And the tail answered, “Very badly; I am your steering rudder, and you rushed along so unmercifully, dragging me through bush and brier, that I am miserably scratched and torn. Really, I should not have been worse off if the Dog had caught me.”
“Aha!” cried Reinecke, in high displeasure, “so you are my open enemy, are you? All the others are faithful; you alone would willingly have betrayed me. Out with you, out, my declared foe! You shall no longer stay under the same roof with me!”
So Reinecke thrust his tail out of the hole. Snap!—the Dog had it between his teeth, dragged the Fox out of his retreat, tore him in pieces, and was thus rewarded for all his trouble. And the little birds were rid of their enemy.
“It was not nice of Reinecke to want to eat little birds,” said the little boy. “I think he deserved to be punished.”
“He got off without punishment another time,” observed the grandmother.
“How was that?” asked the little boy eagerly. “Won’t you tell me that story? Do! It is not supper-time.”
“No, it is not supper-time, and the story is a short one,” said the grandmother. “So I will tell you about