Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/152

130 as he was crawling into an earth under a pine-root. So there was Reynard in a pinch; but for all that he had his wits about him, for he screeched out, "," and so the silly bear let his foot slip and laid hold of the root instead. But by that time Reynard was safe inside the earth, and called out—

"I cheated you that time, too, didn't I, grandsire!"

"Out of sight isn't out of mind," growled Bruin down the earth, and was wild with rage.

NCE on a time there was a husbandman who travelled ever so far up to the fells to fetch a load of leaves for litter for his cattle in winter. So when he got to where the litter lay, he backed the sledge close up to the heap, and began to roll down the leaves on to the sledge. But under the heap lay a bear who had made his winter lair there, and when he felt the man trampling about he jumped outright down on to the sledge.

As soon as the horse got wind of Bruin he was afraid, and ran off as though he had stolen both bear and sledge, and he went back faster by many times than he had come up.

Bruin, they say, is a brave fellow, but even he was not quite pleased with his drive this time. So there he