ry
much like to see his royal palace; come, take me thither.' 'That is not
done quite as you seem to think,' said the wolf; 'you must wait until
the Queen comes,' Soon afterwards, the Queen arrived with some food in
her beak, and the lord King came too, and they began to feed their young
ones. The bear would have liked to go at once, but the wolf held him
back by the sleeve, and said: 'No, you must wait until the lord and lady
Queen have gone away again.' So they took stock of the hole where the
nest lay, and trotted away. The bear, however, could not rest until he
had seen the royal palace, and when a short time had passed, went to it
again. The King and Queen had just flown out, so he peeped in and saw
five or six young ones lying there. 'Is that the royal palace?' cried
the bear; 'it is a wretched palace, and you are not King's children, you
are disreputable children!' When the young wrens heard that, they were
frightfully angry, and screamed: 'No, that we are not! Our parents are
honest people! Bear, you will have to pay for that!'

The bear and the wolf grew uneasy, and turned back and went into their
holes. The young willow-wrens, however, continued to cry and scream, and
when their parents again brought food they said: 'We will not so much as
touch one fly's leg, no, not if we were dying of hunger, until you have
settled whether we are respectable children or not; the bear has been
here and has insulted us!' Then the old King said: 'Be easy, he shall
be punished,' and he at once flew with the Queen to the bear's cave, and
called in: 'Old Growler, why have you insulted my children? You shall
suffer for it--we will punish you by a bloody war.' Thus war was
announced to the Bear, and all four-footed animals were summoned to take
part in it, oxen, asses, cows, deer, and every other animal the earth
contained. And the willow-wren summoned everything which flew in the
air, not only birds, large and small, but midges, and hornets, bees and
flies had to come.

When the time came for the war to begin, the willow-wren sent out spies
to discover who was the enemy's commander-in-chief. The gnat, who was
the most crafty, flew into the forest where the enemy was assembled,
and hid herself beneath a leaf of the tree where the password was to be
announced. There stood the bear, and he called the fox before him
and said: 'Fox, you are the most cunning of all animals, you shall be
general and lead us.' 'Good,' said the fox, 'but