THE STRAW OX.
Once upon a time there lived an old man and his wife, and one day she said to him: “Make me a straw ox and smear him over with pitch.” And he asked: “What for?” And she answered: “Do what I tell you! Never mind what it's for—that's my business!” So the old man made a straw ox and smeared him over with pitch. Then his wife got ready in the early morning and drove the ox to pasture. She sat down under a tree, and began spinning flax and saying to herself: “Feed, feed, ox, on the fresh green grass.”
“Feed, feed, ox, on the fresh green grass!” And she went on spinning and spinning, and fell asleep. Suddenly from out of the thick wood, from out of the dark forest, a bear came running, and ran right up against the ox.
“Who in the world are you?” he asked. And the ox answered: “I'm the three-year-old ox, all made of straw and smeared over with pitch.” Then the bear said: “Well, if you're smeared over with pitch, give me some to put on my poor torn side.” And the ox answered: “Take some!” So the bear seized hold of the ox, when lo and behold! his paw stuck in the pitch.
And when he tried to free it with the other paw, that one stuck too. Then he started gnawing with his teeth, and they stuck too. He couldn't tear himself away anyhow. And the old woman woke up and saw the bear stuck fast to the ox. So she ran home and shouted to her husband: “Come along quick, a bear has stuck fast to our ox, hurry up and catch him!” And he came along, took the bear, led him home, and shut him up in the lumber room.
