“I will make you a hook and show you how to fish. It is easy,” said the fox.
Then he took some of the dried grass which is used by the Eskimo women for making baskets; weaving a rope out of it, he put a piece of stone on the end, and he and the wolf went fishing like the best of friends. When they reached the lake the fox made a hole in the ice and told the wolf to sit near the hole and to drop the stone into the water through the hole, then to keep moving it up and down by the string.
“Now,” said the fox, “you must remain the whole day moving that string up and down. When the sun sets you will get fish.”
The fox stayed, playing about watching the wolf, who sat patiently by the hole splashing the stone up and down in the water. Pretty soon the fox saw the wolf’s big, bushy tail was getting covered with water. Now it was getting colder every minute, and almost dark, and at last the fox saw that the wolf’s tail was freezing fast to the ice of the lake. Then he began to laugh out loud: “Ha ha ha!”
The wolf looked around suspiciously to see if the fox was laughing at him, as he was beginning to get cross. He was tired, anyway, of sitting there joggling that line up and down all day.
“What are you laughing at, Fox?” he said. “Are you trying to trick me like you do every one?”
Mr. Sly Fox put on a very surprised and sorry face. “O no,” said he. “I wouldn’t think of doing such a thing. I was just laughing with joy at the thought of all the fine whitefish we will soon have for supper.” Then he began to play around the wolf, and soon he laughed. “Ha! ha! ha! O my! I will have plenty to eat now!”
The wolf turned with an angry snarl, showing his long fangs. “What! Are you talking about me? Do you think you will eat me? We will see!” And he made a leap for the fox, but his tail was stuck fast to the ice so that he could not get away. Throwing himself from side to side, and yelping like a dog, he struggled to get free, but still the ice held him prisoner, until at last, with an angry howl, he snapped off his tail with his own sharp teeth, and ran furiously after the treacherous fox, who was already nearly out of sight. The wolf chased him as hard as he could, and had nearly caught up with him, when the fox saw a hole in a steep bank and popped inside. The wolf was too big to go into the hole, so he sat outside, waiting for the fox to come out; but Mr. Fox was not to be caught that way. Knowing that the wolf would die from having chopped off his tail with his teeth, the fox just stayed safely where he was until morning; then came out and ate up his former friend. When he had finished devouring the wolf and felt well fed and comfortable, he started out in search of some other animal to fool.
In his wanderings he came upon a high mountain, which had a long smooth place down its steep side, made by a snowslide which had swept everything before it, leaving a glistening path in its wake.
The fox began to play sliding-down-the-mountain, and was enjoying it hugely. In one place he had to pass close to some big, sharp rocks, and he dug into the snow a little with his claws to get safely by. After that he climbed up to the top again, and there he saw a mountain sheep coming toward him.