body was crashing through them.
The boy rose and turned his head, and saw a huge black bear coming
towards him.

'What are you doing here?' cried the bear.

'I am running away from the mermaid,' answered the boy; but the bear
took no interest in the mermaid, and only said: 'I am hungry; give me
something to eat.'

The knapsack was lying on the ground among the fern, but the prince
picked it up, and, unfastening the strap, took out his second flask of
wine and another loaf of bread. 'We will have supper together,' he
remarked politely; but the bear, who had never been taught manners,
made no reply, and ate as fast as he could. When he had quite
finished, he got up and stretched himself.

'You have got a comfortable-looking bed there,' he observed. 'I really
think that, bad sleeper as I am, I might have a good night on it. I
can manage to squeeze you in,' he added; 'you don't take up a great
deal of room.' The boy was rather indignant at the bear's cool way of
talking; but as he was too tired to gather more fern, they lay down
side by side, and never stirred till sunrise next morning.

'I must go now,' said the bear, pulling the sleepy prince on to his
feet; 'but first you shall cut off the tip of my ear, and when you are
in any danger just wish yourself a bear and you will become one. One
good turn deserves another, you know.' And the boy did as he was bid,
and he and the bear bade each other farewell.

'I wonder how it feels to be a bear,' thought he to himself when he
had walked a little way; and he took out the tip from the breast of
his coat and wished hard that he might become a bear. The next moment
his body stretched out and thick black fur covered him all over. As
before, his hands were changed into paws, but when he tried to switch
his tail he found to his disgust that it would not go any distance.
'Why it is hardly worth calling a tail!' said he. For the rest of the
day he remained a bear and continued his journey, but as evening came
on the bear-skin, which had been so useful when plunging through
brambles in the forest, felt rather heavy, and he wished himself a boy
again. He was too much exhausted to take the trouble of cutting any
fern or seeking for moss, but just threw himself down under a tree,
when exactly above his head he heard a great buzzing as a bumble-bee
alighted on a honeysuckle branch. 'What are you doing here?' asked the
bee in a cross voice; 'at your age you ought to be safe at home.'