“I?” Mikko asked. “What had I to do with it?”
“You kept asking me about the wind until I opened my mouth—that’s what you did!”
The Fox shrugged his shoulders.
“Why did you open your mouth?”
“Well, you can’t say, ‘North!’ without opening your mouth, can you?” the Bear demanded.
The Fox laughed heartily.
“See here, Osmo, don’t blame me. Blame yourself. If I had had that Grouse in my mouth and you had asked me about the wind, I should never have said, ‘North!’”
“What would you have said?” the Bear asked.
Mikko, the rascal, laughed harder than ever. Then he clenched his teeth and said:
“East!”