"I am an ox all smeared with tar,
And filled with straw, as oxen are,"
replied the ox.
"Oh," said the bear. "I need some straw to mend my coat, and the tar
will keep it in place. Give me some straw and some tar."
"Help yourself," said the ox.
So the bear began to tear at the ox, and his great paws stuck fast, and
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.
Then the ox dragged the bear to the old house on the edge of the forest.
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.