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Updated: June 24, 2025
The next instant the marten was on his way down the steep; and while Smirre sat and watched how he swung his snake-like body from branch to branch, he thought: "That pretty tree-hunter has the wickedest heart in all the forest. I believe that the wild geese will have me to thank for a bloody awakening."
And just as he might have expected the boy had disappeared. But Smirre didn't have much time to think about him; for now the first goose came back again from the lake and flew slowly under the canopy. In spite of all his ill luck, Smirre was glad that she came back, and darted after her with a high leap.
From the tuft of oakum which he had flung at Smirre the fire had spread to the bed-hangings. He jumped down and tried to smother it, but it blazed too quickly now. The cabin was soon filled with smoke, and Smirre Fox, who had remained just outside the window, began to grasp the state of affairs within.
Instantly he observed that one of the geese was white and then he knew, of course, with whom he had to deal. Smirre began immediately to hunt the geese just as much for the pleasure of getting a good square meal, as for the desire to be avenged for all the humiliation that they had heaped upon him. He saw that they flew eastward until they came to Ronneby River.
"If I could only climb half as well as either of them," thought the fox, "those things down there wouldn't sleep in peace very long!" As soon as the squirrel had been captured, and the chase was ended, Smirre walked over to the marten, but stopped two steps away from him, to signify that he did not wish to cheat him of his prey.
Just as they swayed in the vicinity of Smirre Fox, they sank down kind of inviting-like for him to take them. Smirre ran after them and made leaps a couple of fathoms high but he couldn't manage to get hold of a single one of them. It was the most awful day that Smirre Fox had ever experienced. The wild geese kept on travelling over his head. They came and went came and went.
Smirre made a high jump for her but he missed her; and the goose went on her way down to the lake. It was not long before another goose came flying. She took the same route as the first one; and flew still lower and slower. She, too, flew close to Smirre Fox, and he made such a high spring for her, that his ears brushed her feet.
There they happened to run across a few gray geese, who were surprised to see them since they knew very well that their kinsmen, the wild geese, usually travel over the interior of the country. They were curious and inquisitive, and wouldn't be satisfied with less than that the wild geese should tell them all about the persecution which they had to endure from Smirre Fox.
He greeted the marten in a very friendly manner, and wished him good luck with his catch. Smirre chose his words well as foxes always do. The marten, on the contrary, who, with his long and slender body, his fine head, his soft skin, and his light brown neck-piece, looked like a little marvel of beauty but in reality was nothing but a crude forest dweller hardly answered him.
But, because it usually presents a very agreeable and friendly appearance, there is all the more havoc whenever it happens to drop its smiling expression in the spring, and show that it can be serious. At that critical time Smirre Fox happened to come sneaking through a birch grove just north of Lake Mälar.
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