THEY cut off his other ear at a blow, and then threw him into

It was a great wonder he was not drowned, but somehow, after awhile, he managed to crawl out, all dripping with wet, just in time to meet his thirteen brothers, who were off again to see the world.

“Come along,” said Sharpnose.

“Let us go and see Bruin the Bear, he has plenty of good things for those who will work for him.”

So away they went to see Bruin the Bear. He lived at the cold end of Fourlegs, so they had to walk very quickly indeed; but on they went, until it began to snow; on and on they marched, getting colder and colder, till, behold! they came at last to

 Of course the door was shut, but Sharpnose soon pulled up the latch, and in they went, one after another, Redlegs — who was last — not forgetting to shut the door after him. Inside the mill sat Bruin the Bear.

 “Hullo!” grumbled Bruin. “You nipped-up things of Foxes, where do you come from?”

“From the other end of the world where the snow melts,” said Sharpnose.

“And we are so cold and hungry,” chattered the thirteen all together; but Redlegs said not a word.

“What can you grind?” said the Bear.

“Everything,” replied Sharpnose; and “Everything,” said his twelve brothers.

“And pray, what can you grind?” asked Bruin the Bear of Redlegs.

“Nothing,” he answered, for this Fox had never ground anything in all his life, nor, for that matter, had his brothers.

“Oh!” grumbled the Bear, “you are the lazy one, are you? I must look after you.”

Then the grizzly old Bear took pity on them, and gave them each some supper, and a bed each to lie down upon. But the next day he set them to work grinding. It was very hard work, and none of them liked it, but the old fellow kept them all to it, and laughed to himself when he saw how fast his snow was ground.

“I am going out,” said he, “to call on my friend the Lion, so I shall give you plenty to grind while I am away. And as for you,” he growled, turning sharply round to Redlegs, “I shall give you double work.”

So, before he went out, he set them each a task. To each of the thirteen he gave one sack of snow to grind, but to Redlegs he measured out two.

No sooner was the Bear gone than Sharpnose and his brothers left off grinding. They hated hard work, and were at their wits’ end to know how to leave their snow unground, nor do I think they would have hit upon any plan if it had not been for the clever Sharpnose; but, said he:

“Let us all go fast asleep while Redlegs grinds all the snow — he is the eldest.”

He was the eldest, and, luckily for them, he was the strongest. So they told him to do all the work, and to it he went. He had not fairly begun to grind his fifteen sacks before his brothers lay them down, and went off sound asleep. But poor Redlegs ground on all the same,  and  sack  after sack of his snow dropped through the hoppers of the mill, until he had finished thirteen sacks, and then he could not go on any more. He felt so tired that he sat down to rest, and, as he sat down, he fell asleep.

At that moment, Sharpnose and the twelve started up, for they heard the Bear growling at the door, and as they were rubbing the dust out of their eyes in he came.

“I say, you Foxes,” he grumbled, “what have you been doing all the day?”

“Grinding,” said Sharpnose.

“We have been grinding,” echoed the twelve all in a breath. “Well, and what have you been doing, Master Redlegs?” he asked, turning round to the eldest.

“Sn-r-r-rr!” answered Redlegs, snoring through his nose.

 Now, when old Bruin heard this reply, he felt sure that Redlegs had been asleep all day, and when he caught sight of the two unground sacks of snow he was so angry that he growled out:

“Grind him up with the next sack!” And then, remembering of a sudden that he himself had no tail, he added, “And off with his tail directly!”