The Fox shook his head.
“I’m afraid it won’t last them very long. They’re beautiful healthy children with fine appetites.”
“Poor little dears!” Pekka said. “Let me see them.”
“Not just now!” Mikko insisted. “They’re asleep and mustn’t be disturbed. Go out hunting again and the next time you come home you shall see them.”
Pekka felt that the Fox must be a very good nurse indeed to be so strict. So he went off hunting again without seeing his children.
As soon as he was gone Mikko, the rascal, ate up all the horse meat without giving the cubs one bite and then, as he was still hungry, he ate one of the cubs. The next day he ate another cub, and the day following he ate the last of them. He was just finishing that last cub when the Wolf came home and called in at the door:
“Now, nurse, here I am come home to see my dear children! They’re well, aren’t they?”
“Very well!” the Fox declared. “But they’ve grown so big under my good care that the house isn’t large enough now to hold them and you and me at the same time. If you’re coming in, I must get out first.”
So the Wolf stood aside as the Fox came out and scampered away.
Then the Wolf went in and of course all he could find of his dear children were their bones.