One day Old Man went out hunting and took the fox with him. They hunted for
several days, but killed nothing. It was nice warm weather in the late fall.
After they had become very hungry, as they were going along one day, Old Man
went up over a ridge and on the other side he saw four big buffalo bulls lying
down; but there was no way by which they could get near them. He dodged back out
of sight and told the fox what he had seen, and they thought for a long time, to
see if there was no way by which these bulls might be killed.
At last Old Man said to the fox: "My little
brother, I can think of only one way to get these bulls. This is my plan, if you
agree to it. I will pluck all the fur off you except one tuft on the end of your
tail. Then you go over the hill and walk up and down in sight of the bulls, and
you will seem so funny to them that they will laugh themselves to death."
The fox did not like to do this, but he could think of
nothing better, so he agreed to what Old Man proposed. Old Man plucked him
perfectly bare, except the end of his tail, and the fox went over the ridge and
walked up and down. When he had come close to the bulls, he played around and
walked on his hind legs and went through all sorts of antics. When the bulls
first saw him, they got up on their feet, and looked at him. They did not know
what to make of him. Then they began to laugh, and the more they looked at him,
the more they laughed, until at last one by one they fell down exhausted and
died. Then Old Man came over the hill, and went down to the bulls, and began to
butcher them. By this time it had grown a little colder.
"Ah, little brother," said Old Man to the
fox, "you did splendidly. I do not wonder that the bulls laughed themselves
to death. I nearly died myself as I watched you from the hill. You looked very
funny." While he was saying this, he was working away skinning off the
hides and getting the meat ready to carry to camp, all the time talking to the
fox, who stood about, his back humped up and his teeth chattering with the cold.
Now a wind sprang up from the north and a few snowflakes were flying in the air.
It was growing colder and colder. Old Man kept on talking, and every now and
then he would say something to the fox, who was sitting behind him perfectly
still, with his jaw shoved out and his teeth shining.
At last Old Man had the bulls all skinned and the meat
cut up, and as he rose up he said: "It is getting pretty cold, isn't it?
Well, we do not care for the cold. We have got all our winter's meat, and we
will have nothing to do but feast and dance and sing until spring." The fox
made no answer. Then Old Man got angry, and called out: "Why don't you
answer me? Don't you hear me talking to you?" The fox said nothing. Then
Old Man was mad, and he said, "Can't you speak?" and stepped up to the
fox and gave him a push with his foot, and the fox fell over. He was dead,
frozen stiff with the cold.
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