Page:Popular tales from the Norse (1912).djvu/542

 356 the Goose and laid him on the embers, and roasted him. The Hen smelt the strong roast-meat, and sprang up to a higher peg, and said, half asleep—

"Oh, stuff," said the Fox; "it's only the smoke driven down the chimney; go to sleep again, and hold your tongue."

So the Hen went off to sleep again.

Now the Fox had hardly got the Goose well down his throat, before he did the very same with the Duck. He took and laid him on the embers, and roasted him for a dainty bit.

Then the Hen woke up again, and sprang up to a higher peg still.

she said again, and then she got her eyes open, and came to see how the Fox had eaten both the twain, Goose and Duck; so she flew up to the highest peg of all, and perched there, and peeped up through the chimney.

"Nay, nay; just see what a lovely lot of geese flying yonder," she said to the Fox.

Out ran Reynard to fetch a fat roast. But while he was gone, the Hen woke up the Cock, and told him how it had gone with Goosey-Poosey and Ducky-Lucky; and so Cocky-Locky and Henny-Penny flew out through the chimney, and if they hadn't got to the Dovrefell, it surely would have been all over with the world.