Verotchka's Tales

The bear was very much amused. He turned over on the other side, covered his face with his paw and fell asleep, snoring immediately.

II

Mosquito Long-nose returned to the flock, shouting across the entire marsh, "I certainly did frighten him! He will never come again."

The mosquitoes wondered. They were perplexed and asked, "But what about Mishka? Where is he now?"

"I don't know, brothers. He surely got scared when I told him I'd eat him up, if he did not go away. You know I don't like to jest, so I just said, 'I'll eat you up,' I'm afraid he perished from fear while I was coming back here. Well, it's his own fault."

The mosquitoes buzzed loudly. They were discussing how to deal with an invading bear. There never had been such a noise in the marsh before. They buzzed and hissed and finally decided to chase the bear away from their domain.

"Let him go home into his forest and sleep there. The marsh is ours. Our fathers an