24 THE TOM'TIT AND THE BEAR,
md offered them food, they all said, " We will not touch a bit ; no, not the leg of a fly, though we should die of hunger, till that rascal Bruin has been punished for calling us base-bom brats." " Make yourselves easy, my darlings," said the old king, " you may be sure he shall meet with his deserts."
So he went out and stood before the bear's den, and cried out with a loud voice, " Bruin the bear ! thou has shamefully insulted our lawful children : we therefore hereby declare bloody and cruel war against thee and thine, which shall never cease until thou hast been punished as thou so richly deservest." Now when the bear heard this, he called together the ox, the ass, the stag, and all the beasts of the earth, in order to consult about the means of his defence. And the tom-tit also enlisted on his side all the birds of the air, both great and small, and a very large army of hornets, gnats, bees, and flics, and other insects.
As the time approached when the war was to begin, the tom-tit sent out spies to see who was the commander-in-chief of the enemy's forces; and the gnat, who was by far the cleverest spy of them all, flew backwards and forwards in the wood where the enemy's troops were, and at last hid himself under a leaf on a tree, close by which the orders of the day were given out. And the bear, who was standing so near the tree that the gnat could hear all he said, called to the fox and said, " Reynard, you are the cleverest of all the beasts ; therefore you shall be our general and lead us to battle : but we must first agree upon some signal, by which we may know what you want us to do." " Behold," said the fox, " I have a fine, long, bushy tail, which is very like a plume of red feathers, and gives me a very warlike air ; now remember, when you see me raise up my tail, you may be sure that the battle is won, and you have then nothing to do but to rush down upon the enemy with all your forc^. On the other hand, if I drop my tail, the day is lost, and you must run away, as &Lst as you can." Now
