the Fox, and the Fox blamed the Bear;

each said the other had been at the butter keg while he himself lay asleep. “Well, well,” said Mikkel, “we’ll soon find out which of us stole the butter. Let’s lie down over there on the sunny slope: whichever of us has the greasiest backside when we wake up is the one who stole it.” The Bear was quite willing to agree to this test, and knowing full well that he had not so much as tasted the butter, he lay down in the sunshine and went to sleep without a care. Then Mikkel slunk off to the keg for a scrap of butter left in a crack, crept back to the Bear, and smeared it on his backside; after that he lay down to sleep as though nothing had happened. When they both woke up, the sun had melted the butter, and so it turned out that the Bear was the one who had eaten it after all.