Ion Creanga
THE FOX PLAYS
THE BEAR A TRICK
Ion Creanga
The Fox Plays
the Bear a Trick
Translated from the Moldavian
by D. Melenchuk
Illustrated by W. Brinzey
KISHINEV, LITERATURA ARTISTICA, 1983
Once upon a time there was a cunning fox as many
others. The whole night through he was looking for
food but could not find it anywhere. When the day
time came the fox went to the edge of the road and lay
3
there under a bush thinking what to do to find some
food.
As he was sitting with the head on her front paws
suddenly a smell of fish reached his nose. Raising his
head and looking downhill along the road he saw
a cart with two bulls.
“Well!”, thought the fox. “Here’s the food I have
been waiting for.”
Then he immediately got out of the bush and
stretched himself in the middle of the road pretending
to be dead...........
When the cart approached the fox, the owner of the
cart, a peasant, saw the fox and thinking he was really
dead, stopped the bulls:
“Oh! Ho! Stop, stop!”
The peasant approached the fox examined, him
closely and seeing that he wasn’t even breathing,
said:
“Oh dear! How did it happen that this fox died
here?! Hey!.. What a nice fur-trimmed jacket I’ll make
of this fox fur for my wife!”
Saying this he snatched the fox, carried him to the
cart and threw him on the fish. Then he shouted at the
bulls:
“Haw, Joyan! Ho hoa, Bouryan!”
The bulls started to go.
The peasant walked along with the bulls and
urged them to go quickly to get home as soon as
possible to skin the fox. But as soon as the bulls star
ted the fox began to push down the fish out'of the cart.
The peasant urged the bulls, the cart squeaked and
the fish fell out of the cart.
The villain of the fox threw out a lot of fish on the
road, then jumped down and quickly gathered the
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j**' fish on a pile and carried it to his lair and began to
eat, because he was very, very hungry! At that very
moment the bear came.
“Good appetite, godfather! Oh!!! What a lot of fish
you have got! Give me some, I’m so hungry!”
“I wish you may get it, godfather, but I haven’t
7
worked so hard to satisfy your appetite. If you care so
much for it, go and put your tail into the lake as I did
and you’ll have a lot of fish to eat.”
“Oh, be so kind and teach me how to do it. I have
no idea of fishing.”
Then the fox grinned and said:
“Oh, godfather! Don’t you know that heed can take
you anyfhere and teach you everything? Listen! If you
really want to eat fish, then, go to that large lake near
the forest’s border, in the evening, put your tail into
the water and sit there motionlessly till morning and
then pull the tail out of the water with might. You’ll
get a great deal of fish, may be twice or thrice more
than I have got.”
The bear, without saying anything, ran to the lake
near the forests’s border and put his tail into the
water!..
It so happened that during that night a cold wind
was blowing that could freeze the tongue in one’s
mouth and even the ashes in the fire. So the water in
the lake froze in no time and the bear’s tail remained
there cought as in pincers. After a while the bear
couldn’t resist the cold and pain and pulled the tail
with force. Instead of fish the poor bear remained
without tail.
The bear growled ferociously and jumped with
pain, and, angry with the fox that deceived him, went
to beat her to death. But the cunning fox knew how to
shelter herself from the angry bear. He got out of her
lair and entered a nearby tree hole. Seeing the coming
bear he shouted:
“Hey, godfather! What’s happened to you? Did the
fish eat your tail or have you been too greedy and wan
ted to leave the lake without any fish?”
10
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Seeing that the fox was laughing at him the bear
got furious and rushed to the tree hole. But the hole
entrance being too narrow the bear couldn’t pass in.
Then he found a stick with a hook and made snatches
15
at the fox to get her out and punish... But when he
would catch his paw he cried:
“Oh, pull out, you foolish bear! I don’t care you
pulling the tree...”
But when he would get hold of the tree he shouted:
“Oh, dear me! Don’t pull so hard, you’ll break
my paw!”
The bear tried in vain to get the fox out of the tree
hole, but he couldn’t do anything.
And this was how the fox deceived the bear.!
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