The Fox and the Stork

This grand tale is based on an old Danish legend and tells of the strange things which happened, all because the fox declared war on the stork.

Once upon a time, two neighbors of the forest, the fox and the stork, decided to pool all their food and take turns doing the cooking to save each other work.

Unfortunately, the fox used a pan for cooking, and the stork used a pot, and when they tried to eat, they grumbled and groaned because the fox could get nothing from the pot, and the stork could not eat from the pan. Their tempers grew worse and worse; their friendship ended, and war was declared.

When the word spread, men, women, and children traveled from all the surrounding towns and countryside to see this great fight. But at one farm, a poor maid had been left all alone to look after the house. She felt very sad about missing the fight, and she was lonely and bored.

At last, she made up her mind to slip out and watch. Locking all the doors and windows and putting the key into her pocket, she dashed off through the woods.

Before she had gone very far, she came to a big stream, where the plank had been washed away, and she could not cross. As she stood there, wondering what to do, she pulled her handkerchief out, and as she did so, the house-key slipped from her pocket into the stream and disappeared.

At once, she fell to her knees and peered anxiously into the muddy water. If she did not get the key back, her mistress would know that she had been out, and she would lose her job. A tear began to roll down her cheek.

“What am I to do,” she wailed, “for I will never find the key again. How I wish I had stayed at home and not bothered about the fox and the stork and their silly quarrel.”

While she sat there, crying, a mountain-man came up to her. He promised to help her if, on her first-born son’s tenth birthday, she either gave him the child or a sack of gold.

The maid agreed at once. She was not really worried because she had no son. She was not even married. All she wanted to do was to get back home before her mistress and as soon as the mountain-man found the key for her, that is what she did. She had forgotten about the fox and the stork completely.

About a year later, the young maid married and soon she gave birth to a son. Then, she remembered about her promise. She realized that to keep the boy from the mountain-man, she would have to start saving very hard indeed.

Every spare coin she had, she put into a big sack. If she ever got any extra money, she did not buy luxuries for herself, but put that straight into the sack, too.

However, when the child was about nine and a half, the sack of gold was not even half full. Tearfully, the maid explained to her son about the mountain-man. He was very brave and told his mother not to worry, he would go with the mountain-man.

On the boy’s tenth birthday, there was a RAT-A-TAT-TAT on the door. It was the mountain-man, who had come to claim the boy.

The boy went to live with the mountain-man, who treated him very cruelly and gave him impossible tasks to perform. One day he told the boy to clean out the stables.

“If you have not finished by the time I return, I will chop off your head,” he told him, “and mind you never go behind the big barn.”

The boy knew he would never finish in time and so, since he was going to lose his head anyway, he thought he might as well go and see just what was behind the big barn.

There he found a beautiful maiden at a spinning wheel and three dogs. He explained his story to her and at her command, the three dogs carried out his tasks for him. When the mountain-man returned, he did not know that the boy had had help and so all was well.

The next day, the mountain-man went out again, leaving the boy with a horn full of malt and a thimble of hops.

“Make me some beer,” he ordered.

Once again, the maiden and the dogs helped him. That evening, while the mountain-man was sleeping from the effect of the beer, the maiden called the boy over to her.

“Listen carefully,” she whispered, “it is not safe for us to remain here a moment longer.”

“But surely,” the boy interrupted, “while we have the dogs to help us, we will come to no harm, even though our master is so cruel.”

The girl shook her head. “No, it is not so. Eventually, he will cut off our heads anyway, by giving us hard tasks that neither of us could manage, with or without the help of the dogs.”

“What shall we do then?” asked the boy, feeling very frightened.

“Do not make a sound,” the young maiden whispered back, “for our only chance is to slip away now, while the mountain-man is still asleep. We will hurry down by the old mountain path, for I know the way quite well. It will bring us to safety in the woodlands.”

With the three dogs at their heels, the young children ran swiftly from the house, hoping that the mountain-man would not hear them. They had been running for a long time, when they saw a cloud of steam behind them.

“It is the mountain-man,” cried the girl, “he must be heading this way.” Just at that moment, they came to a bend where the narrow mountain path disappeared completely.

“We are trapped,” sighed the boy. “We will have to go back and live with the mountain-man.”

However, the young maiden had an idea. “Listen,” she said, “pluck one hair from your head and one from mine, throw yours to the right and mine to the left, so that you may become a tree and me a bird, singing in the branches.”

The boy did this and at once their wish was fulfilled. Minutes later, the mountain-man came hurtling down the path, round the bend and, not being able to stop, crashed over the mountainside, never to be seen again.

The “tree” and the “bird” became the boy and the young maiden once more and went to live in a little woodland cottage with the three dogs and there they were very happy.

Remember, all these strange things happened because, long ago, the fox and the stork declared war on each other.