328 
All the time they were going down she kept questioning her younger 
sister about their earth. 
“We are almost there now! The trees appear plainly now,” she told 
her. 
“Little sister, do let me look!” she asked her. 
“Do not! We are near now!” her younger sister told her, but still she 
longed to take a look. Although her younger sister held the covering 
round her head, suddenly she threw off the cover and looked. The string 
broke by which they were tied. Down they went. The nest caught on a 
tall tree and hung there. 
“Really, you are foolish, big sister, not to heed what our grandmother 
told us!” she said to her elder sister. 
Oh, they were glad to see their earth. But they could not get there; 
they hung there aloft. Presently they saw a wolf who was running that 
way. 
“Oh, little sister, I shall fool the wolf; he will get us down,” she said 
to the other. 
“Yes.” 
When he came near, she said to him, “Wolf!” and when he looked at 
her, “Get us down. Take us down from where we are caught. We are 
even willing to marry you, if you like.” 
“Yoho! I am not a good climber. Also, you would be a bother to 
me; I never stay in one place, but travel about all the time,” said he. 
“Faugh! Do you suppose we would really marry you, ugly as you are, 
and long-faced, and a glutton, who, whenever you kill anything, eat it all 
by yourself?” she told him, reviling him. 
And so there they stayed. Presently they saw another who came 
running that way. He turned out to be a lynx. 
“Oh, little sister, let us fool this one! The like of him are good climbers. 
— Hey there!” as he walked by, “Hey, hey, lynx!” 
“What is it?” 
“Get us down from here! We will even marry you, if you like; we 
cannot get down!” 
“Yoho! I am not a good climber. Look here at my paws: I haven’t 
any nails,” said he, 
“Ho ho, do you suppose we would marry you in any case, you ugly 
fellow, with your crumpled-up snout and your big feet and j’-our fiat rump?” 
She gave up the chances of him. So he left them. Oh, they were sad, 
because they wanted to get down to earth. Finally they had been there 
a long time. Presently they saw still another come running that way. 
“Little sister, now I shall cheat this one. This one will be eager to 
take wives,” she said to the other. 
“Yes.” 
As he came running close by there, “Hey, hey!” 
He looked up. 
“Wolverine, you are a good climber. Get us down from here. We are 
frightened and do not know how to get down. We are even willing, if you 
rescue us, to marry you,” she told him. 
“Hoho, you mean to fool me!” said he. 
“No! Really, we will marry you,” she told him. 
“Very well then!” 
