The Wonderful Musician

THERE was once a wonderful musician, and he was one day walking through a wood all alone, thinking of this and that: and when he had nothing more left to think about, he said to himself, 'I shall grow tired of being in this wood, so I will bring out a good companion.'
So he took the fiddle that hung at his back and fiddled so that the wood echoed. Before long a wolf came through the thicket and trotted up to him.
'Oh, here comes a wolf! I had no particular wish for such company,' said the musician.
But the wolf drew nearer, and said to him, 'Ho, you musician, how finely you play! 1 must learn how to play too.'
'That is easily done,' answered the musician, 'you have only to do exactly as I tell you.'
'O musician,' said the wolf, 'I will obey you, as a scholar does his master.'
The musician told him to come with him. As they went a part of the way together they came to an old oak tree, which was hollow within and cleft through the middle.
'Look here,' said the musician, 'if you want to learn how to fiddle, you must put your forefeet in this cleft.'
The wolf obeyed, but the musician took up a stone and quickly wedged both his paws with one stroke, so fast, that the wolf was a prisoner, and there obliged to stop.
'Stay there until I come back again,' said the musician, and went his way.
After a while he said again to himself, 'I shall grow weary here in this wood; I will bring out another companion,' and he took his fiddle and fiddled away in the wood. Before long a fox came slinking through the trees.
'Oh, here comes a fox!' said the musician; 'I had no particular wish for such company.'
The fox came up to him and said, 'O my dear musician, how finely you play! I must learn how to play too.'
'That is easily done,' said the musician, 'you have only to do exactly as I tell you.'
'O musician,' answered the fox, 'I will obey you, as a scholar his master.'
'Follow me,' said the musician; and as they went a part of the way together they came to a footpath with a high hedge on each side. Then the musician stopped, and taking hold of a hazel-branch bent it down to the earth, and put his foot on the end of it; then he bent down a branch from the other side, and said: 'Come on, little fox, if you wish to learn something, reach me your left forefoot.' The fox obeyed, and the musician bound the foot to the left-hand branch. 'Now, little fox,' said he, 'reach me the right one,' and he bound that to the right-hand branch. And when he had seen that the knots were fast enough he let go, and the branches flew back and caught up the fox, shaking and struggling, in the air.
'Wait there until I come back again,' said the musician, and went his way.
By and by he said to himself: 'I shall grow weary in this wood; I will bring out another companion.'
So he took his fiddle, and the sound echoed through the wood. Then a hare sprang out before him.
'Oh, here comes a hare!' said he, 'that's not what I want.'
'Ah, my dear musician,' said the hare, 'how finely you play! I should like to learn how to play too.'
'That is soon done,' said the musician, 'only you must do whatever I tell you.'
'O musician,' answered the hare, 'I will obey you, as a scholar his master.'