“Hello, Sheep. Don’t you want to play with me?” asked the fox; but the sheep said that he did not want to slide there.
“Why not?” inquired the fox in a surprised sort of voice.
“Because I know that if I slide down there, I shall be killed by those sharp rocks,” said the sheep.
But the fox answered, “Why, I thought a mountain sheep would not be afraid of a nice little slide like that. I will tell you how to do it. When you slide down, shut your eyes tight, as soon as you come near the rocks, and you will get past all right.”
The sheep said, “Let me see you do it first.”
So the fox lay down on the snow and slid. As he came near the rocks he dug his claws a little into the snow to steer himself safely past. When the sheep saw the fox come back without a scratch on his fine red coat, he said, “Well, I will try it, for surely a mountain sheep is as brave as a red fox!”
Shutting his eyes tight, he said, “One, two, three!” And away he went, down like the wind straight into the sharp rocks, and was killed.
That wicked fox was glad. He laughed again, for now he had a whole mountain sheep to eat, and that is the sweetest and tenderest meat in the world, and would last him a long time.
Before he had finished eating the sheep, a bear came along.
“Fox, how did you kill that sheep?”