“That’s true,” he said, “I’m the smallest. All right, brothers, I’m ready. But before you eat me I wish you’d take me to the top of the hill. Down here in the valley it’s so gloomy.”
“Very well,” the others agreed, “we’ll go where you say. It is more cheerful there.”
As they climbed the hill the Fox whispered to the Wolf:
“Sst! Pekka! When you eat me whose turn will it be then? Who will be the smallest then?”
“Mercy me!” the Wolf cried, “it will be my turn then, won’t it?”
The terror of the thought quite took his appetite away.
“See here, Osmo,” he said to the Bear, “I don’t think it would be right for us to eat Mikko. You and I and Mikko ought to be friends and live together in peace. Now let’s take a vote on the matter and we’ll do whatever the majority says. I vote that we three be friends. What do you say, Mikko?”
The Fox said that he agreed with the Wolf. It would be much better all around if they three were friends.
“Well,” grunted Osmo, the Bear, “it’s no use my voting for you two make a majority. But I must say I’m sorry to have you vote this way for I’m hungry.”
So the three animals, the Bear, the Wolf, and the Fox, agreed henceforward to be friends and planned to live near each other in the woods behind the Farm.