Tit and Bear

One summer day, the wolf and the bear walked in the woods together. They heard a bird singing happily. The bear asked, “My friend, what kind of bird is that? Why does it sing so sweetly?”

　　”Ah!” replied the wolf, “that is a king bird; we must be careful and show it as much respect as possible.” In fact, the bird was just a real tit.

　　”If that is the case,” said the bear, “I should like to see the palace very much. Please take us there.”

　　The wolf said, “My friend, please wait a moment. We cannot go and see it now. We must wait until the Queen Bird returns home.”

　　Soon the queen returned with food in her mouth, and she and the king began to feed their children.

　　”Now that’s all right!” said the bear, and he wanted to go forward and see what the palace looked like.

　　”Wait a moment, Mr. Bear,” said the Wolf hastily. “We must wait until the King and Queen are out.”

　　So they dug a small hole to mark the place where they saw the bird’s nest and then left.

　　As they walked, the bear was always thinking about seeing the palace, so they soon turned back. The king and queen were not there at the moment, so they went up to the bird’s nest and looked inside, where they saw five or six little birds lying at the bottom of the nest.

　　”What nonsense!” Mr. Bear said. “This is not a palace at all. I have never seen such a filthy place in my life. You are not princes or princesses. You little guys are just a bunch of bastards!”

　　The little tit was very angry when he heard these words, and he muttered: “We are not illegitimate children, you stupid bear! Our parents are the most serious people. You are responsible for your rudeness when you say such things!”

Hearing this , the wolf and the bear were a little frightened and hurried back to their caves.

　　As soon as they were gone, the little tits began to cry and scream. When their parents came home to feed them, they all cried out, “We won’t eat even the leg of a fly, even if we starve to death. A bear has been here and says we are bastards, and we won’t eat until the villain is punished.”

　　”Don’t worry, my dears,” said the King of Birds, “he will be punished as he deserves.”

　　He flew to the mouth of the bear’s cave and shouted, “Stupid bear, you insult my children, how shameless. Now I declare that I will have a cruel and bloody battle with you. If you are not punished, this battle will never stop.”

　　When the bear heard this, he called together the bull, the donkey, the deer, and all the beasts that ran on the ground to discuss how to defend themselves. The tit also recruited all the birds that flew in the air, both large and small, and an army of insects such as bumblebees, mosquitoes, yellow jackets, and flies.

　　The time for war was approaching, and the titmouse sent many spies to find out who would be the commander of the enemy army. Among these spies, the mosquito was the smartest one. He flew back and forth in the woods where the enemy was stationed, and finally hid under the leaves of a tree.

On this day, the enemy army was going to give orders here, and the bear happened to be standing under this tree, so the mosquito could hear him clearly. He called the fox over and said to him, “You are the smartest among us animals, so you will be the general and command us to fight. First, we must agree on certain signals, and based on these signals, we will be able to know what you want us to do.”

　　”Look,” the fox shouted, “I have a beautiful furry tail. It looks like a white feather and it can boost our morale. Now remember, when you see me raise my tail, it means you are going to win the battle and you should rush towards the enemy with all your strength. But if I put my tail down, it means we have lost the battle and you must run away immediately.”

　　After hearing these words, the mosquito flew back to the tit and told him everything he had seen and heard.

　　The day of the decisive battle finally arrived. Look! At dawn, the beasts led by the fox rushed forward. The sound of the beasts rushing forward was so terrible that even the earth trembled. The king of the tits led his team and flew over to wait for them. The flapping, vibration and collision of wings filled the whole air and sounded terrible.

　　The armies of both sides took up positions in the field. The tit ordered the bumblebees to attack the enemy commander, the fox, first directly, and to concentrate their attacks on his tail, stinging him as hard as they could. The bumblebees followed the order and rushed towards the fox.

When the first bumblebee stung the fox, he shook a little, and one leg shook, but he still insisted on holding his tail upright. When the second bumblebee stung him, he had to put his tail down for a while. But when the third bumblebee stung him, he could no longer bear it, and hurriedly tucked his tail between his legs and ran away desperately.

　　The animals thought that all was lost, and in shock they all hurried across the field and ran away.