Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/260

252  cried the fox-hunter. Stockings followed the shoes, coat and trousers shared the same fate, but still the man sat over the hole. At last the fox, having set the bed and bedding on fire, put a light to the straw on which his jailor lay. It blazed up to the ceiling. "No, that I cannot stand," shouted the man, jumping up; and the fox, taking advantage of the smoke and confusion, made good his exit,—(D. M.)

THE LAME FOX.

(Podunarka, 1848).

There was a man who had three sons, two intelligent and one a simpleton. This man's right eye was always laughing, while his left eye was weeping and shedding tears. This man's sons agreed to go to him one by one and ask him why his right eye laughed and his left eye shed tears. Accordingly, the eldest went to his father by himself and asked him: "Father, tell me truly what I am going to ask you. Why does your right eye always laugh and your left eye weep?" His father gave him no answer, but flew into a rage, seized a knife, and at him, and he fled out of doors, and the knife stuck in the door. The other two were outside, anxiously expecting their brother; and when he came out asked him what his father had said to him. But he answered them: "If you're not wiser than another, go, and you will hear."

Then the middle brother went to his father by himself and asked him: "Father, tell me truly what I am going to ask you. Why does your right eye always laugh and your left eye weep?" His father gave him no answer, but flew into a rage, seized a knife, and at him, and he fled out of doors, and the knife stuck in the door. When he came out to his brothers, his brothers asked him: "Tell us, brother—so may health and prosperity attend you—what our father has said