The hare was frightened and ran away, and told the bear, the wolf and the wild boar all about it.

"Never mind," said the bear. "I tell you what, we'll all four give a banquet, and invite the fox and the cat, and do for the pair of them. Now, look here! I'll steal the man's mead; and you, Mr Wolf, steal his fat-pot; and you, Mr Wildboar, root up his fruit-trees; and you, Mr Bunny, go and invite the fox and the cat to dinner."

So they made everything ready as the bear had said, and the hare ran off to invite the guests. He came beneath the window and said: "We invite your little ladyship Foxey-Woxey, together with Mr Shaggy Matthew, to dinner," and back he ran again.

"But you should have told them to bring their spoons with them," said the bear.

"Oh, what a head I've got!—if I didn't quite forget!" cried the hare, and back he went again, ran beneath the window and cried: "Mind you bring your spoons!"

"Very well," said the fox.

So the cat and the fox went to the banquet, and when the cat saw the bacon he put up his back and stuck out his tail, and cried: "Mee-oo, mee-oo!" with all his might. But they thought he said: "Ma-lo, ma-lo!"[2]

[2] "What a little! What a little!"

"What!" said the bear, who was hiding behind the beeches with the other beasts, "here have we four been getting together all we could, and this pig-faced cat calls it too little! What a monstrous cat he must be to have such an appetite!"

So they were all four very frightened, and the bear ran up a tree, and the others hid where they could.