"How is this?" asked Arvid. "Why are you not asleep in your den for the winter, as other bears are? But that is your affair. We will give you our half of the milk for your little ones. Hanna and I can very well drink water to-night, if only father and mother have something good for Christmas."
"Many thanks," said the bear, as he took the milk in a birch-bark cone which he carried in his fore-paws. Then with slow, pompous steps, he lumbered away into the darkness.
The children waded along through the drifts still more eagerly now, for they could see the Christmas lights shining through the windows of their home; but they had not gone far before an ugly owl came flapping along beside them.
"I will have bread and milk! I will have bread and milk!" screamed the owl, stretching out her long claws to scratch the children.
"Oh, ho!" said Arvid. "If that is the kind you are, I shall have to teach you to be polite." So saying, he gave the owl such a clever blow on the wings with his club that she flew screaming away.
Soon after this the children were at home, gaily beating the snow from their clothes in the little entry.
"We have met a wolf!" shouted Hanna.
"And given a bear some milk!" added Arvid.
"But the owl got a taste of the club!" laughed Hanna. Then they told all their adventures.
The parents looked thoughtfully at each other. How wonderful! To think that their children had shown mercy even to the wild beasts of the forest! What would happen next? What did it all mean?