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Tales from the Fjeld

hard work to rid himself of them that he had no time to think of Reynard.

And that's why, ever since that day, Bruin is so afraid of wasps.


The Hare and the Heiress


ONCE on a time there was a hare, who was frisking up and down under the greenwood tree.

"Oh! hurrah! hip, hip, hurrah!" he cried, and leapt and sprang, and all at once he threw a somersault and stood upon his hind-legs. Just then a fox came slouching by.

"Good day, good day," said the hare; "I'm so merry to-day, for you must know I was married this morning."

"Lucky fellow you," said the fox.

"Ah, no! not so lucky after all," said the hare, "for she was very heavy-handed, and it was an old witch I got to wife."

"Then you were an unlucky fellow," said the fox.

"Oh, not so unlucky either," said the hare, "for she was an heiress. She had a cottage of her own."

"Then you were lucky after all," said the fox.