For a few moments the Fox pretended to work hard. Then he ran off again. When he came back, he said:
“Pekka, do you know they’re having another christening at the Farm and they say that I just must come.”
“Another christening! Now, Mikko, that’s too much! How can they be having another christening?”
“Well, this time it’s the daughter-in-law that has a baby.”
“I don’t care who it is,” the Wolf said, “you just can’t go. You’ve got some work to do, you have!”
The Fox agreed:
“You’re right, Pekka, you’re right! I’m entirely too busy to be running off all the time to christenings! I’d say, ‘No!’ in a minute if it wasn’t that we are new settlers and they are our nearest neighbors. As it is I’m afraid they’d think it wasn’t neighborly if I didn’t come. But I’ll hurry back, I promise you!”
So for the third time the Fox trotted off to the little spring and this time he licked the Wolf’s butter crock clean to the bottom. Then he went slowly back to the clearing and told the Wolf about the christening and the baby.
“They’ve named this one Bottom,” he said.
“Bottom!” the Wolf echoed. “What funny names they give children nowadays!”