There was once an old fox with nine tails who doubted his wife's faithfulness. To test her, he pretended to be dead by lying motionless under a bench.
Mrs. Fox retreated to her room, while her maid, Miss Cat, stayed by the fire cooking. When news spread of the old fox's death, suitors began to arrive.
A knock came at the door. Miss Cat opened it to find a young fox.
"What are you doing, Miss Cat? Are you asleep or awake?"
She replied,
"I am not sleeping, I am awake.
Would you like to know what I make?
I'm boiling warm beer with butter so fine.
Will you come in and have some wine?"
"No, thank you," said the fox. "What is Mrs. Fox doing?"
The maid answered,
"She sits alone in her room,
Bewailing her gloomy doom,
Weeping her eyes so sore and red,
Because old Mr. Fox is dead."
"Please tell her a young fox is here who wishes to woo her."
"Certainly, young sir."
The cat goes up the stairs trip, trap,
The door she knocks at tap, tap, tap.
"Mistress Fox, are you inside?"
"Oh yes, my little cat," she cried.
"A suitor waits at the door out there."
"Tell me, dear, what does he wear?"
"But does he have nine beautiful tails like the late Mr. Fox?"
"Oh, no," answered the cat. "He has only one."
"Then I will not have him."
Miss Cat went downstairs and sent the suitor away. Soon, another knock came. This fox had two tails but was also rejected. More suitors came, each with one more tail than the last, but all were turned away. Finally, a fox with nine tails arrived.
Hearing this, the widow said joyfully to the cat,
"Now open the gates and doors all wide,
And carry old Mr. Fox outside."
But just as the wedding was about to begin, old Mr. Fox stirred under the bench. He beat the crowd with a cudgel and drove them all, including Mrs. Fox, out of the house.