When the old woman came back with her apron full of flax and saw that the straw ox had gone she ran home as fast as she could. There stood the ox with the bear stuck fast to him.
“Husband, husband! Come here at once,” she cried. “The ox has brought home a bear; what shall we do?”
So the old man came as fast as he could, pulled the bear off the ox, tied him up, and threw him into the cellar.
The next morning when the old woman went into the field to gather flax she again took the straw ox with her, and again she left him standing alone near the edge of the forest.
A wolf came out of the woods, and said to the ox: “Who are you?”
“I am an ox all smeared with tar,
And filled with straw, as oxen are,”
replied the ox.
“Oh,” said the wolf, “I need some tar to smear my coat so that the dogs cannot catch me.”
“Help yourself,” said the ox.
The wolf put up his paws to take the tar and his paws stuck fast. He pulled and he tugged, and he tugged and he pulled, and the more he pulled and tugged, the faster he stuck and he could not get away.