THE BEAR IN FABLE AND STORY. HI 



fox. So the bear had a mind to fish too, and bade the 

 fox tell him how he was to set about it. 



5. " Oh ! it's an easy craft for you," answered the fox, 

 " and soon learned. You've only to go upon the ice, and 

 cut a hole and stick your tail down into it ; and you must 

 hold it there as long as you can. You mustn't mind if 

 your tail smarts a little ; that's when the fish bite. The 

 longer you hold it there the more fish you will get ; and 

 then all at once out with it, with a cross-pull and with a 

 strong pull too." 



G. Yes : the bear did as the fox had said, and held his 

 tail a long, long time down in the hole, till it was fast 

 frozen in. Then he pulled it out with a cross-pull, and it 

 snapped short off. That's why Bruin goes about with a 

 stumpy tail this very day. 



7. But the bear does not deserve this reputation for 

 stupidity. "When it sets itself going after any one it 

 wishes to catch, it displays an agility and address which 

 those who have been hunted by it declare to be amaz- 

 ing. And when it wishes to get beetle-grubs out of the 

 ground, ants out of their nest, honey out of a bee-tree, 

 fruit from a slender bough, or birds' eggs out of a nest, 

 it shows itself to be as ingenious and skillful as any 

 other animal that has to live by its wits. To get, for in- 

 stance, at the beetle-grubs, it scratches off the upper earth 

 and then sucks them up out of the ground an application 

 of a scientific process which no animal without a pro- 

 digious reserve of air-force could hope to accomplish. 



8. " When it wishes to empty an ant-hive it knocks the 

 top off with its paws, and then, applying its mouth to the 

 central gallery of the nest, inhales its breath forcibly, 

 thereby setting up such a current of air that all the ants 

 and their eggs come whirling up into his mouth like pack- 

 ets through a pneumatic tube. When robbing bees it 



