The Marvellous Musician

'

`Well, then, follow me,' replied the Fiddler.

When they had gone a bi of the way, they came to a path with high trees on each side. Here the Musician halted, bent a stout hazel bough down to the ground from one side of the path, and put his foot on the end of it to keep it down. Then he bent a branch down from the other side and said:

`Give me your left front paw, my little Fox, if you really wish to learn how it's done.'

The Fox did as he was told, and the Musician tied his front paw to the end of one of the branches.

`Now, my friend,' he said, `give me your right paw.'

This he bound to the other branch, and having carefully seen that his knots were all secure, he stepped off the ends of the branches, and they sprang back, leaving the poor Fox suspended in mid-air.

`Just you wait where you are till I return,' said the Musician, and he went on his way again.

Once more he said to himself:

`Time hangs heavily on my hands when I'm all alone in the wood; I must try and find another companion.'

So he took out his fiddle and played as merrily as before. This time a little hare came running up at the sound.

`Oh! here comes a hare,' said the Musician; `I've not the smallest desire for his company.'

`How beautifully you play, dear Mr. Fiddler,' said the little Hare. `I wish I could learn how you do it.'

`It's easily learnt,' answered the Musician; `just do exactly as I tell you.'

`That I will,' said the Hare, `you will find me a most attentive pupil.'

They went on a bit together, till they came to a thin part of the wood, where they found an aspen tree growing. The Musician bound a long cord round the little Hare's neck, the other end of which he fastened to the tree.

`Now, my merry little friend,' said the Musician, `run twenty times round the tree.'

The little Hare obeyed, and when it had run twenty times round the tree, the cord had twisted itself twenty times round the trunk, so that the poor little beast was held a fast prisoner, and it might bite and tear as much as it liked, it couldn't free itself, and the cord only cut its tender neck.