Page:Popular tales from the Norse (1912).djvu/597

 Yes, that trial Bruin was ready to stand; and as he knew in his heart he had never so much as tasted the butter, he lay down without a care to sleep in the sun.

Then Reynard stole off to the firkin for a morsel of butter, which stuck there in a crack, and then he crept back to the Bear, and greased his chaps and cheeks with it; and then he, too, lay down to sleep as if nothing had happened.

So when they both woke, the sun had melted the butter, and the Bear's whiskers were all greasy; and so it was Bruin after all, and no one else, who had eaten the butter.

TOM TOTHERHOUSE.

on a time there was a Goody who had a deaf husband. A good easy man he was, but that was just why she thought more of the lad next door, whom they called "Tom Totherhouse." Now the lad that served the deaf man saw very well that the two had something between them, and one day he said to the Goody,—

"Dare you wager ten dollars, mother, that I don't make you lay bare your own shame?"

"Yes, I dare," said she; and so they wagered ten dollars.

So one day, while the lad and the deaf man stood thrashing in the barn, the lad saw that Tom Totherhouse came to see the Goody. He said nothing, but a good while before dinner-time he turned toward the barn-door, and bawled out "Halloa!"