The bear and the wolf grew uneasy, and turned back and went into theirholes. The young willow-wrens, however, continued to cry and scream, andwhen their parents again brought food they said, "We will not so much astouch one fly's leg, no, not if we were dying of hunger, until you havesettled whether we are respectable children or not; the bear has beenhere and has insulted us!" Then the old King said, "Be easy, he shallbe punished," and he at once flew with the Queen to the bear's cave,and called in, "Old Growler, why hast thou insulted my children? Thoushalt suffer for it we will punish thee by a bloody war." Thus war wasannounced to the Bear, and all four-footed animals were summoned totake part in it, oxen, asses, cows, deer, and every other animal theearth contained. And the willow-wren summoned everything which flewin the air, not only birds, large and small, but midges, and hornets,bees and flies had to come.
When the time came for the war to begin, the willow-wren sent out spiesto discover who was the enemy's commander-in-chief. The gnat, who wasthe most crafty, flew into the forest where the enemy was assembled,and hid herself beneath a leaf of the tree where the watchword was to begiven. There stood the bear, and he called the fox before him and said,"Fox, thou art the most cunning of all animals, thou shalt be generaland lead us." "Good," said the fox, "but what signal shall we agreeupon?" No one knew that, so the fox said, "I have a fine long bushy tail,which almost looks like a plume of red feathers. When I lift my tail upquite high, all is going well, and you must charge; but if I let it hangdown, run away as fast as you can." When the gnat had heard that, sheflew away again, and revealed everything, with the greatest minuteness,to the willow-wren. When day broke, and the battle was to begin, allthe four-footed animals came running up with such a noise that the earthtrembled. The willow-wren also came flying through the air with his armywith such a humming, and whirring, and swarming that every one was uneasyand afraid, and on both sides they advanced against each other. But thewillow-wren sent down the hornet, with orders to get beneath the fox'stail, and sting with all his might. When the fox felt the first sting,he started so that he drew up one leg, with the pain, but he bore it,and still kept his tail high in the air; at the second sting, he wasforced to put it down for a moment; at the third, he could hold out nolonger, and screamed out and put his tail between his legs. When theanimals saw that, they thought all was lost, and began to fly, each intohis hole and the birds had won the battle.
Then the King and Queen flew home to their children and cried,"Children, rejoice, eat and drink to your heart's content, we have wonthe battle!" But the young wrens said, "We will not eat yet, the bearmust come to the nest, and beg for pardon and say that we are honorablechildren, before we will do that." Then the willow-wren flew to the bear'shole and cried, "Growler, thou art to come to the nest to my children,and beg their pardon, or else every rib of thy body shall be broken." Sothe bear crept thither in the greatest fear, and begged their pardon. Andnow at last the young wrens were satisfied, and sat down together andate and drank, and made merry till quite late into the night.
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