Slip Root, Catch Reynard's Foot

Once upon a time, a bear sat sleeping on a sunny hillside. Just then, Reynard the Fox came slinking by and spotted him.

"There you sit taking your ease, grandsire," said the fox. "Now see if I don't play a trick on you." So he caught three field mice and laid them on a stump close under Bruin's nose.

Then he bawled into his ear, "Boo! Bruin, here's Peter the Hunter, right behind this stump!" And as he shouted, he ran off through the woods as fast as he could.

Bruin woke with a start. When he saw the three little mice, he became furious, thinking they had bellowed in his ear. He lifted his paw to crush them.

But just as he raised it, he caught sight of Reynard's tail flicking among the bushes by the woodside. Away he charged after him, so that the undergrowth crackled as he went. To tell the truth, Bruin was so close upon Reynard that he grabbed his back foot just as the fox was crawling into an earth under a pine root. There was Reynard in a tight spot, but he kept his wits about him. He screeched out, "Slip the pine root and catch Reynard's foot!" And the silly bear let go of Reynard's foot and grabbed the root instead.

By that time, Reynard was safe inside the earth, and he called out, "I tricked you again, didn't I, grandsire?"

"Out of sight isn't out of mind," growled Bruin down into the earth, wild with rage.