But the old oak gave him one on the head:
“If they come, you shall be civil to them, you puppy,” he said. “But they won’t come.”
3
Now this was where the old oak was wrong, for they did come.
In the autumn, the bear returned and lay down under the old oak.
“I am to give you the kind regards of the people down below there,” he said and picked some funny little things off his shaggy hide. “Just look what I’ve got for you.”
“What’s that?” asked the oak.
“That’s beech,” replied the bear. “Beech-seed, as I promised you.”
Then he trampled them into the earth and prepared to leave again:
“It’s a pity that I can’t stay to see how annoyed you will be,” he said, “but those confounded human beings have become so offensive. They killed my wife and one of my brothers the other day and I must look out for a place where I can dwell in peace. There is hardly a spot left for an honest bear to live in. Good-bye, you gnarled old oak-trees.”