“We are in a pretty scrape, dear Boar, for here comes Master Reinecke and a fearful monster with him. He wears the fur coat of a Marten and is killing birds upon the wing all along the way.”
By this time the Bear lost sight of the Cat, which had reached the threshing-floor under cover of the grass, and was creeping about in the straw in search of mice. Full of curiosity, the Boar stuck his head out a little way to see what was going on; when the Cat, mistaking his snout for a mouse, sprang forward and buried her claws in it. At this the Boar gave a fearful grunt, and rushed frantically into a neighboring stream, while the Bear, who, from the uproar, concluded that the Cat had killed the Boar and would seize him next, tumbled headlong from the pear-tree in terror, and breaking his neck by the fall, perished miserably.
So Master Reinecke got all the grain and the straw into the bargain.
“I am glad he got it all,” said the little boy. “It wasn’t fair of Petz and the Boar to serve Reinecke that way.”
“Master Reinecke is generally able to look out for himself,” said the grandmother.
CHAPTER V
FROST-BITTEN TOES
There was a great shouting and hurrahing in the court, for the moujiks had found the sheep and were driving them home. The little boy ran out to see them come in. They were trembling with cold and looked very weak, for they had had nothing to eat for two days. They had been buried under the snow, and it had taken all that time to find them. They were glad to go into their pen, and the little boy was glad when his father gave him a pail with food in it and let him help the moujiks feed them.