e. She herself sat down by a mound,
began spinning, and said: "Graze, graze away, little ox, while I spin
my flax! Graze, graze away, little ox, while I spin my flax!"

And while she spun, her head drooped down and she dozed. And lo! from
behind the dark wood, from the back of the huge pines, a gray wolf came
rushing out upon the ox and said: "Who are you? Come, tell me!"

"I am a three-year-old heifer, stuffed with straw and trimmed with tar,"
said the ox.

"Oh! trimmed with tar, are you? Then give me of your tar to tar my
sides, that the dogs and the sons of dogs tear me not!"

"Take some," said the ox. And with that the wolf fell upon him and tried
to tear the tar off. He tugged and tugged, and tore with his teeth, but
could get none off. Then he tried to let go, and couldn't; tug and worry
as he might, it was no good.

When the old woman woke, there was no heifer in sight. "Maybe my heifer
has gone home!" she cried. "I'll go home and see." When she got there
she was astonished for by the paling stood the ox with the wolf still
tugging at it. She ran and told her old man, and her old man came and
threw the wolf into the cellar also.

On the third day the old woman again drove her ox into the pastures to
graze, and sat down by a mound and dozed off. Then a fox came running
up. "Who are you?" it asked the ox.

"I'm a three-year-old heifer, stuffed with straw and daubed with tar."

"Then give me some of your tar to smear my sides with, when those dogs
and sons of dogs tear my hide!"

"Take some," said the ox. Then the fox fastened her teeth in him and
couldn't draw them out again. The old woman told her old man, and he
took and cast the fox into the cellar in the same way. And after that
they caught Pussy Swiftfoot likewise.

So when he had got them all safely the old man sat down on a bench
before the cellar and began sharpening a knife. And the bear said to
him: "Tell me, daddy, what are you sharpening your knife for?"

"To flay your skin off, that I may make a leather jacket for myself and
a pelisse for my old woman."

"Oh! Don't flay me, daddy dear! Rather let me go, and I'll bring you a
lot of honey."

"Very well, see you do it," and he unbound and let the bear go.

Then he sat down on the bench and again began sharpening his knife. And
the wolf asked him: "Daddy, what are you sharpening your knife for?"

"To flay off your skin, that I may make me a warm cap against the
winter."

"Oh! Don't flay