The next morning, Mikkel the fox was sitting on a stone by the swamp. Suddenly he sees old Bamse dragging along and dragging a fat pig.
“Good day, grandpa,” says the fox. -What are you carrying?
“Yes, I want to eat a pig,” the bear answers.
“And I have some tasty things in store,” says the fox.
- And what? - asks the bear.
— Honeycombs; Yes, such as I have never seen before.
The bear's mouth began to water, he wanted to taste the fresh honey so much.
- Maybe we can switch? - he suggests to Mikkel.
- I won’t even think about it! - says the fox.
And Mikkel came up with this game - which of them can name three trees faster. If the bear wins, the fox will give him a taste of honey, and if the fox wins, he will receive a piece of pig meat from the bear.
“Well,” Mikkel says to the bear, “begin!”
The bear thought, scratched the back of his head with his paw and slowly sang:
- Be-re-za, o-si-na, rya-bi-na!
And the fox, without hesitation, blurted out quickly:
- Oak, elm, maple!
Therefore, Mikkel won against old Bamse. He grabbed the most delicious piece of pig and rushed into the forest as fast as he could. The bear roared with anger and set off after the fox. I caught up with him and started chatting and chatting!
- Don't hit me, grandpa! - the fox begged. “If you let me go, I’ll give you the honeycomb!”
The bear let Mikkel go, and he gave him the honeycomb and said:
- They are covered with leaves. Take off the leaves and enjoy the honey to your heart's content.
The bear purred with joy, dragged the prey into the bushes, lay down more comfortably and threw away the leaves with his paw. Only it wasn’t a honeycomb at all, but a wasp’s nest. As the bear threw away the leaves, all the wasps flew out of the nest and began to sting old Bamsa - in the nose, and in the eyes, and in the ears, and in the neck! The bear whines in pain, fights off wasps with his paw, and the cunning Mikkel sits on a stone and bursts into laughter! From then on, all the bears began to fear wasps more than fire.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru