“Get all the way in,” the Fox said. “I want to make sure that you couldn’t possibly get out unaided.”
So the Bear entangled himself again in the net and proved that he couldn’t possibly get out unaided.
“Well,” said Mikko, the rascal, “you deserved to get caught the first time and now that you’re in there again you can just stay there! Come on, Mr. Farmer.”
So Mikko and the Farmer went off leaving Osmo to his fate.
That night the Fox went to the Farmer’s hen-house to claim his reward. When he came in the chickens, of course, set up an awful squawking that aroused the family. The Farmer stayed in bed but he sent his wife out with a stout club.
“It sounds to me,” he said, “as if some rascally Fox is trying to steal our hens. If you catch him, don’t be gentle with him!”
“Gentle!” repeated the wife significantly.
She hurried out to the hen-house and when she found Mikko inside she gave him an awful beating. In fact he barely escaped with his life.
“Ah!” he said to himself as he limped painfully home, “to think that this is the reward my kindness has received! Oh, what a wicked, wicked world this is!”
