The Orange Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

yours!'
    All was silent in the village, and not a light was to be seen but that
of the moon, which shone bright and clear in the sky. The wolf and the
fox crept softly along, when suddenly they stopped and looked at each
other; a savoury smell of frying bacon reached their noses, and reached
the noses of the sleeping dogs, who began to bark greedily.
    'Is it safe to go on, think you?' asked the wolf in a whisper. And the
fox shook her head.
    'Not while the dogs are barking,' said she; 'someone might come out to
see if anything was the matter.' And she signed to the wolf to curl
himself up in the shadow beside her.
    In about half an hour the dogs grew tired of barking, or perhaps the
bacon was eaten up and there was no smell to excite them. Then the
wolf and the fox jumped up, and hastened to the foot of the wall.
    'I am lighter than he is,' thought the fox to herself, 'and perhaps if
I make haste I can get a start, and jump over the wall on the other
side before he manages to spring over this one.' And she quickened her
pace. But if the wolf could not run he could jump, and with one bound
he was beside his companion.
    'What were you going to do, comrade?'
    'Oh, nothing,' replied the fox, much vexed at the failure of her plan.
    'I think if I were to take a bit out of your haunch you would jump
better,' said the wolf, giving a snap at her as he spoke. The fox drew
back uneasily.
    'Be careful, or I shall scream,' she snarled. And the wolf,
understanding all that might happen if the fox carried out her threat,
gave a signal to his companion to leap on the wall, where he
immediately followed her.
    Once on the top they crouched down and looked about them. Not a
creature was to be seen in the courtyard, and in the furthest corner
from the house stood the well, with its two buckets suspended from a
pole, just as the fox had described it. The two thieves dragged
themselves noiselessly along the wall till they were opposite the well,
and by stretching out her neck as far as it would go the fox was able
to make out that there was only very little water in the bottom, but
just enough to reflect the moon, big, and round and yellow.
    'How lucky!' cried she to the wolf. 'There is a huge cheese about the
size of a mill wheel. Look! look! did you ever see anything so
beautiful!'
    'Never!' answered the wolf, peering over in his turn, his eyes
glistening greedily, for he imagined that the moon's reflection in the
water was really a cheese.
    'And now, unbeliever, what have you to say?' and the fox laughed gently.
    'That you are a woman—I mean a fox—of your word,' replied the wolf.
    'Well, then, go down in that bucket and eat your fill,' said the fox.
    'Oh, is that your game?' asked the wolf, with a grin. 'No! no! The
person who goes down in the bucket will be you! And if you don't go
down your head will go without you!'
    'Of course I will go down, with the greatest pleasure,' answered the
fox, who had expected the wolf's reply.
    'And be sure you don't eat all the cheese, or it will be the worse for
you,' continued the wolf. But the fox looked up at him with tears in
her eyes.
    'Farewell, suspicious one!' she said sadly. And climbed into the
bucket.
    In an instant she had reached the bottom of the well, and found that
the water was not deep enough to cover her legs.
    'Why, it is larger and richer than I thought,' cried she, turning
towards the wolf, who was leaning over the wall of the well.
    'Then be quick and bring it up,' commanded the wolf.
    'How can I, when it weighs more than I do?' asked the fox.
    'If it is so heavy bring it in two bits, of course,' said he.
    'But I have no knife,' answered the fox. 'You will have to come down
yourself, and we will carry it up between us.'
    'And how am I to come down?' inquired the wolf.
    'Oh, you are really very stupid! Get into the other bucket that is
nearly over your head.'
    The wolf looked up, and saw the bucket hanging there, and with some
difficulty he climbed into it. As he weighed at least four